Ten of the world's biggest problems

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs dictates that in order to achieve self-actualization, a state wherein an individual can propel themselves toward their full potential, physiological, safety, love and esteem needs must be met. Breathing, eating, sleeping, security, friendship, family, confidence, self-esteem and respect all play into our ability to contribute, the lower levels needing attention before we can move up the pyramid to self-actualization, so, for me, identifying ten of the world's biggest problems is easiest to do in the context of Maslow's Hierarchy.

So, what do we, as a global society, need first?

1. Water - Claire Underwood knew it as head of the Clean Water Initiative, and the United Nations has pushed for it since the 70s, the world needs clean drinking water. Although huge strides have improved water sources and upped the percentage of the world's population with access to improved sources of drinking water (i.e. household connections and protected rainwater collections), there are still more than 783 million people going without. Water crises like the current fiasco in Flint, Michigan bring more attention to water issues, but it shouldn't take an emergency stateside to remind people of deficiencies worldwide.
  

Solution: Luckily the UN continues to address global water supply issues, keeping it on the Millennium Development Goals docket. Individuals can donate time or resources to water-related causes, but on a local level, reducing individual water use and curbing pollution are small steps. Rainwater harvesting has become a more common practice, and systems for anything from watering plants to supplying the entire house with water can be purchased and installed by anyone. If you're handy, or know someone who is, there's also the option of building your own. For the daring out there, check out the resources at the end of this post (but don't rush off yet).
  

2. Agriculture/Food Supply - Sustainable agricultural practices and sufficient food supply have benefits palpable even to First Worlders. Increased demand, weather incidents and other natural and man-made obstacles to agricultural production have led to lower yields and, consequently, an increase in food prices since the early 2000s.                       

Credit: madaboutmemes.com

Solution: Urban agriculture and the rise of small farms both have positive impacts on food supply. If an individual, family or community can self-sustain, they will pull less from local/regional/national/international food supply and perhaps produce enough to introduce food and goods into market. Not someone who wants a yard of chickens or time to invest in a garden? Supporting local agriculture by buying local and seasonal when possible is a great way to promote sustainability. Those giant blueberries from Argentina? I'd rather pick my own in Arcadia.
     
3. Air Pollution - Growing up with Captain Planet and Ferngully, there's no way air pollution wasn't making my top ten global problems list. As human population and worldwide development continue to grow, air pollution becomes a larger issue each year. According to the Worldwatch Institute, more than one billion people live in communities below World Health Organization standards for air quality.

Solution: Improving global air quality, particularly in urban areas that are heavily polluted, has no simple solution. The gradual shift to cleaner cars and power sources is key, however those technologies have functional and financial burdens that have prevented quick, widespread use and in some regions restricted the possibility altogether. Commercially, for example, hybrids have done well and electric cars a bit less so due to price and perceived inconvenience. The fully electric Nissan Leaf, available for around $30,000 with a range between 73-80 miles and requiring 16 hours for a full charge, had sold 200,000 units worldwide as of December 2015. Comparatively, the Toyota Prius, an electric hybrid now starting around $19,000, sold 3 million units as of June 2013. 

Of course the Prius has been around since the late 90s while the Leaf had its buzzy commercial debut in 2010, but the numbers breakdown to about 187,500 Prius being sold each year from conception (1997) to 2013 and the Leaf at a paltry 40,000 units per year. Point hybrids. But really, point average gas engines since out of the 253 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads with an average age of 11.4 years, they vastly outnumber their more environmentally friendly brethren. 

But I'm getting carried away. Short solution to air pollution? Cleaner energy, clear cars, more green, less concrete. Let's move on to our last physiologically-based problem:

4. Refugees - Really the topic of refugees starts to cross over into the safety level of Maslow's Hierarchy, but it follows that if you are displaced, your physiological needs are likely to suffer. Refugees face the choice between death or displacement. Whether due to natural disaster or civil unrest, the UN clocked 43.3 million displaced people in 2010.

Solution: Presently, Syrian unrest has resulted in millions of refugees. These refugees have been scattered across the world from Canada to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, unable to return home and often without help to integrate into their new society. A UN Security Council resolution adopted by global super powers the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and China has established a path for peacekeeping and resolution, and I think, in general, deferring to the UN for guidance on refugee issues will continue to be the standard. Additionally, the world could look to Canada as an example--e.g. the Montreal factory, that has hosted other refugees in the past, offering Syrian refugees jobs and other resources.    

5. Climate Change - It may well be an inconvenient truth, but global climate change is happening. Research agencies around the world have recently declared 2015 the hottest year on record...by a wide margin of 0.75C. Scientists predict that we will continue to trend toward warm, particularly with NOAA reporting such high ocean temperatures. The trouble with warm water? Less nutrient-rich food, emaciated marine life, coral bleaching and melting ice caps, for starters. 
   

Solution: The Paris Agreement, intended to quell climate change, will help reduce climate change, if the participating countries follow the guidelines they have set and commit themselves to push the boundaries of the agreement further. I know I've heard many a lecture about reducing my personal carbon footprint, and we can all do our part to minimize our footprints. 

Calculate your carbon footprint and learn more about what you can do to slow climate change from The Nature Conservancy. (Seriously, do it. It's kind of fun.)

