Top 5 World Problems

Last week I discussed what I though were the biggest world problems we face today in this blog post. I'm going to try to rank the worst five of those now.

1. Inability to compromise. If people can't learn to work through their cultural differences, the world will continue to face needless conflict.

2. Environmental danger. We only have one Earth. If it is damaged not only in the short term will we face the consequences, but any future generation of humans will suffer because of the mistakes of the past.

3. Lack of economic mobility. One of the big ideas that people associate with America is the ability for anyone, through hard work, to do well for themselves. Unfortunately that isn't true for a lot of people, here and around the world. If people can't make it out of poverty, then it means their children probably won't either. In addition, that means more resources from the rest of the society must be spent to help them.

4. Inconsistent energy. Without reliable and clean energy in many of the poorer regions of the world, many people just can't move away from subsistence and try other things to develop their community.

5. Discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. It will never fully go away, but if societies at large discriminate it severely restricts and hurts the people affected.

Here are my ranked solution starting with the most feasible.

1. Environmental danger. The first big steps to take would setting stringent world wide environmental quotas on international trade. This would need rules that affect not only the worst offenders of pollution and destroying habitats, but also those who continue to trade with them. This is the most feasible because similar, though weaker, efforts have already been put in place. It is also a world wide issue that everyone, regardless of borders.

2. Lack of economic mobility. Providing better education, that helps give students the knowledge and understanding that they can control their destiny would help. Also making it easier and cheaper to access resources such as higher education would mean more people born into poverty have the option to be in higher paying positions. Lots of resources are already in place. They just need to be expanded and directed better in order to serve people more efficiently.

3. Inconsistent energy. It would be beneficial to establish renewable energy sources, like solar panels and wind turbines, in these areas. They could be independent of an existing, unreliable infrastructure and provide clean power more regularly to the inhabitants. This would require a lot of money and other resources to work. One possibility is to work with corporations who could take advantage of the newly freed workers, though that has it's own danger as well.

4. Discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. These things are baked into cultures, and can only change over long periods of time. The best people can do to quicken these transitions are to learn more about the different groups and having personal interactions with them. It's easy to make something a faceless entity, but actually knowing people, and knowing what they have to go through, certainly can change individual beliefs. It would be hard to do, but overtime things would get better.

5. Inability to compromise. If each party looked that the core of the conflict and considered what they are trying to achieve, without pride or emotion clouding their thoughts, finding a solution for everyone would be much easier. Again, this would be very difficult to stop, because it is so baked into human culture. Like discrimination mentioned above, the most we can hope for is gradual improvement over time.