Papua New Guinea Essay

Papua New Guinea is located on the island of New Guinea in the south Pacific ocean. That island is the second largest island on earth after after Greenland. Papua New Guinea’s territory contains the entire eastern side of the island and shares it with West Papua which controls the western part of the island. New Guinea also controls hundreds of other islands around the island of New Guinea. Other then Australia to the South, Indonesia, and Singapore to the West, there are many smaller neighboring islands in the are surrounding area.

As of July of 2013, the population of Papua New Guinea is estimated to be 6,431,902 people. The country has a very low median age that stands at only 22 years. about 87 percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas and infrastructure such as road is almost nonexistent in many of these parts. The majority of the country is following Christianity that was introduce to the island in the 19th century by the missionaries. Although Christianity rules, many of the island’s population still follows other earlier religious traditions that originated on the island long before Christianity was introduced.

Papua New Guinea has an abundant amount of animals and plants life. It actually has one of the largest variety of both in the whole world. According to WWF, about 10 percent of the world’s vertebrates are located on the island and there are such remote ares deep in the rain-forests that still were never been thoroughly explored. Just in 2009, few new species of frogs and plants were found there together with two new mammals, and about 100 new species of insects (treehugger.com). The country also has many natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold, silver, copper and has a large amount of tre...

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...t is in practically every country these days unfortunately. The rivers and other water sources are being polluted with waste from mining, which is also big business on the island since it has many minerals.

Papua New Guinea’s future is tough to predict. On many levels relationships with other countries regarding trade of oil, gas, and mineral is growing each year and is expecting to grow, the country’s population is facing some basic living issues. According to Global Policy TV, only 40 percent of the island’s residents have access to clean and safe drinking water, only 19 percent have basic toilet options (globalpolicy.tv). The UN has ranked Papua New Guinea no. 156 in the world in quality of life. Something has to be done about these last few issues in order for the country to move forward and for it to get closer to the higher standards of many of its neighbors.