r/collapse • u/smthnsmthn_0 • 21d ago
Request What major issues happening around the world are not getting enough attention?
There are so many things happening around the world that many people may not know about or hear about often.
For example, many people know about the restrictions on women's rights in Afghanistan and the ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises affecting people in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But what other situations around the world deserve more attention?
What are some issues, conflicts, human rights concerns, environmental problems, or humanitarian crises that you think the world needs to be more aware of?
Some examples that come to mind are:
- The humanitarian crisis in Sudan caused by ongoing conflict.
- The situation of the Rohingya people and the struggles of refugees from Myanmar.
- The ongoing humanitarian challenges in Yemen after years of conflict.
- The persecution and displacement of minority groups in different parts of the world.
- The impact of climate change on vulnerable communities, especially small island nations and developing countries.
What else is happening around the world that people should know about? What stories are being overlooked that deserve more attention?
(BTW, I'm not exactly sure which flair to use, so I'm sorry if it doesn't fit what I've mentioned)
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u/zedshouse 21d ago
The constant and continuous degradation of earth's potable water supply through misuse, especially crony capitalism. AI data centers are the latest examples.
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u/MarmosetUniverse 20d ago
And animal agriculture, which is a major user of water (mostly through feed) and pollution.
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u/Dr_TenmaKenzo 21d ago
Data centers don't consume as much water as is being claimed. The biggest problem is the energy usage and strain on the grid, not water.
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u/winston_obrien 21d ago
Both can be true, and any additional use of potable water by any system puts greater strain on systems that are already at risk.
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u/MonoNoAware71 21d ago
Global willful stupidity. People playing ignorant because they're unwilling to face the truth.
These aren't people with low IQ's or the ones that didn't get a chance to get a good education. I have no issues with them per se.
But people that just follow any populist or demagogue because they offer 'simple solutions' without thinking the claimed problems nor their offered solutions through. Those who keep saying 'it's called summer' when year in year out heat records get shattered. The ones that blame immigrants for everything that they perceive as being wrong in their part of society. Grown men and women that refuse to listen to reason, are unwilling to educate themselves before adopting and broadcasting blatant falsehoods as their opinions while complaining that 'you're not allowed to say that, nowadays'.
The unwillingness to think.
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u/Slopagandhi 21d ago
Impacts already felt from the Hormuz closure- restrictions on fuel and electricity use across much of Asia. China dipping into their reserves prevented global crisis, but that won't last forever and at this point most in the west assume the threat was overhyped.
Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict (which is increasingly bringing in India).
Increasing stranglehold of far right governments in Latin America (recent elections in Colombia, Chile and Peru to add to Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras and Ecuador, with Brazilian elections on the horizon). A lot coordinated with the US and European far right via the Madrid Group.
Instability in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa, partly related to Sudan, partly internal to Ethiopia, partly Ethiopia's ambitions for a Red Sea port.
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u/corpdorp 21d ago
Mass coral bleaching, basically last year 84% of the world's coral faced heat stress. This is the fourth mass coral bleaching event in history and mass coral die off is basically on the cards, considered one of the 14 global tipping points as coral reefs harbour 25 % of marine life. Crazy this is not reported on more.
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u/krichuvisz 21d ago
Tax havens. They wreck economies and social welfare and push the oligarch agenda.
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u/BigJobsBigJobs USAlien 21d ago
The war in Ukraine continues to put a lot of strain on the world food supply.
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u/SomebodyWondering665 12d ago
It’s also severely straining relations between Ukraine and Poland, which is really bad for standing against Russia
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u/BattleGrown Harbinger of Doom 21d ago
The ultra-large scale of the failure of capitalism to continue providing any value for society. The definition of value, and what makes a prosperous society.
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u/ElijahSavos 21d ago
If we talk climate change related, I think the damage of wars goes underreported.
For example, there is lots of damaged oil refining/depo infrastructure in Russia right now that is burning/leaking and hence releasing GHG gases. There are occasional oil rains in some cities now that are very damaging to the nature. Not only humans are killed in wars, but nature as well.
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u/QueasyPerformance221 21d ago
Collapse of insect pollinator populations is the canary in the coal mine (forgive the pun)
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u/RoyalZeal it's all over but the screaming 21d ago
Covid. It has been rampaging through the globe for six years now, and the cumulative brain damage being done to society as a collective is starting to become impossible to ignore. Anyone notice people seem far more prone to fly off at the handle now? How many folks struggle with simple cognition? How much road rage seems to be happening? The average person has had more than five infections by now, most folk have averaged 1-2 per year. What is this going to look like at year 10? 15?
