Blog Topic: What do you think is the most pressing problem facing our planet today? Why and what do you think needs to be done about it?
Tyler Williams, Age 13
I think the most pressing problem facing our planet today is all the diseases and cancers. Too often you hear my aunt and uncle has breast cancer, or my friend’s brother/sister has HIV/AIDS. This is a huge problem especially in Brooklyn because of the fact we have the most HIV positive Brooklynites than any other city. Why is it that a new reason why people are not being tested, or women are not getting their mammograms? Because they are scared, mostly because it might affect their social status, meaning what other people think of them. For example, how would you feel if you couldn’t have that baby you and your husband wanted or if you had to tell your friends and family you were positive. The only thing is to you it is worse to lose your friends than to die, or its worth to lose one or booth of your breasts than to die. This is because most people feel what other people think of them is more important. It is sad knowing that a lot of people do threw this.
I have learned from past studies and school notes that the best chance you have of riding of the disease such as any of the cancers is early detection. Stop it before it gets worse, before it’s too late. Any other chance you have is limited and can be accomplished with luck. You usually never see so many HIV or breast cancer survivors although there are some that is not enough. We all live on the same planet. We all live in the same nation so how it is that some of our states or some of our countries citizens can’t side with the others. If you’re able to detect you have HIV or if you’re able to detect you have cancer at an early stage. Why seat back and let it consume you till you’re gone. Why not just get up and rid of it. Some might be thinking he says it like it’s easy. It really is! If you could detect you have a tumor, do you know how easy it is to take it out when it’s forming than when it is about to kill you? Very! So why not. Don’t think about what other people think of you. I believe, and I hope you do too, that all life is a gift. Don’t risk your life for what people might think of you.
Taijah Jones, Age 14
I think that the most pressing problem today is poverty. I think this because all around the world no matter where you go you will find somebody living in poverty. It will take not only one person but everybody to work together to stop poverty. It will not happen just tomorrow, but it will take some time maybe months, years, even decades but nobody not even you or I should have to suffer and watch everyone else enjoy their life. Everybody should have at least one dream that they want to come true, and mine is to STOP POVERTY!
Maria Nunez, Age 14
I think the most pressing problem facing our planet today is Global Warming. Global warming is gradual an increase in the earth’s surface temperature. I think people should start trying to help the planet in different ways by doing simple things like making sure your lights are off turned off when it isn’t needed. You can ride your bicycles to avoid driving your car all the time. You can even recycle and reuse certain things like a water bottle. Also for a fun activity with your friends and family you can even plant a tree to help to limit air pollution.
Dijore Harris, Age 12
I think the most pressing problem facing our planet today is pollution. People tend to pollute without thinking. They throw garbage on the floor. They do not recycle and it creates more and more landfill. Even factories and, cars cause pollutants in the air.
There are a few things that can be done to help with polluting our planet and that is people should drive less, and walk more often. Factory companies should build machines that produce less smoke, and fewer gases, people should recycle, keep the streets cleaner, and go green.
Going green would help decrease the amount of garbage and keep the planet much cleaner. We should also stop digging in our oceans polluting our water. The Gulf Spill was the worst. There are many different species that need our planet to be clean and healthy and it should start with us.
Kavon Williams, Age 12
The most pressing thing facing our planet today is pollution.
The oil spill polluted the Gulf, and the fish we eat. A lot of drugs and cosmetics products can lead to dangerous water, land and crop pollution.
According to EPA indoor air pollution is often two to five worst than outdoors, the reason is partly because of household products, sprays and perfumes. All this pollution will make people, animals and the plants very sick.
What I think needs to be done is to write the U.S Congress and other elected officials to educate people on how to save the environment. I believe that we can do it! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Devonte Wilson, Age 13
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem. Physical systems or living organisms. Pollution became a popular issue after World War II, due to radioactive fallout from atomic warfare and testing. Then a non-nuclear event, The Great Smog of 1952 in London, killed at least 4000 people. Pollution began to draw major public attention in the United States between the mid-1950s and early 1970s, when Congress passed the Noise Control Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Pollution has been found to be present widely in the environment. There are a number of effects of this. Pollution can also be the consequence of a natural disaster.
Human Health
Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans. Ozone pollution can cause disease, cardiovascular, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. Water pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries. An estimated 700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrhea sickness every day.
