Top 5 World Problems

Here are my top 5 world's biggest problems (in order):

1) Poverty - Too much of the world's population is living in terrible conditions and on the verge of death. People live where disease is rampant and babies have a huge mortality rate. In fact, in many parts of the world it is rare to live past your 40's. Although I believe that we are on the right track to solving this problem, with many of the world's wealthiest people contributing some of their money to helping others and creating philanthropies, I believe there could be more people contributing and looking for solutions. I think it's hard to really realize how other people are living around the world when many of us are so secluded and privileged in America.

2) Hunger - This problem ties into the poverty problem. Many people who live in impoverished conditions also do not have any food to feed themselves or their families. In dry areas it comes down more to the availability of fresh water for irrigation. I believe we'll eventually be able to use solar power to create mechanisms that make water safe for drinking and therefore a lot of hunger problems will be fixed.

3) Politics - This is a problem that is seen every day through many different news outlets and newspapers. There are too many people who are very similar and intelligent who take extreme sides on certain issues and end up creating unnecessary and counterproductive conflict. I think that if political parties didn't exist and we could get all of our most intelligent politicians and businesspeople to bring their heads together and collaborate, we'd have a much more efficient and effective way of solving things.

4) War over Religion - This is similar to the politics problem that I wrote about above, but it spreads throughout the globe. There are too many people that are so brainwashed by their religions that they'd go to incredibly extreme measures to fulfill whatever they're told to do. I don't see religion coming to an end any time soon, nor do I believe that it needs to, but I wish that people had a more open mind about other religions and that people focused on the "love" and "respect" part of their religions more than the hatred.

5) Climate Change - This is a problem that is becoming very clear in my generation and it is only going to get worse. Unfortunately, too many people care more about themselves and the money they are making than the environment and the long term consequences of their actions. While I understand this mindset, I'm afraid that if major changes aren't made soon, it's going to be too late. I think a great way to help this is by having companies and schools "go green". I also think that environmental education should be a larger part of the elementary curriculum.

Most Possible to Least Possible Solutions to these Problems:

1) Fixing climate change. Although I'm not sure if we can reverse the damage that has already been done, I believe that it is very possible for people to start being more aware of their footprint and being more green. 

2) Hunger is a problem that is obviously very hard to solve, but I think that a lot of the initiatives that are in place are helping a lot of people around the world, and if we were to give those programs more funding and attention, they could be way more successful. 

3) The problems that are caused by politics are going to be much more difficult to solve because when it comes to individual people's opinions and feelings, those are going to be hard to change. Hopefully, America will eventually come up with a better political party system than we have today, but that will take a lot of time and effort. 

4) Poverty is something that is probably always going to exist, but I think that it would be possible to at least improve the living conditions of many people around the world who are living in terrible and unsafe places. There are many programs in place today that try to fight poverty, and I think that if they got more attention and money we'd be able to help a lot of people. 

5) The war on religion is another problem that is going to be very hard to solve because of the attachment people have to their religions. I think that it will probably be an issue that will always exist in the world. 

I chose poverty as my biggest problem because it directly affects so many people around the world and makes their day to day living awful. There are way too many people who are living in horrendous conditions and that is an issue that trumps anything about climate change or politics. 

I think climate change has the most implementable solution because it doesn't require anyone to change their religious beliefs or political opinions. It is purely scientific. I know some people don't believe in climate change, but I think that they are far enough in the minority that it would be possible to implement a solution that everyone could stand by.