Question: What country would you like to go and help the most like third world countries

  1. Any third world country is worth helping.
    I think educating people about the environment is very important for scientists to do. For example, some communities on tropical islands in Indonesia, the Caribbean, or pacific islands like Tonga and Fiji, don’t realise that the fish there depend on the coral reef to live. They will use dynamite fishing (where they blow up the reefs to kill the fish) to catch fish. They can be taught by marine biologists that dynamite fishing may get them a lot of fish now, but in a few decades there will be no fish because there will be no coral. They will then change the way they fish.

    Sometimes it is much more complicated though. When I went to Africa I tried teaching the people there that if they continue to cut down the mangrove forests then the amount of fish in the area may decrease and they are increasing the chance of flood damage during storms. The mangroves are nursery grounds for baby fish and provide food for many fish species. They also protect the coastline from erosion and storm damage and filter pollution running off the land into the oceans. So they are very important. The people there understood this and agreed with me but because the people there are so poor they would carry on cutting the trees down to sell for timber so they can feed their families. Until poverty in these countries is reduced I don’t think the people are in position to care for the environment. For them they’re just trying to survive day to day.

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  2. I think Jennifer is right, all third world countries are worth saving.

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  3. I also agree that every third world country is worthy of help from developed countries like our own. Many of the world’s poorest countries are in Africa, so you could argue that we should help them first.

    We are very privileged in Australia to have access to food, education and health care, so I think we have a duty to help other less fortunate people.

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  4. Hmm, tricky.
    Many third world countries have all the ingredients to be different but are plagued with corrupt governance and the grabbing of the country’s wealth by a few. So I would have to pick a country where anything I did would be genuinely for the benefit of all, not just a few. Many of the Pacific Island States fit this category.

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