Pollution Control
Pollution control is a term used in environmental management. It means the control of emissions and effluents into air, water or soil. Without pollution control, the waste products from consumption, heating, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and other human activities, whether they accumulate or disperse, will degrade the environment. In the hierarchy of controls, pollution prevention and waste minimization are more desirable than pollution control.
Briana Kirven, Age 13
I think the most pressing problem facing our planet today is pollution. Pollution affects over a billion people around the world, with millions poisoned and killed each year. People affected by pollution problems are more sick then other diseases. I think that more than one person could change this big pollution problem.
One thing that still affects the world today is the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico 2010 because it is effecting water pollution, ocean pollution, and air pollution. The three main sources of pollution of the oil spill are water pollution, ocean pollution, and air pollution. Water pollution is not connected to a treatment plant and starts pollution.
Pollution causes a lot of plant and animal deaths in the ocean. Plants and animals are harmed by air pollution as well. Air pollution is a serious threat among rivers and lakes. Air pollution is known as a substance in the air that can cause harm to humans and the environment. Air pollution can damage a lot of the world such the ocean, lakes, rivers, and many more places that have water. Ocean pollution is directly harms people and the environment such as oil spills, toxic wastes, and dumping of other harmful materials are all major sources of pollution in the ocean.
I think that we should all take part in a program that makes this world green. I also think that we should keep out mind on pollution and also worry about the positive things in life. We need to stop the pollution and stick with changing the world.
Alysia Z. Roberts, Age 14
There are many problems facing our planet today, however, I think the most pressing problem is hunger, and the lack of clean drinking water in many areas of the world. I don’t think that our leading countries of the world have given priority to this problem. I also don’t believe that the US has given enough effort to help the world’s destitution even in our own country. Although there are many ways we do help I believe more should be done.
When I visited South Africa, it was very emotional for me to see the abhorrent conditions, but more
frustrating the lack of food and water. There are people living in shacks with no food and a single water pump miles away from their home. The strongest governments in the world need to come together and make this issue one of the top priorities and come up with a lifelong plan to help.
Everyone should have the basic needs of the world; first freedom, but without the basic needs of life
water and food, the people of the world still feel trapped. Although we do have our own problems to face, it’s nothing compared to places such as Africa have to face every day.
Dorian Anderson, Age 13
I think the most pressing problems that we are facing is the miss treatment of the earth. We are cutting down trees, wasting energy and food. People waste a lot of things and most of the world will be destroyed if we don’t change the way things are done..
I believe that the people around the world need to ride bikes, walk or buy hybrid cars for mobile efficiency. To help save energy, we should voluntarily cut off the lights, equipment and appliances when we are not using them.
For the greatest change, we need to do is take only the amount of food you’re going to eat. We need to do this because other people around the world don’t have enough food to eat nor feed their families. We also need to stop sending waste to landfills and the food because it could have been eaten or the item could have been recycled to help benefit us and other poor countries.
The world is in trouble because of our people not caring enough. I think we should stop wasting things and lower prices for things we could make in our own country and not spend money in other countries for things we can make in the United States. We also need to stop throwing away recyclable objects and other non-decomposing items because they fill our landfills and occupy precious space. That same space could be used for offices to employ people in need of jobs and services and not garbage.
Jordan Griffin, Age 12
The biggest problem we face today is getting married with someone of the same gender. The reason it’s the biggest problem is because you are doing something god does not want happening. You are sinning and you know you are but you still do it. So one it should be illegal. Two they should have groups to try to convince people to not do it.
Shari Clark, Age 13
I think that the most pressing problem facing our planet today is teenage pregnancy. There are young girls not protecting their selves getting caught with HIV\AIDS. When the baby is born some teenage girls have abortions. It all goes down to lack of education some of the times. Dropping out of school to watch their baby. Or go through depression. Pregnant girls losing their friends they hangout with at school or where they live at some of the times.
