Why Poverty?

Humans have also proclaimed policy of equality and sufficient supply of essentials for everybody. Thus, it is important to understand the real reasons of poverty in order to actually prove we can defeat it. First, poverty is at the root of deforestation, land degradation, and the destruction of coastal habitats. Millions of poor people are forced, all over the world, to over-use their habitats in order to survive. This problem is exacerbated by growing population. The destruction of the natural-resource base is doomed to continue as long as the conditions of poverty remain unaddressed. Desertification resulting form climate change and overexploitation threatens marginal farmlands in many areas. The oceans are nutrient-poor ecosystems and will not provide a long-term answer to feeding a growing population. Lakes can be important sources of protein, but managing them raises problems. Hunger is not currently a problem of food production but one of distribution and social order. Per capita food production continues to increase for most of the world’s population, but distribution of agricultural success is uneven.

Next, current consumption patterns tend to disregard the need to optimize available resources and the need to save for the future generations. Rather, it has been regarded as a status symbol. Simply, the rich consumes more than the poor due to their capacity to purchase and consume which is the other way around for the poor, who have limited or no resources and capacities at all. With that, the ICPQL noted that unless we find ways and means to prevent consumption from becoming a more growing threat to the quality of life, slowing the growth of population will not do the job for us.