What is the biggest issue facing our world today?

8/25/2023

Ava Trevino

8/28/2023 06:51:22 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is the rising concerns and temperatures relating to global warming. According to a recent report issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there is a 66% likelihood of the annual average global temperature to rise more than 1.5 Celsius between the years of 2023 and 2027. Making a 98% likelihood of one of the next five years to be the warmest year on record. This demonstrates one of the biggest issues facing our world today as recent global warming could affect how us humans live in the next coming years by the potential future side effects of frequent wildfires, increase in wind intensity and longer periods of drought.

Kian Shafie

8/29/2023 09:38:44 am

The biggest problem facing the world right now is lack of financial literacy. This is proven in tests indicating that people around the world got a 61% score on a basic financial literacy test. Only 33% of the world is financially literate. This is a major problem because financially illiterate people run the risk of making bad financial decisions and being tricked by awful people into terrible scenarios. This could lead to economic collapse as it did in 2008. Lack of financial literacy cost just the USA more than $436 billion dollars in 2022, and we need to change that. - Kian Shafie

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qa1FCnWmUSYo4yY5zdShbAfpspo56epUbKmSAqzN11Q/edit?usp=sharing

Matthew Lu link

8/29/2023 04:57:18 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is increased carbon dioxide emissions. As indicated in the US Environmental Protection Agency, "Since 1970, CO2 emissions have increased by about 90%." Several consequences have resulted from rising carbon dioxide emissions, including "carbon dioxide alone [being] responsible for about two-thirds of the total heating influence," (Climate.gov), and "extreme weather, food supply disruptions, and increased wildfires," (National Geographic). These detrimental effects ultimately stem from increased carbon dioxide emissions, therefore making it the biggest problem to be dealt with in the present world.
Matthew Lu

Emma Xi

8/29/2023 06:39:14 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is climate change. As temperatures are rising all over the globe, wildlife is threatened and heat-related illnesses are on the rise. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), heat-trapping gases have warmed the planet by almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.1 degrees Celsius since the late 1800s. The emission of heat-trapping gases causes glaciers to shrink, plants and animals to adapt or go extinct, and trees to bloom sooner. According to the United Nations, the last decade has had the warmest temperatures on record, making heat exhaustion more common and working outdoors more difficult. Additionally, as temperatures rise, moisture evaporates from the air, increasing rainfall and flooding. Tropical storms cause mass casualties and death every year. Lastly, as more carbon dioxide is accumulated into the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs more and more of it, leading to potentially toxic carbon dioxide levels for marine life. "...the world is losing species at a rate 1,000 times greater than at any other time in recorded human history" (United Nations). Climate change not only affects temperatures, but also the living quality and future of the planet.
Emma Xi

Sources:
https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/#:~:text=Changes%20to%20Earth's%20climate%20driven,plants%20and%20trees%20are%20blooming
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/causes-effects-climate-change

Omar Meza

8/29/2023 07:26:51 pm

The biggest problem that the world is facing right now is global warming because it is a threat the life on Earth. This situation is dangerous because depending on the speed that we try to stop this we could decrease the risks of droughts, hurricanes, and floods. With passing time we can notice that the natural disasters have been forming a lot often than previous decades, for example our ancestors only ever experienced one hurricane in their lifetime and now we frequently experience hurricanes yearly. Finally, another consequence from global warming that affects human health is the air quality that we breathe, especially to people who have asthma or cardiac problems.
Omar Meza

Sources:
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101#warming

Yuxiang Zhao

8/29/2023 08:49:16 pm

The biggest problem facing our world today is water contamination. Due to pollution, poor resource management and etc., about 2.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Drinking contaminated water will cause diarrheal infections and even death. Water contamination also challenges wildlife and biodiversity. These contaminated water will eventually flow into natural reservoirs, causing death to wild life animals. Freshwater source on earth is very limited. Without proper management for resources and waste water discharge, we could face serious problems in the future without clean water source as no life on earth would strive without water. The recent discharge or nuclear waste water from Fukushima power plant in Japan also raises concerns for ocean being contaminated as the waste water containe multiple radioactive elemts like tritium and carbon-14. These radioactive elements will be spread around every corner of the ocean with aid of ocean currents. The ocean polluted with radioactive elements will eventually affect all of us, causing more mutations and rise cancer rates.