Keara Sheppard, 14
I think the world’s most pressing problem is pollution. I feel this way because this problem has a major affect on our planet. Many animals die every day from pollution in their environment. For example sea animals. most of them die from eating the bad things we throw in the water, which causes so many animals to become extinct. Also Polar bears, they are endangered because of our pollution which is known to cause climate change in the environment. We are causing the Earth to get warmer by not taking care of it and polluting. The earth getting warmer is bad for the Polar Bears because all the ice in the areas they live is starting to melt and break. There are many other animals being affected by our disturbances to the environment. Not only are these practices harming animals, but they are also harming us humans and the way we live. The thinning of the ozone layer , this may not affect us now but it will harm our planet in the future. It is a theory that when the ozone layer is completely gone there will not be anything to block us from the heat of the sun. I know that stopping the amount of pollution is not an easy task, but it’s something that needs to get done. One way to start is to have more garbage and recycle bins around. I think there should be at least two at every end of a block. Another thing that I think can be done is to inform everyone, everybody might not know about the outcomes of pollution. I feel that starting individually is a good way to help this world pressing problem.
Kristian Cpapers, Age 12
I think the most important thing facing our planet today is poverty. I say this because I’ve recently saw first-hand how bad that problem is. Also there is something making that problem worse each day. That something is that some people don’t seem to care enough to help. Even if a country knows that another needs help, they would sit by and watch one another suffer and struggle to survive. I can relate this to an everyday thing that I see. While walking in the street I noticed that a homeless person was asking for change sitting out in the peak of the winter cold. I could not believe I was the only human being to help the person out. I felt sorry for the guy who had to endure that intense cold. He could have easily died in that cold, but no one seemed to care.
Brenden Archer, Age 12
I think the most important problem facing the planet is global warming. I think it is because the more we litter and use gas it breaks down the ozone layer. I think we should stop littering and the government should make more cars that run on electricity.
Myah Lynch, Age 12
The most pressing problem on our planet right now is Global Warming. Global Warming will make a lot of animals go extinct. All the snow and ice in places like Antarctica and Iceland will melt. Global Warming is caused by pollution. We can stop smoking also we can stop things such as fossil fuel also carbon dioxide causes pollution which causes global warming. If we just do those thing it would do a lot for the planet.
Nia Bey, Age 13
Dear JFC Followers,
I think the most pressing thing that’s facing our planet today is pollution. I think that the most pressing thing because our planet is very fragile and we pollute a lot, so soon there would be no more Earth. I think a lot needs to be done about pollution. I think all the different governments should come together and figure out what’s the best thing to do. I also think the governments should figure out how they can prevent accidents like oil spills. The governments should also use their power for good things like making it mandatory for all of their citizens to recycle. I also think big companies within the countries should also set an example for their customers by also helping get the word. That’s a couple of things to help. But if we don’t do something about this problem sooner or later there would be no more Earth.
Marie Solivan, Age 14
The biggest problem facing the planet to me is HOMELESSNESS, as I said in the essay we had to write. Homelessness is urgent, it cannot just be fixed at all. Homelessness is bigger than anything. In Africa there where people in shacks and that is how they lived but, in New York there should be one to a hundred but there is thousands just in New York alone. So just imagine if you were to think about the entire planet, that’s about 30 million give or take a couple of million. So What I Think can be done with it is every now and then build more shelters, but shelters that do not need paper work. That is just because if there homeless what makes you think that they have their paper work.
Kaela Jones, Age 12
I think the most pressing problem facing our planet is pollution. I say pollution because the things we do today will affect our planet in the years to come. Gas and other fumes are polluting the air we breathe. Oil spills and trash are polluting the water we need to survive. Lots of people are getting asthma and other breathing problems because of the air. Fish and other animals are dying from eating stuff that has been thrown on the ground and ended in the sewer. I think this is happening because there are not stricter rules and consequences. If people knew that the police would arrest them and they would be forced to pay high fines they might change their mind about littering. But because those rules are not placed there should be more products that can be recycled. We should have biodegradable products that can be used to give back to the earth.
Aneudy Taveraz, Age 12
What I think is the most pressing problem in the world is people saying 2012 the world is going to end. Well I have news we don’t know if is true or not but that’s not for believing, because it may be a myth. But we don’t know if it going to happen actually, nobody doesn’t know when it’s going to happen but we all have to be prepare for it that, And what should we do about it I say don’t worry about much enjoy your life and when it comes just be prepared for it.
To view photos of the mission trip to South Africa, please go to: http://angelrockproject.com/arp/pr/angel_buzz_jfc2.asp
Journey for Change: Empowering Youth Through Global Service uplifts the lives of inner-city youth through global travel, volunteerism and advocacy work. More information on the program can be found at www.angelrockproject.com.
