Series 1 – What are the main problems that we face, and why are they problematic?
Earlier I described the anobis of our use of CFC aerosols. Had the cause of the problem been the opposite of an anobis – in other words caused externally and not by humans, the probability that we would find a solution would have been less. I call this type of problem an abalia. Imagine, for
What are the greatest problems that we face and what are their causes? My emphasis is on “greatest”, so unless it is extremely widespread I would not consider domestic issues or problems that might cause an inconvenience to qualify.
Humans have spread across the globe, living everywhere from sea level to villages above 3,000m, in every kind of environment. Some of us live in urban spaces, dealing with noise, traffic, and other issues that arise from living close to others. Some live in rural areas centred around a town where many faces are recognisable. Others live somewhere more remote, where meeting anyone requires a walk or a drive. Some of us share a home with our parents, family, fellow students, workers or others. Some people live alone, and may need to compromise less, but must make an effort to maintain relationships. Some live in surroundings where they are constantly aware of the other species around them — deer, livestock, or pests like locusts and mosquitoes — while others rarely see any animal aside from dogs, cats, or the occasional sparrow or pigeon.
Our lifestyles are so varied. We live in different spaces and have diverse experiences. These influence how we understand our surroundings and give us different perspectives. It’s no surprise, then, that we rarely agree on which global issues matter most. Still, some issues must affect us all.
I’ll start from the assumption that most people’s sense of “the biggest problems” is shaped by the news they watch and read — media that is both sensitive to its audience and influential over it. Institutions that focus on social issues and gather data may offer another useful source.
I’m assuming these sources are mainly written and funded by people living in or near cities. That assumption rests on two things: most news organisations are themselves based in cities, and human populations have grown steadily more urbanised over the past century.
Our World in Data supports this: in 2020, around 3.5 billion people lived in cities, another 2.8 billion in towns and suburbs, and around 1.6 billion in rural areas — meaning cities were home to 44% of the global population, with 36% in towns and suburbs and 20% in rural areas. Even as recently as 1950, only around 20% of the world’s population lived in cities by this definition, so the proportion of the population living in cities has more than doubled in 70 years.
If this is right, there is likely to be minimal input from people living in rural areas, and their perception of the world’s problems may be considerably different.
While some of the problems I have found in main media sources may appear distinct on the surface, many have shared underlying factors, suggesting that focusing on root causes might be more productive than addressing individual issues in isolation.
After searching on-line in 2024, I encountered several organisations with interesting problem lists. The World Economic Forum published its top ten risks for 2024. Development Aid has a list has a list of their own. Time had a list for 2024 that was more USA centric. The United Nations has a list they aspire to work toward. 8,000 Hours (a career advice organisation focused on social impact) have their list of problems which they prioritise because they are unusually large in scale, unduly neglected, and solvable. (Note that 80,000 Hours has since restructured this list and shifting its focus more heavily toward AI-related risks). The 80,000 Hours version described here was so in 2024.
This yielded 38 problems, 8 of which recurred (orange and pink ones in the chart).
Some could be merged into a broader categories – Extreme weather and Critical change to Earth’s systems could both qualify as “Climate change”. Water accessibility and hunger and Access to food could both belong in “Natural resource shortages”. This reduces my list to 6 main problems.
I then ran a separate search in 2025 using Artificial Intelligence (AI) — specifically Claude — which drew on the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 and the Ipsos survey as sources. This produced in a shorter list of 5 problems. All but one of these (Human Rights) had featured among the earlier list, so I now have a revised list of 7 problems – 6 from the earlier 8 and Human Rights added via Claude.
Interestingly, population density (8.2 billion in 2025) and population growth did not appear on any of these lists. While I think this deserves special attention, I’ll set my own view aside here and focus on the selection from the sources themselves alone.
However, since it has featured so often in this opening page, I would like to have a closer look at the word – “problem” first.