Intellectual Ramble: World's Biggest Problems

The biggest problems facing today's Earth are important for us all to understand. In my opinion, the ten most important, in no particular order, are:

Over 10% of today's human population is undernourished. There is a big difference between hunger and malnourishment, but it is important to understand that both are horrible. Long term hunger causes a lot of problems for children especially, and there are steps that can be taken by us all. Something that France has done very successfully is cut back on food waste, and they have laws stating how companies are to discard their unused food so as to help the affected people.

The last time there has been true peace on Earth was during the Roman Empire, after they had spent decades fighting for control of more territory. It is nearly impossible to have a world without conflict, but war is avoidable. People are too quick to blame and hate those who are different, which is a biological distrust created to survive the wilderness. The problem with that, we are no longer living exclusively in jungles always on the lookout for predators. We need to be more open-minded and accepting to avoid war, a VERY long term goal.

The human population is growing far past the original carrying capacity of the earth for our species. That is a brilliant feat of scientific advancement to extend our livable environments, but it is also dangerous because we are forcing ourselves into more places and, eventually, we will run out. The statistics trend towards a slight decline in population in developed areas, while undeveloped areas are growing exponentially. This means that we need to help get more of the world out of the pre-industrial zones to slow our growth.

It is estimated that in about 100 years, there will be no more rainforests. Ironically, the leading cause of deforestation is the expanse of agriculture. More humans need more food, and that means more farmers need more land. Deforestation has detrimental effects on all of the world, and it even is a major cause of the increase in greenhouse gasses. We need to find more efficient ways of using the space we already have, like building-integrated architecture.

The rate of increase is i itself increasing, and, regardless of the cause, we need to do something to at least slow it down. The Earth has natural cycles, ice ages to warm periods, but we should be cooling by now. The Earth could be fixed into cooling down, or allowed to continue its warming. If it continues trending upwards, we are likely facing a mass-extinction level event. We need to decrease fossil fuels, deforestation, pollution, and chemical use of our society and find more environmental alternatives.

Air pollution affects all living animals, water pollution affects all water-drinking animals, and litter on grounds is cleaned up with the help of $11.5 billion from the US government. I'm sure you have heard about "trash island" in the Pacific Ocean, the mass of trash that is twice the size of Texas! The easiest solution is to lessen our littering and consider the ways we produce energy. Pollution is deadly, and even though a couple paper bags will just decay eventually, it still takes a long time and there are many more than two paper bags affecting us. We need to be considerate of the effects of our actions, like few people realize that one of the leading greenhouse gas producing industries is livestock.

The world is too reliant on fossil fuels and other nonrenewable resources. We need to put more money and time into research to change this. We get more energy from wood than the sun? That doesn't make sense when considering the sun has enough energy to heat our entire solar system. We, as a species, need to think about other ways of producing, storing, transporting, and using energy. We need to learn more about energy and how we can help decrease our dependence on others to light our own house economically.

The cold virus used to be deadly. Something so commonplace and considered more of a nuisance than a danger used to be terrifying. Malaria is a curable disease, that's why it has been eradicated from the US. We need to be more dedicated to medical research in this field and finding ways to distribute it to more people. It is not easy, but it can be done, as proven by the cold virus, malaria, tuberculosis, and many more.

The trade of information and ideas is one of the most important things we produce now in America. We are now in the information age of post-industrial development, and we need to share that with the rest of the world. If we were all on a similar level of development then there would be more similarities between us all. More advanced civilizations are better able to handle worldwide issues.

The causes for so much discord is the differences we all have. It causes war, hatred, and division. People need to find a way to come together despite all of their differences if we are ever to overcome the above problems. This problem is on of the causes of all other problems' longevity. Once we come together, we are all but unstoppable.

Intellectual Ramble