Big Issues in the World…

There are many big problems facing the world today. Most of them are created by humans, but not all. The big problems are many and varied. Here is a list of problems that are world-wide.

They should be used as the basis for your work in creating your environment Web site. I hope you find the information interesting and challenging.

Remember that these problems affect you now and will be even bigger in the next 20–30 years.

The population: Too many people?

There are now more than six billion people in the world. Every second the world population grows by three people. To find out how many people there are right now, go to The World Today:

• All of these people need a place to live, food to eat, and water to drink.
     
• All of these people put a strain on the limited  resources and contribute to the problems of the Earth.
     
• Each year the population of the world creates 720 billion tonnes of urban rubbish.
   
• The United States constitute 5% of the world’s population but is responsible for nearly 25% of the world's energy consumption.
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The over-use of resources

·         The Green-world network estimates the Earth’s limited supply of natural resources will be able to sustain only 2 billion humans by 2100 (that is, 100 years from now!).

Water

·         Almost 97% of the world’s water is sea water. Of the remaining 3%, 2% is frozen in the polar ice caps which leaves only 1% to supply the needs of 6 billion people! The pollution of rivers, lakes and ground water further limits the supply of this 1%.

Forests

·         In less than one hundred years over half of the forests around the world have been cut and burned, leaving whole areas of the earth bare and unprotected, and entire regions damaged (this process is called deforestation).But there are differing views around the world of how fast the forests are disappearing. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, 22 hectares per minute are lost, but the Rainforest Action Network says it is more like 40 hectares a minute (a football field a second).

·         According to Green Net world, over 200 million hectares of tropical rain forest are destroyed every year — enough trees to fill all of England and Scotland combined.

·         The UN Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that, if the rate of destruction continues, by 2001 over one-fifth of the remaining rainforests will be eliminated

Air

·         Ozone depletion threatens the world with enhanced ultraviolet radiation at the earth's surface, which can be damaging or lethal to many life forms.

·         Since the industrial revolution, which began in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, carbon dioxide gases emitted into the atmosphere have increased by 27%. Another greenhouse gas, methane, has more than doubled.

Climate change

Climate change is also known as “global warming” and “the greenhouse effect”.

Climate change refers to the build-up of artificial gases in the atmosphere that trap the sun’s heat, causing changes in weather patterns on a global scale.

The effects include:

·                     changes in rainfall patterns;
 

·                     a rise in sea level;
 

·                     potential droughts;
 

·                     loss of habitat; and
 

·                     Heat stress.

The greenhouse gases of most concern are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. If these gases in our atmosphere double, the Earth could warm up by 1½–4½ degrees Celsius by 2050, with changes in global precipitation having the greatest consequences.

Extinction of species

Within the next 24 hours 54 species of animals and plants somewhere in the world will disappear forever. At least 20,000 species a year are lost as rainforests are destroyed. Most of these animals existed in remote areas and have never been seen by anyone.