 

6. Terrorism - I was in fifth grade on September 11, 2001. My uncle had stayed home from work, and my aunt was safe at the UN, but the day was still a blur of my mother's anxiety from unreturned calls of New York City relatives and watching the news replay the same clips over and over. I even got to stay up late that night; I don't remember us sitting down for dinner, which was something my family did religiously. My family was on the periphery, and when I think of everyone directly impacted, and those impacted by subsequent attacks, wars, here and abroad--terrorism is clearly one of the top ten world's biggest problems. 

Solution: I think new gun legislation, while controversial, is an appropriate conversation to have following the San Bernardino shooting. It's hard to implement new security laws--think about the added airport security following 9/11--but we can't rely on government intelligence and anonymous tips to end terrorism. If making it more difficult for me to buy a gun makes it more difficult for someone with malintent to buy a gun, great. While many would argue there are still avenues for terrorists to purchase weapons, and that kidnappings, bombings and other harmful acts will still occur worldwide, of course they will, but every added measure, every nation that unites against terror will make a difference. I have seen arguments for approaching ideological differences that cause acts of terror, for changing government powers, for providing people with basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter, and I think the solution will be found at the cross-section of those notions.
 
7. Arms/Disarmament - Family members of mine would be aghast at the mere suggestion of disarmament, still, it's hard to contest the extreme defense spending worldwide. On a softer, more agreeable note, land mines are likewise a disarmament issue, killing between 15-20,000 people each year and critically injuring many more. 

 

Solution: Demining has been a complex process. Land mines don't deactivate after wars end--there are still World War II mines out there--and can remain active for decades. There has been a movement toward demining robots, and though the costs are high, robots remain the best option to demine and defuse, particularly given that a human demining mission often expects one man dead and two men injured per 5,000 mines cleared. As for military disarmament, due to budget cuts defense spending has been cut across the globe. In the United States, the annual budget is rising by approximately 1-2% while costs are up 2-3%, which means the budget will be cut into each year until it's time to restructure and reevaluate.    
 
8. International Law - You may have noticed by now that solving worldwide problems is an international issue requiring international cooperation. International law defines how nations interact with each other, individuals and international organizations.

Solution: The UN is at the helm of International Law. Shocker, I know.  This system of upholding international law has not always worked out, with nations sometimes defying the UN, but I believe it is the best option for now and into the foreseeable future.
 
9. Healthcare - Did Obamacare come to mind upon reading that? Well, don't worry, the global healthcare conversation isn't quite there yet. We're still stuck on conversations about maternal health, child mortality, nutrition, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS and generally getting everyone access to good healthcare. Notice I say good healthcare. To quote Harvard Professor of Health Policy and Management Dr. Ashish Jha, "Doing more isn't better. Doing better is better," meaning 1,000 doctors descending upon the most needy areas in the world makes no difference if the doctors are ill-trained and ineffective.

Solution: It doesn't hurt to push healthcare education, as a start. Organizations around the world are advocating for better healthcare, and many of us could get involved through our church, school or local charities. Obamacare, while faulty, has merit when you consider the U.S. healthcare system, for being a world leader, lags far behind those of countries like Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, Singapore and so on. Although many Americans have access to care, the cost of care is much higher than the rest of the world, and cost does impede how many people receive the care they need. The U.S. has also been chided for a lack of preventative care, which could ward off major illness or at least catch diseases early rather than in progressed stages and save money. A $100 well visit is much less expensive than an $800,000 organ transplant. In the UN, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the major arm of health initiatives but much of the UN promotes universal health care. Poverty is another contributor to lack of healthcare so efforts to solve that problem likewise advance global healthcare.

 

10. Education - As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon explains in the video above, education is the key to unlocking the potential of an individual. Maslow would likely agree that after a person's primary needs are met, education is the path to self-actualization, which we need to evolve and add something to world. 

Solution: My great grandfather, the entrepreneur I've mentioned before, never went to school. My father dropped out and enlisted in the Vietnam War to provide for his siblings. Over time, though education has remained a privilege of sorts, we have moved from a society where education is available but optional to a society requiring primary education and emphasizing the importance of secondary education. #EducationFirst is one of millions of calls to action to aid universal education. The world needs teachers, two million more, if you ask the UN, and the global community needs to divert more funding into education.   


Lots of problems, room for solutions. Let's get crackin', people.

Resources, for your added pleasure:
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012, United Nations
DIY 275 Gallon Rainwater Collection by bennelson at Instructables 
Build a Rainwater Harvesting System, Environmental Building News via Mother Earth News
DIY and Helpful Links on Aquaculture, Recirculating Farms Coalition
Urban Farming: Sustainable City Living in Your Backyard, in Your Community, and in the World, Thomas Fox  
Florida U-Pick Blueberry Farms Listing
Air Pollution Now Threatening Health Worldwide, Worldwatch Institute
Nissan Leaf, U.S. News 
Average Age of Vehicles on the Road Remains Steady at 11.4 years, IHS Automotive 
Montreal plywood factory gives Syrian refugees jobs, French classes via CTV News 
Obama calls for sweeping new gun laws via CBS News 
Defence spending in a time of austerity via The Economist 
Why the sheriff should follow the law via The Economist 
The Most Efficient Health Care Systems in the World via The Huffington Post 
Education First Fact Sheet, UN