Key Challenges: Climate, Inequality, and Poverty

Key Challenges: Climate Change

• Rising global temperatures, warmer oceans, shrinking ice caps, retreating glaciers, rising sea levels, decreasing snow cover, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, extreme weather events, desertification.

Key Challenges: Economic Inequality

• The gap between rich and poor is widening.
• Rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.
• Global wealth distribution is uneven.

Key Challenges: Poverty

• 712 million people, or 1 in 11 globally, live on less than $2.15 a day.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of children living in extreme poverty, at 40% in 2022.
• Nearly 90% of children living in extreme poverty reside in either sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.
• 1.1 billion people, including 566 million children, live in multidimensional poverty, accounting for just over 18% of the world's population.

Key Challenges: Political Instability

• Causes:
  • Economic factors
  • Corruption
  • Ethnic and religious tensions
  • Weak political institutions
  • External influence

Key Challenges: Health Crises

• Types of health crises: pandemics, epidemics, natural disasters, man-made disasters.
• Causes: infectious diseases, climate change, pollution, socio-economic factors, lack of medical facilities and professional services.

Positive Developments In Contemporary Society

• Access to education
• Advancements in technology, including nanotechnology and robotics, impacting areas such as medicine, communications, defense, industrial, entertainment, journalism, etc.
• Advancements in health sciences, including public health policies and genetic engineering.
• Social progress, including awareness of rights and social justice.
• Environmental efforts.

Positive Developments In Contemporary Society: Indicators

• Life expectancy in Europe/the world has increased from 36/30 in the pre-modern era to 81/72 in the 21st century.
• The percentage of people living in poverty has decreased from 90% in the pre-modern era to 10% in the 21st century.
• Literacy rates have increased from 12% in the pre-modern era to 87% in the 21st century.
• Infant mortality rates (children dying before the age of 5) have decreased from 43% in the pre-modern era to 4% in the 21st century.

Hidden Costs of Coffee

• The cost of coffee does not encompass many hidden costs to communities and the environment called externalities.
• More than half of the total energy in the food supply chain is used to transport food.
• CO2 emissions are often not factored in.
• The average distance Starbucks coffee travels per cup is 5,427 miles.

Social Costs of Coffee Production

• Child labor
• Lack of decent working conditions.
• Discrimination and lower wages for women.

Environmental Costs of Coffee Production

• Deforestation

Economic Impacts of Coffee Production

• The income generated for farmers and their families often does not enable them to live with dignity.
• Less than 10 fils goes to the farmer per cup of coffee.

3 Pillars of Sustainability:

• Social sustainability
• Economic sustainability
• Environmental sustainability

Can We Live Within The Doughnut?

• This concept explores how to create safe, just, and thriving spaces for humanity within planetary boundaries.

Factors Strengthening Social Sustainability

• Diversity
• Compassion
• Education
• Inclusion
• Equity
• Trust
• Safety
• Empathy
• Resilience & agility
• Infrastructure
• Health & wellness
• Technologies that strengthen communities

Factors Weakening Social Sustainability

• Conflict
• Exclusion and marginalization
• Lack of social services
• Lack of resources
• Lack of infrastructure
• Gaps in health
• Challenges of planetary health
• Technologies that fragment communities

Now brainstorm the major challenges in global society.

Exploring Global Challenges

• Students should skim these readings and add to their list of global challenges and positive developments:
  • https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/post/147458/top-10-world-problems-and-their-solutions
  • [Link to second reading]