Global issues can be defined as any social, economic, political and environmental issues that affect the world in a

catastrophic way. Living in the current world certainly has its uncertainties and challenges. There are numerous
critical global issues that need immediate attention. Although progress toward solving them is being made, it is
rather slow.

Five Critical Global Issues

Biosecurity: Biosecurity refers to the measures taken to reduce the spread or introduction of infectious diseases in
animals, plants and human beings. The goal of biosecurity is to prevent various biological risk factors whether
natural, accidental or man-made. These risk factors have the potential to cause mass destruction, killing millions of
people and causing huge economic loss and instability.

Promoting Effective Altruism: Effective altruism can be described as various ways to benefit others as much as
possible using one’s own resources. It involves devoting all kinds of altruistic behavior like time, money, energy
and attention to people’s well-being. The four main focus areas of effective altruism are poverty reduction, meta
effective altruism, the far future and animal suffering.Charity is one of the many ways to promote effective
altruism. In the United States alone, there are about one million charities receiving a total of approximately $200
billion a year. Also, it is not necessary to be a millionaire to be effectively altruistic; even the smallest donation can
make a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Social Hostility: Social hostility can also be referred to as conflicts or wars caused due to intolerance and
discrimination against others’ beliefs. In the present world, violence and discrimination have reached new heights
in almost all regions of the world. Religious conflicts are seen to be strongly prevalent in one-third of the world’s
198 countries and territories. The countries ranking high for such conflicts are Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Somalia
and Israel.

Destruction of Nature: Humans’ destruction of nature is taking a major toll on the world. Deforestation, done for
various reasons like farming, cattle grazing, expanding cities and building dams, has caused environmental
degradation and climate change. Deforestation has also led to losing 18.7 million acres of forests every year, which
equals to 27 soccer fields a minute.Trees help absorb carbon dioxide which helps to cool the planet’s temperature
down but the loss of trees from deforestation reverses this process. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 15
percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. Thus, destruction of nature is another critical
global issue that requires immediate preventive measures.

Children’s Lives: In a report from 2017, UNICEF claims that child mortality has dropped from 12.6 million in 1990 to
5.6 million in 2016. This is a positive change but the number of deaths is still extremely significant; 15,000 children
die every day. One of the significant causes of child mortality is malnutrition, while pneumonia, diarrhea and
malaria are also significant factors.According to a report published from Save the Children on May 31, 2018, it is
estimated that around 1.2 billion children are exposed to at least one of three threats: poverty, conflict or
discrimination against girls. 153 million people are at a risk of suffering from all three. For the overall progress
toward healthy living and well-being to continue, there is an urgent need to address and assist these vulnerable
children.

These are only a few of the world’s most critical global issues. If society is to one day come together and attain
total peace and security, these problems must be attended to as soon as possible. The safety of future generations
depends on the actions taken now.

– Shweta Roy