Yes, change is inevitable. Times are changing, economic development is happening very quickly and the population is also increasing therefore, land is never enough. For example, nowadays, many people adopt urban life. As more and more people wanted to work in cities as the pay is much more attractive, they compete to live around that area too, for convenience. People also tend to start their business around the city centre as the location is good with huge flow of people. Since competition for land there is intense, the price of land would have to increase in order to allocate the land to different uses. Therefore, activities that generate high income or profits are found in the cities and make people wanted to work and live there more and competition goes on.
Land in Singapore is very limited and also Singaporeans wanted convenience so many facilities(playground, shopping centre, coffee shops, carparks, and other necessities of humans), housing (HDBs), industrial, are built very close together some are even built above or under the HDBs. As the standard of living improves, people demanded more. They wanted more recreational stops, more facilities and therefore more land supply is needed for housing(many Singaporeans stay separately from their parents and the population in Singapore is increasing so more houses are needed to provide them with a place to live in), recreational(Gyms, shopping centres, parks), commercial(companies expand their workplace to accommodate more working talents), industrial(factories also expand their workplace so that they could produce more products at a faster rate) and transport(so that it is faster and easier to get from one place to another). Hence, maximizing use of land is needed. The buildings had to be built closely to make use of space fully and not waste it as land is used for many developments. Land has to be reclaimed so that the land could be used for other developments. Some land had to be conserved as they are tourist attractions and tourists bring profit for the country so these land could not be destroyed. Not only does urban life contribute to the change, country life as well. People living in countryside have to live, eat as well. They need to earn more money. As there are lesser buildings there, agriculture is mostly carried out over there. Agricultural types such as shifting cultivation uses the “slash and burn” method and plantation agriculture requires a large area of land. Both agricultures clear land, one is mainly subsistence another for commercial purposes. Due to these reasons, the methods: Land reclamation, Land conservation, Land clearance, Maximizing use of land and Increasing price of land, to increase land is evitable.Humans win in the changes. Due to the all these methods to increase land, humans have more land for their own usage for development. More land could be used to meet the demands of men. However, the wildlife loses. These methods of increasing land affects the environment and the marine life. For example, land reclamation changes the sea to land and marine life would be affected as they lose their habitat and they have lesser space to swim around as their habitat has decreased in size. Some of them might be forced to leave. Land clearance affects wildlife that lives on land. Their habitat is destroyed and they have to find another shelter. Some might have even lose their lives due to the fire to clear forests. However, wildlife wins in land conservation as their habitat is conserved and they are safe from losing their habitat. Humans lose in increasing price of land as they have to pay more to buy that piece of land. Humans win in maximizing use of land as they could get from one place to another faster. It is more convenient.
In all, humans win more than the wildlife.Humans are mainly responsible for these changes. Humans are the ones who wanted more land for their own usage and neglect the lives of wildlife and the effects. Humans are always not satisfied with what they have and always demanded more therefore these methods of land have to be used to increase supply of land for man.
Louise's reflection:
Yes, I think that change is inevitable. Due to the high demands of men, the land supply of Earth is definitely not enough to meet the needs as the supply of land is limited and scarce. The demands include housing, agriculture, industrial, transportation and recreation. Men need a place to live in, need food for survival, need to travel to places for work, and also they need to relax. Hence, although all of these can take place in just the small land area, but men tends to be greedy and also ask for more, therefore change is definitely inevitable as more land must be reclaim, and actions would be taken to increase supply of land, to meet the demands.
Men would sure benefit from the change, from the newly increased land. To them, the increased land would be more space for more demands, and they might be asking for more. However, the increase of land would largely affect the environment, the nature, and the seas. The increased amount of land could be reclaimed from the seas, and the living organisms in the sea might be affected. Through land clearance, the environment is also affected as forests are cut down to clear land.
Even though, it benefits us alot, but as it affects the environment, it will affect us in some ways. For instance, when we burn down the forests, if we inhale the smoke produced, it would be bad for our health.
To summarize, the change, the increase of land, the men' responsibility would be the largest. It started off with men' demands that in turn caused the increase of land.