Sources:
https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/post/147458/top-10-world-problems-and-their-solutions

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66106162

Yuxiang Zhao

9/18/2023 06:26:06 pm

(forgot to write my full name)

Anhad Bhalla link

8/30/2023 04:11:05 pm

The biggest issue the world is facing are wars and conflicts. The number of displaced families are increasing daily. There are many asylum seekers and refugees and due to the number of people, the spread of diseases is vast. According to the UN Refugee Stats, at the end of 2020 the world had 82.4 million forcibly displaced people with 25 percent being refugees, and 85 percent of all refugees are housed in developing countries. There are many more detrimental effects that are happening due to wars and political conflict.

Aaron Joseph

8/30/2023 05:18:42 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is pollution. Pollution is a global problem that is leading to long-term health effects on us and also catastrophic environmental challenges leading into the future. For instance, there are countless articles which say how pollution is a global problem and how our life is being threatened because of it. According to the World Bank, pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death while also endangering our planet due to extreme weather events as a factor of it. All of these factors suggest the reason on how pollution is a global issue which we need to help slow down to make our world a cleaner, and safer place to live in.

Sources:

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/pollution/

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/pollution

Nethul Perera

8/30/2023 09:00:15 pm

Global warming is the biggest problem the world is facing as it reveals catastrophes to the environment and future generations. With the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide are being trap heat in Earths atmosphere. This causes the average temperature to rise resulting in the sea-level rising and the destruction of ecosystems (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Furthermore, the World Health Organization claims that with rising temperatures increases the spread of infectious diseases and a risk to clean-air. In summary, global warming is the biggest threat to not only the environment but also the quality of life, as experts emphasize the urgency to transition to a low carbon life before it is too late.
Nethul Perera

Sources:

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/public-health-and-environment

https://www.ipcc.ch/

Skyler Stewart

9/2/2023 12:36:47 pm

Our biggest problem in this world isn't really physical, but a communication problem. In this day and age, we are able to communicate more effectively than ever but we still have issues with understanding each other. For example, we still have racism, sexism and other bigotry things still around, even thought people can understand and see the issues happening.

The reason this situation is like this in the first place is the inability to even try to understand others. People, whether a minority or not, just do not care to put themselves in other shoes. This is important for our ability to be a good society, as without communication, we can't move forward with our greater problems. We could fix global warming or world hunger, but without us understanding or at least tolerating one another we just end up trying to fix the smallest issues instead of focusing on the bigger picture.

To even begin on solving half our issues we need to see what is actually wrong with our system and to stop people from building mental walls against others. Because at the end of the day, if we are unable to come as a community and understand one another, all the systems we had in place will implode.

TLDR: We will destroy one another if we do not spend the time to be open minded and see arguments for and against our beliefs with a more unbiased lens.

https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/hate-crime.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/social-psychologist-offers-key-to-ending-racism/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207578.2022.2104476?journalCode=ripa20

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273229798904713

Charlotte Swim

9/3/2023 01:14:12 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is climate change. Sea levels have slowly been rising for decades, the average global temperature has been increasing, and weather events have been becoming more extreme. These changes have been relatively new, only becoming more noticeable in the past several decades.

