TOP 10 GLOBAL ISSUES

Consuelo, Dela Cruz

Global Issues

One key characteristic of global problems is that they are inter-linked in complex, and
often unrecognized, ways. Jared Diamond, argues that they are linked: one problem
exacerbates another or makes its solution more difficult.

1. Climate Change

A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the
mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric
carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

FACTORS AFFECTING CLIMATE CHANGE

 Generating power
 Manufacturing goods
 Using transportation
 Producing food
 Powering buildings
 Consuming too much

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

 Hotter Temperature
 More severe storms
 Increased drought
 A warming. Rising ocean
 Lost/Extinction of species
 Lack of Food Resources
 Health Risk
 Poverty and Displacement

2. Pollution

Is the introduction of harmful materials into the environment? These harmful materials
are called pollutants. Pollutants can be natural, such as volcanic ash. They can also be created
by human activity, such as trash or runoff produced by factories. Pollutants damage the quality
of air, water, and land. Pollution is the contamination of a substrate when harmful and foreign
substances are added to it. This substrate can be air, water or soil. The additive substances can
be of any form –solid, liquid or gases. This leads to poisoning of the medium, making it unfit to
be used. Pollution occurs in all media. In this series we will consider the pollution of the
environment. This is a very important subject as it affects all aspects of life not just of humans
but of plants animals and above all the reveals the forbearing and sensitive nature of our planet
— Earth.

Factors affecting pollution

 Burning of Fossil Fuel

When we burn oil, coal, and gas, we don't just meet our energy needs—we drive the
current global warming crisis as well. Fossil fuels produce large quantities of carbon dioxide
when burned. Carbon emissions trap heat in the atmosphere and lead to climate change.

 Industrialization
Industrialization is the process of transforming the economy of a nation or region
from a focus on agriculture to a reliance on manufacturing. Mechanized methods of
mass production are an essential component of this transition. Mining, manufacturing,
transportation and retailing.
Industrialization is the process by which an economy moves from primarily
agrarian production to mass-produced and technologically advanced goods and
services. This phase is characterized by exponential leaps in productivity, shifts from
rural to urban labor, and increased standards of living.

 Transport
The transportation sector also contributes to emissions of air toxics, which are
compounds that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health and
environmental effects. Examples of mobile source air toxics include benzene,
formaldehyde, and diesel particulate matter.

 Agricultural Practices
Pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture can contaminate both groundwater
and surface water, as can organic livestock wastes, antibiotics, silage effluents, and
processing wastes from plantation crops.
While negative impacts are serious, and can include pollution and degradation of
soil, water, and air, agriculture can also positively impact the environment, for instance
by trapping greenhouse gases within crops and soils, or mitigating flood risks through
the adoption of certain farming practices.

 Increased of Livestock
Raising livestock for human consumption generates nearly 15% of total global
greenhouse gas emissions, which is greater than all the transportation emissions
combined. It also uses nearly 70% of agricultural land which leads to being the major
contributor to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and water pollution.

 Radioactive Waste
Improper disposal of radioactive waste can severely contaminate the soil and
result in soil pollution. The radioactive matter present in this type of waste may mix with
the components of the soil, rendering it highly toxic and infertile.

 Deforestation
 Deforestation refers to the purposeful clearing or thinning of trees and forests.
When deforestation occurs, much of the carbon stored by trees is released back into the
atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change.

 Indoor Pollution
Moreover, people who are most susceptible to the effects of pollution (e.g., the very
young, older adults, people with cardiovascular or respiratory disease) tend to spend
even more time indoors. Common indoor air pollutants include radon, smoke, and lead
dust.

 Natural causes/Phenomena
Pollutants are usually released into the environment through cycles that flow
between air, land and water, until they are buried in lakes or deep ocean sediments.
However, wildfires, floods volcanic eruptions, tsunamis or earthquakes can release
these elements suddenly and in large quantities.

 Plastic Waste Disposal

Disposal is also problematic: incineration of plastic waste releases toxic chemicals
and micro- and nano-plastics into the air, while landfills contaminate soil and water. All
these elements then impact biodiversity both locally and globally.

3. Violence

In general, violence can be defined as deliberate application of physical force to another

person or group and ultimately causing physical or psychological harm. Hamby (2017) also
defines violence as premediated, undesirable, unnecessary and damaging behavior.

