World’s biggest Problems – Week 3

World’s biggest Problems – Week 3

1.     Global Terrorism

Global terrorism is on the rise and affecting many different countries such as Syria, France, Germany, and Tunisia.  These terrorist attacks come with the rise of Islamic extremists, ISIS, and reflect tension between varying religious beliefs.  There is obviously not an easy solution to this problem.  ISIS appears to be driven to violence based on extreme religious views that stem from the Sunni belief.  They won’t be easily persuaded to stop, and peace in the middle east has long be hard to achieve. 

2.     Climate Change

Climate change is a large issue that could have the potential to cost significant amount of money and resources in the future.  It’s importance on the world political stage was demonstrated in the latest climate talks in Paris, in which many of the largest nations in the world agreed to limit or reduce emissions.  Again, there is not an easy solution.  It would take global cooperation to reduce emissions and reduce the effect of climate change.  I also think that there needs to be more research into climate change; we need to learn more about it, its causes (both natural and human), and how to stop it.  Also noting that I am afraid this issue has become more political and less scientific.  I saw an article the other day talking about how climate change is bad and we need to address it with government provided healthcare. It’s fine if you think government provided healthcare is good and you also think climate change is bad, but don’t use a real issue to push your other agendas forward.  That just makes you look stupid and takes away from the real issue.  Imagine Donald Trump arguing that climate change is bad and that’s why we need to deport illegal immigrants, it just doesn’t make sense.  

3.     World Hunger

People are starving in some areas of the world.  This is not an easy issue to fix and frankly I would be shocked if any of the “world’s biggest problems” would be easy to solve.  Again, it would take global cooperation to fix the issue.  The United States already gives a lot in foreign aid and our charities help a lot too.  We should probably focus on helping provide the infrastructure to grow food rather than only delivering food. I’m not quite sure what we currently do.

4.     Homelessness

Big problem in the United States, as I am sure it is in many other places.  We cold have more social safety nets to help people recover and get back on their feet. Also we could expand mental illness research and support.

5.     Unrest and violence in the middle east

There’s a lot of unrest in the Middle East due to religious and cultural differences.  You want to fix the Middle East? “Ha good luck bro!”.  There has been conflict in the Middle East for hundreds of years.  It’s not an easy task and frankly I don’t see many ways that it could result in peace.  Either one side/religion would win and have control over the Middle East or somehow the individual countries would somehow live in peace for hundreds of years until they accept their religious and cultural differences.  Or on a less serious note, they could all unite against a common enemy, like aliens or something.  Seriously if aliens invaded, all nations would unite against the common threat and we’d all get along and it’d be awesome.

6.     Tension between NATO and Russia

Russia is uneasy about NATO for obvious reasons and NATO is uneasy about Russia for obvious reasons.  Tensions have always been fairly high, but recently escalated even further a few months ago when Turkey (a member of NATO) shot down a Russian plane.  Crazy people on the Internet have been shouting “WW3 is coming” since, but that likely will not happen because nobody wants to go to war and nobody wants to use nuclear weapons.

7.     Smog in China

 Smog and air pollution in China is a big issue.  Back home in Illinois they have “snow days” when the snow and weather is so unsafe and school gets cancelled.  Apparently here in Florida they have “Hurricane days” where it is not safe to go to school. Well in parts of China they have “smog days” where the air pollution is so unsafe that they cancel school and work.  That’s horrible and needs to be fixed.

8.     Global economic crises

Currently there is what people are calling a “global economic crises”. Just to note, I’m not an economist and have only taken a couple economic classes so I am hardly qualified to assess the global economic situation.  Just a quick overview… Oil prices are dropping fast, OPEC is currently not considered a cartel because they can’t fix prices, China’s economy has been struggling recently, and I keep getting notifications on my phone about how the Dow industrials continues to plummet. 

9.      Racism

Racism is a huge problem and tensions are high.  Racism in all forms is unacceptable and needs to be eliminated.  It’s not only a problem in the United States but also in other parts of the world.  Solutions are hard to think of and implement.  I think the problem stems from a lack of education.  As for how to fix it, I have no idea.  But this is definitely a huge problem and needs to be fixed.

10.  Big money in politics. 

This will be my short rant on big money in politics.  This is definitely the smallest problem on this list but it is still a big issue, especially in the United States.  Campaign finances are pretty sketchy nowadays.  Politicians are receiving millions of dollars from organizations and Super PACs.  Why are these financially undisclosed and tax exempt organizations doing this? “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”  They expect to have their own personal interests represented by the politician.  This is sketchy in a several ways.  First off a politician may end up making a decision that aligns with their donor’s best interests rather than the best interests of the country as a whole.  Some politicians on both sides of the spectrum have identified campaign finances as a significant issue in the coming election.