These changes pose a problem to many cities around the world. The vast majority of cities rely on infrastructure that was built many decades ago, when climate change was not considered as a factor in engineering. As a result, this infrastructure has not been engineered to withstand or deal with the problems posed by climate change now. For example, Chicago's huge tunnel and reservoir system that was built to protect it from flooding is no longer enough to bottle up rainwater from once-in-a-lifetime storms that are becoming more regular. As a result, the frequency of sewage-tainted water spilling into the Chicago River has been increasing, and officials are being forced to send this tainted water into Lake Michigan, which is the main source of drinking water for Chicago and surrounding areas. This problem will only get worse over time, as storms get more extreme and as infrastructure gets older.

Chicago's example shows that due to climate change, our current infrastructure may no longer be enough. Due to the extent of effects of climate change, this issue with infrastructure will not only affect coastal cities, but everyone. This is one of the most important reasons as to why I believe that climate change is one of the biggest issues facing our world today.

Charlotte Swim

Source:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/chicago-is-spending-3-8-billion-to-fight-flooding-it-might-not-be-enough-f9a30bbd

Yau Wei Ng

9/3/2023 06:23:10 pm

One of the biggest issues the world is facing today is the global climate crisis. Human-induced climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other activities, are leading to rising global temperatures, extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and disruptions to ecosystems such as loss of icecaps and icebergs towards the poles. According to the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, the global average temperature has risen by 0.17F per decade since 1901. Due to the rising temperatures, much of the earth's ice are melting at the poles causing sea level to rise and resulting in more precipitation in some regions while other regions experience more severe droughts increasing the risk of wildfires, lost crops and water shortages throughout.

Sources: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/global-warming-effects

https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-temperature

Charles Zamora

9/4/2023 10:52:46 am

The biggest issue facing our world today is the amount of power companies have over the environment. For example industrial factories account for roughly 23% of total green house gas emissions in one year. Which is 9.28 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas produced solely by factories. This has caused the global temperature of the earth to raise by 1 Fahrenheit in the last 100 years which has caused the destruction of many ecosystems as the heat becomes to much for both plants and animals. This also affects agriculture since drought and rising temperatures makes it more difficult for farmers to grow crops for our rising population. This has been proven by a study performed by the FAO in 2020 which stated that a whopping 34% of crops are destroyed by drought yearly costing billions of dollars.

Sources:https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20direct%20industrial%20greenhouse,Transportation%20and%20Electric%20Power%20sectors.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissions/#:~:text=Global%20carbon%20dioxide%20emissions%20from,by%20more%20than%2060%20percent.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/with-temperatures-rising-can-animals-survive-the-heat-stress

https://www.fao.org/resources/digital-reports/disasters-in-agriculture/en/

Tyler Huynh

9/4/2023 10:09:01 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is climate change, a change in temperature over a long period of time. This gradual difference in temperature over time is caused by humans, as we emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ever since 1850-1900, the climate has increased by an astounding two degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.1 degrees Celsius, due to release of heat-trapping gases by humans. As a result of climate change, more droughts occur, the ocean warms up and becomes more acidic, sea level rises, ice caps melt, and storms become more intense In other words, climate change is slowly making Earth less hospitable for life, whether it be humans or animals, demonstrating why it is a major issue in today's world.

Sources:
https://greenly.earth/en-us/blog/ecology-news/climate-change-in-2022-where-do-we-stand

https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/

https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/impacts-climate-change#:~:text=The%20planet's%20oceans%20and%20glaciers,our%20society%20and%20our%20environment.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/effects-of-climate-change#:~:text=Impacts,-%C2%A9%20USGS.gov&text=Humans%20and%20wild%20animals%20face,on%20people's%20livelihoods%20and%20communities.

Tyler Huynh

Noah Skaria

9/8/2023 07:17:01 pm

I agree with your point about todays major problem and the facts you gave.

Noah Skaria

Noah Skaria link

9/8/2023 07:14:39 pm

The biggest issue facing our world today is climate change. A long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns. This has issue has many effects on the world today. Changes in weather and climate patterns can put lives at risk and the environment. Ocean temperature rise, hurricanes are getting stronger, and dry conditions leading to more wildfires.

Noah Skaria

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