INDIVIDUAL RISK FACTORS

- History of violent victimization
- Attention deficits, hyperactivity, or learning disorders
- History of early aggressive behavior
- Involvement with drugs, alcohol, or tobacco
- Low IQ
- Poor behavioral control
- Deficits in social cognitive or information-processing abilities
- High emotional distress
- History of treatment for emotional problems
- Antisocial beliefs and attitudes
- Exposure to violence and conflict in the family
FAMILY RISK FACTORS
- Authoritarian childrearing attitudes
- Harsh, lax, or inconsistent disciplinary practices
- Low parental involvement
- Low emotional attachment to parents or caregivers
- Low parental education and income
- Parental substance abuse or criminality
- Poor family functioning
- Poor monitoring and supervision of children

PEER AND SOCIAL RISK FACTORS

- Association with delinquent peers
- Involvement in gangs
- Social rejection by peers
- Lack of involvement in conventional activities
- Poor academic performance
- Low commitment to school and school failure

COMMUNITY RISK FACTORS

- Diminished economic opportunities
- High concentrations of poor residents
- High level of transiency
- High level of family disruption
- Low levels of community participation
- Socially disorganized neighborhood

4. Security and Well-Being

Feeling safe, stable, and secure is central to our health and wellbeing. How safe we feel
at home and in our neighborhood can influence our social habits and feeling of freedom. When
we feel safe, we find it easier to relax, do all the things that comfort us, and focus on the work or
study us need to do to help ensure our stability?
 Keeping ourselves and family physically safe is the most important element of human
survival, but it's also vital to our ability to thrive. Without a sense of physical safety – both
individually and more broadly as a community – we are unable to focus on other factors that
support our wellbeing.

5. Lack of Education

A lack of education can be defined as a state where people have a below-average level
of common knowledge about basic things that they would urgently need in their daily life. For
instance, this could include basic knowledge in math, writing, spelling, etc.
Causes for a Lack of Education

Poverty
Poor people stop going to school because they have to work, which leaves them without
the literacy and numeracy skills needed to improve their situation. With little income and few
options, their children are also more likely to leave school, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that
spans generations.

Orphanism
Orphans will also often suffer from a lack of education since they often do not have
people who care about them and send them to school.
Moreover, they may also not be able to afford school since they do not have financial support
and will not be able to earn enough money.
They will often also not have the time to attend school since they have to work at a job in
order to make enough money to survive.
Making things worse, without proper education, these children are at great risk to be exploited
by firms in the future since they will rely on shitty jobs in order to survive.

Homelessness
Children experiencing homelessness lack the stability and support necessary to succeed
academically.

Parenting
Children who receive support their parents develop an appropriate mindset, motivation,
and self-discipline at school. Disengaged parents who are not interested in the academic life of
their kids often promote school failures. Create of a generation of students not interested in
studying or in gaining information.

Substance abuse
Research shows that there is a definite link between teen substance abuse and how well
you do in school. Teens who abuse drugs have lower grades, a higher rate of absence from
school and other activities, and an increased potential for dropping out of school.

Bad company
Their activities are too numerous to mention. Third, bad company leads to poor
academic performance of students. This is due to the fact that academically poor students use it
as a forum to protect their incompetence and thereby terrorize their teachers when they fail.
Laziness
They are often engaged in other activities that cause them to lose focus on their studies.
They rarely study or do their assignments and normally buy assignments from an essay writer
who does their papers for them. In the end, this affects their studies and normally causes them
to fail.

Cultural factors
Cultural barriers can also impede children belonging to a particular ethnic or religious
group, social class, and/or sexual and gender minority to access schools. In other cases,
specific features of the school –such as the language of instruction and the content of the
curriculum– discourage the enrolment of children.

Religion
Frequent religious practice is positively correlated with higher educational aspirations.
Students who attended church weekly while growing up had significantly more years of total
schooling by their early thirties than peers who did not attend church at all.

Conflicts
These are:
1) Limited resources
2) Interdependent work activities
3) Differentiation of activities
4) Communication problems
5) Differences in perceptions
6) The environment of the organization

Natural disasters
Education and learning can take place in different environments in more or less
formalized ways. They can influence disaster vulnerability as the capacity to anticipate, cope
with, resist, and recover from natural hazard in direct and indirect ways.

Insufficient social aid

Students with poor social skills have been shown to: Experience difficulties in
interpersonal relationships with parents, teachers, and peers. Evoke highly negative responses
from others that lead to high levels of peer rejection. Peer rejection has been linked on several
occasions with school violence.

Insufficient educational infrastructure

How does poor infrastructure affect students?
Facilities may be inadequate in many ways, including being over-crowded or
dangerous, lacking in adequate sanitary facilities and lacking water for hygiene. The
health implications of inadequate toilets and sanitation are very serious. Girls in
particular are pushed out of school if facilities are inadequate.

Teacher gaps
 The Impact of Teacher Shortages. Teacher shortages can significantly depress student
achievement, as schools often cancel courses due to vacancies or staff classes with substitutes
and underprepared teachers who are not certified to teach their subject matters.

Low qualification levels of teachers

What is the effect of unqualified teachers?
Unqualified teachers are recruited who cannot manage the process of teaching
and learning in schools effectively which is reflection in the poor performances of
students and consequently brings dissatisfaction among parents regarding the
performance of government schools.
Lack of learning materials
A disadvantage of teaching with limited resources is that teachers can be tempted to
surrender to 'plain talk'. Too much teacher talking time prevents interaction, causes boredom
and the longer you spend talking to students the less time they have to process the information
and understand it.
Gender discrimination

Disabilities