PaluchowskiMatthew.github.io

WorldProblems

Repo containing some of the world’s most burning problems. Highly subjective.

Table of Contents

1. Problems
   1. Climate Change
   2. Pollution
   3. Lifestyle
   4. Privacy
   5. Media and Politics
2. Questions & Potential Answers
   1. Climate Change

Problems

Climate Change

• Global Warming
  • mass extinction of species
  • extreme weather events (hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildfires, droughts)
  • drinking water shortage
  • water shortage (crucial for heavy industry/power plants)
  • famine
  • migration of people
  • political unrest

Pollution

• Air
  • PM10
  • PM2.5
  • NOS
  • O3
• Water
  • large plastics
  • microplastics
  • chemicals
• Soil
  • plastics
  • non-recyclables
• Noise
• Electronics (laptops/iphones/batteries)
• space trash (once a chain reaction of broken satellites becoming space-trash and destroying other satellites start, there is no turning back and unless someone solves it we wont be able to go to space)

Lifestyle

• Over-consumption & over-production
  • 30% of the food produced is wasted. Globally!
  • new iPhone every year
  • new clothes collection every 8 weeks
  • 1 year warranty for stuff within EU (A dishwasher should last me a lifetime…)
• Air travel will be more & more popular not less as more people in developing countries such as India or China are getting wealthy enough to be able to afford air travel and will righfully do so
• Ever increasing growth
  • Economy, companies & countries revolve around constant increase and growth of every single metric - production, consumption, taxes, stock prices etc. How is it sustainable?
  • Sustainability is not promoted or enforced.
  • Neither companies nor consumers are not held accountable for the entire lifcycle of the product. Recycling is scarce.

Privacy

• Private companies collect/use/sell our data
  • If you are not paying for the product, you are the product.
• Governments spy on us

Media and Politics

• Both media and high politics seem to fuel various conflicts, whilst actively deteering out attention from the real problems and preventing us from having a consctructive debate. It’s not us vs them. It’s us (entire humankind) vs the problems.

Questions & Potential Answers

Climate Change questions

1. What are the climate predictions for major Western countries in 10/20/50 years from now?
   • For example will northern Poland in 50 years look like southern France now?
2. What are the sea level predictions in 10/20/50 years from now?
   • I learned the other day that Greenland icecap melting will cause a sea-level surge in southern hemisphere whilst it’s the Antarctic ice Norther hemishpere should be most concerned about.