Sydneyfan
28 Dec 2001, 13:28
I was wondering what everyone believes is the biggest problem or dilemma facing Earth and us humans in the 21st Century?
Is it to do with environmental factors such as increased pollution, rising temperatures, rising sea levels, loss of natural forests and bushlands, soil degradation, and reductions in the levels of safe, accessible water. All of these problems humans have contributed greatly in creating.
Is it to do with socio-economic and political factors such as increased crime, decreasing quality of life in many cities, less cooperation and communication among fellow humans, increased division between the rich and poor, increased wars and conflicts using more sophisticated and brutal weapons.
Is it to do with other factors such as depletion of natural resources, overcrowding, and inequality between different regions of the world (some regions having low populations but a high level of natural resources to sustain their population while areas having high populations but few natural resources).
Or is it something else.
For me, I can't pick out one single biggest problem so have picked all of the above. All of these factors have the potential to be big problems facing us this century which we'll have to address at one (or several) stage(s) during the 21st Century.
It's definitely going to be a challenging century with plenty of problems (many unforeseen) thrown up which we humans will have to tackle. It's pretty easy to feel pessimistic about the future seeing all the problems the world is facing currently and knowing that factors such as rising temperatures, rising population and pollution, and decreasing natural forests are going to worsen before they get better (if and that's a big if they do!). But, I'm reasonably confident that the world can see through this century, during the last century there several chances we had to annihilate ourselves but thankfully those in power restored some sanity.
Though, in IMHO for the world to see through this century there will need to be big changes and a total paradigm shift in the way we humans live. Unfortunately, as is often the way, it may take a large catastrophe to bring on these changes. Technology and Science will no doubt help combat some issues facing us as it did some in the last century. To last through this century relatively unscathed we'll have to address big problems such as overcrowding (particularly in Africa and Asia, maybe to a lesser extent South America), pollution, land degradation, inequality between the world's rich and the world's poor, access to resources and facilities plus many more. But then there's always the threat of conflicts, wars, terrorism, plagues, and a whole variety of natural disasters.
What do you belive will be this century biggest problem facing humans?
Is it to do with environmental factors such as increased pollution, rising temperatures, rising sea levels, loss of natural forests and bushlands, soil degradation, and reductions in the levels of safe, accessible water. All of these problems humans have contributed greatly in creating.
Is it to do with socio-economic and political factors such as increased crime, decreasing quality of life in many cities, less cooperation and communication among fellow humans, increased division between the rich and poor, increased wars and conflicts using more sophisticated and brutal weapons.
Is it to do with other factors such as depletion of natural resources, overcrowding, and inequality between different regions of the world (some regions having low populations but a high level of natural resources to sustain their population while areas having high populations but few natural resources).
Or is it something else.
For me, I can't pick out one single biggest problem so have picked all of the above. All of these factors have the potential to be big problems facing us this century which we'll have to address at one (or several) stage(s) during the 21st Century.
It's definitely going to be a challenging century with plenty of problems (many unforeseen) thrown up which we humans will have to tackle. It's pretty easy to feel pessimistic about the future seeing all the problems the world is facing currently and knowing that factors such as rising temperatures, rising population and pollution, and decreasing natural forests are going to worsen before they get better (if and that's a big if they do!). But, I'm reasonably confident that the world can see through this century, during the last century there several chances we had to annihilate ourselves but thankfully those in power restored some sanity.
Though, in IMHO for the world to see through this century there will need to be big changes and a total paradigm shift in the way we humans live. Unfortunately, as is often the way, it may take a large catastrophe to bring on these changes. Technology and Science will no doubt help combat some issues facing us as it did some in the last century. To last through this century relatively unscathed we'll have to address big problems such as overcrowding (particularly in Africa and Asia, maybe to a lesser extent South America), pollution, land degradation, inequality between the world's rich and the world's poor, access to resources and facilities plus many more. But then there's always the threat of conflicts, wars, terrorism, plagues, and a whole variety of natural disasters.
What do you belive will be this century biggest problem facing humans?