I would say poverty. It's a big problem, yet most people do nothing about it. War is, in a way, preventable, while poverty isn't really.

I would probably say that one of the largest issues is Peak Oil and what it means to the world's economy due to the fact that the US is taking a huge hit. Food prices are increasing, and of course gas prices are too.

I would also advise you to check out www.192021.org/ because it displays some really weird and somewhat frightening facts about supercities. In 2050, 2/3 of the population of the world will live in cities, and cities won't be able to support that. Nor will the world. We're at the brink of our population increase and our world still can't support us even now. I can't wait until 2050, to say the least. ;o

Agriculture.

Oh, no, I'm not just talking about modern misuse of agriculture. I don't just mean the trashing of rainforest for cattle land; I'm not just referencing the incentives to grow feed corn instead of human consumables. It ain't just copyrighted and patented GM crop issues which bother me.

No, I'm referring to the beginning of the Neolithic era, when Ogg the Hunter-Gatherer figured out that if she planted seeds instead of pooping them, the tribe could remain in one place and support more people with less overall work. Oh, Ogg, you traitorous bitch. Here's what Ogg did to us:

• Compared to hunting and gathering, agriculture is an environmental nightmare, no matter how responsibly practiced.


• The increase in population, coupled with a stationary tribal system, allowed for new fields like metallurgy to develop. Hey, who's up for a rousing game of Release the Heavy Metal Compound into the Groundwater?


• Since not everyone has to contribute to the food supply, that frees up a lot of spare time. Sure, now we've got an artisan class, but more importantly, we have classes at all. Ogg just created class disparity, which translates directly into poverty.


• Oh, and while we're at it, let's invent all-out war so that we can expand our population and take over better resources! All those minor territorial conflicts - the ones which pretty much resolved themselves through ritual or the occasional pillage raid, as opposed to mass murder and rape - well, let's say that they weren't exactly very exciting.


• Corollary to the above: since Other Tribes are the Bad Guys, we've invented regionalism and racism!


• Hey, now that population increase means that we need lots of lower-class babies bred for farm labor, and since a stationary agicultural system tends to engender patriarchal family units (men have better upper body strength on average, and anyway, women have to be pregnant as often as possible), we've invented sexism, too!

And that's just scratching the surface. Yes, folks, the existence of agriculture is the worst thing to happen to humanity since the last supervolcano explosion (~700,000 years ago, and that reduced humanity to less than 5,000 members planet-wide). I vote we get rid of it immediately.

People.
No seriously, if there were no people the world be completely fine/problemless. This gets rid of war, poverty and whatever else anyone mentioned. Although I'm not suggesting that all the people should get killed or something though.

Shinyhunter07 wrote

war is energy consuming time consuming and food consuming.if there were no wars or arguments then people could work together to prevent poverty.
so there

Fuel expenditure.

Our resources are going and we have little alternatives. Nuclear Power has dangerous side-effects and Solar Power isn't efficient enough to power the entire world.

We learnt all about this in Science last term, and I found it really interesting. This Wiki has some very cool information.

Even though it's likely I'll die before the world is f_cked, due to the increase in the cost of petrol, expenses are going up more than the value of a dollar.

Not cracking fusion. Come on, we can deal with crime if we had NEARLY INFINITE ENERGY: shoot criminals with high powered lasers or something. We can deal with garbage build up: fire it all into space using fusion-powered rockets. We can deal with low oil: use fusion to get electricity for pure electric cars. We can deal with war: share the infinite energy with the world and sing around the fusion reactor. Why fight? We'd need barely any resources to fight over. If there still is war, I bet we can just build some kind of shield around continents, hey, we'd have tons of energy!

Just think of it, whoever cracks fusion would be the savior of Earth! Nearly never ending power supply for everyone!

what is the biggest issue? what will I wear today?

Money Issues. This is sort of like Poverty though. Everything costs money. LIFE costs money. You have to PAY (in some countries *couch* *cough*america*cough* *cough*) to have a proper birthing or else the baby may die. Food needs money. seriously, we NEED food. we cant live without it. and people just want us to PAY to survive? thats messed up. Clothes, another important thing that keeps us from getting illnesses induced by bad weather and wound infections, Also costs money. Health, Marriage, Safety, Jobs, ect. ect. The world is CONTOLLED by money. you control money, you control wars, you control who has a home, who gets what and when. Without money, you cant pay off that Bazooka ya bought to help in the war. Even buying stuff to keep you alive (a.k.a. apple tree seeds and fruit trees and bushes) is worth money. We need to be able to share instead of having the "if i give you this, what do I get?" kind of attitude.

lol randomly calling out America for no reason.

seeing as it costs more money to live in Europe, not America. Also, in most places you have to pay money to give birth in a hospital, not just *cough* *cough* America *cough* *cough* :(

btw you also said *couch*, not *cough*. :p

i LIVED in america for most of my life, and i know that you have to pay for most services there. (this means hospital use). Ive Gotten a 4mm gouge down my arm when i lived there, and my family ALMOST couldnt afford to get me stitches for it. Like i said, everything in the world costs money. I like couches. is that a problem?

I think operations should be free if the situation is life risking or the patient has money issues. In Australia, something like 2-3 billion dollars a year goes to welfare. While welfare is good (single and struggling mothers, the elderly should receive benefits), a lot of it is abused by people who don't work or lie about their conditions. If the Government was stricter on the abuse of welfare they could save a lot of money which could go to (but not secure) hospital care.

Some people who are suffering from terminal illnesses are paying millions of dollars they don't have for operations that will prolong their lives for another few months until they can borrow another million to get another operation. It's very unfortunate that these people, even if they do survive, will never be able to achieve anything because they're crippled with debts. And if they pass away, their family is left to pay whatever their assets can't pay for.

I think this is a very large issue, but not the largest.

Ohhhhh yeah, that's an issue for you.
For me, anything to do with rainforests being razed to the ground and pollutants rising into the air.......London will flood in 2015....
Heh heh, lucky for me I live in Wales.
{piplup}Chingling {chingling}

I'm surprised no one has said global warming yet, very surprised in truth. Which is worse, war, poverty in some people, comets or meteors that have a one in a billion something percent chance of killing us all or temperatures reaching extreem hights, disease and survival rates plumetting, global floods and eventually a new ice age? Obviously global warming is the biggest issue on hand, as the others actually don't effect everyone or they won't all die.

I'll be perfectly honest - it is more likely that you will be killed by space debris impact than a plane crash, simply because it affects more people.


Today, I'd definitely have to say the energy crisis, global warming, lack of universe exploration, and America's need to spend tax dollars on garbage.

At risk of sounding self-centered, the issue I am most worried about is my life.


Yeah.

Global Warming IS part of the Ice Age we're in right now. You don't watch enough educational videos in Science. =P

I think one of the biggest issues in the world today is the depletion of non-renewable resources. The steady decline in gas for vehicles is leading to higher gas prices, which of are now approaching $4.00 per gallon where I live. Spending vast amounts of money on gasoline gives away to more money expenditure. Just with these two issues, we can lose a major source of fuel for automobiles and it renders people who spent vast amounts of money only on trying to keep their vehicles running on the brink or in poverty. There is also an issue between races that seems to get worse every year, but I'd rather not talk about it since there's a chance that certain members might take offense to a single statement.

Religion is a large issue. Millions of people are killed by what it causes.

Particular the premise of faith.

Not single struggling fathers?

It served as an example. I could list each and every type of person affected if you so wish.