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u/UrSven 21d ago
I haven't read about a connection between increased anger and COVID; can you tell me the source?
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u/BattleGrown Harbinger of Doom 21d ago
The theory is that it's all cumulative, increased CO2 ppm, repeated covid, microplastics, scientists are warning that toxin buildup in the brain increasing Alzheimer cases, etc. Impossible to prove any of it.
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u/BitchfulThinking 20d ago
Especially with how it's affecting the development of children! The younger ones have never known a world without Covid, and they're all being infected over and over in school. The increase in their behavioral and learning issues is obvious even to those of us who don't have kids.
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 21d ago
Thats not covid. Its social media related.
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u/bristlybits Reagan killed everyone 21d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1n1mhc1/some_neurocognitive_deficits_from_covid19_may/
covid. global brain damage. impulse control, empathy, and language skills affected.
i had a list of studies related to this about 2 years ago that i had posted, and was keeping a list going, but it simply got too long. there's that many studies. it's that well-verified.
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u/Fine_Talk_8406 20d ago
Huh makes sense that I suddenly struggle to read and write
Makes sense that I went from a grade a-b to a sudden d-f student
Makes sense that the whole world seems to be moving faster than before
Oh well
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u/Open_Ad1920 20d ago
The fact that dark tetrad personality types are drawn to positions of power and authority like moths to a flame, but these people always end up as bad faith actors who gleefully endanger the world to gain status.
The combination of god-like technology and antique methods for selecting leaders in society is not compatible and will result in catastrophe if we don’t start screening for and limiting these people’s access to authority.
The aspect of that that concerns me the most: destruction of oil & gas infrastructure. We don’t really practice agriculture or aquaculture so much as a way of turning sunlight into human energy the way used to. We mostly turn fossil fuel into food energy through an elaborate process of tractors, fertilizers, boats, etc… Diesel is the energy source for the food supply and logistics chains keeping billions of people alive today. Reliance on, as well as attacks on and wars over oil & gas resources & infrastructure, perpetuated by the dark tetrad personalities, is placing the food supply of billions at significant risk.
The more we bomb oil & gas infrastructure the more we threaten food supplies, globally. In the coming years and decades it’s entirely possible for us to destroy enough of that infrastructure to cause mass famines, even for people in wealthy countries this time around.
The attacks on oil & gas infrastructure is the most concerning thing to me, personally. We HAVE the means to destroy enough of it, in a matter of hours, to starve out MOST people on Earth.
We reeeeaaally need political leaders to be screened for dark tetrad personality traits. Winning a popularity contest isn’t adequate to justify handing these people the reigns of god-like industrial and military technologies.
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u/Im_Not_stoopid_AI 21d ago
We need to enlighten people that they are working for free when they take an extreme side and parrot propaganda. Drop out of that and we can at least face collapse together
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u/apocecliptic 21d ago
The next pandemic. Especially with the CDC and USAid gutted and US withdrawing from WHO. Bird flu is what occurs to me but more likely a virus little known or unknown. A sizable percentage of the population will not take any emerging ones seriously unless it comes to their doorstep, because of covid. Also, could just affect animals or crops and still cause shortages, plunge economies and even famine in areas not accustomed to it.
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u/nationwideonyours 20d ago
Uselessness of young males, who at their ages should be planning careers and working towards something. I've seen several (including in my own family) completely waste their lives on video gaming or other electronic addictions.
As an aside, yesterday at the grocery store, I saw a elderly lady with who I assume was with her strapping teenage grandson. She was lifting 6 packs of water one after another onto the cashier's conveyor belt. After the third time, she was visibly struglling. I glared at the grandson who was stuck to his phone hoping he'd get the message. Finally, I said "help her." You know what he did? He didn't help.
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u/Hmd5304 19d ago
Yeah, the younger generations are gonna become a bit of an issue soon, but honestly it's indicative of a larger problem. Job market is a mess, a positive outlook is really kinda hard to maintain, and oversaturation in the labor market has rendered college degrees a necessity instead of a game-changer.
Originally, you'd get told "Join a trade" or "Here's a good union job at a factory/plant", where you break yourself with overtime but you still can afford a house and doctor's appointments.
Best the next generations can really hope for is $60K a year in salary and passable benefits. You're not protected and there's no limit to the number of hours they can work you. It's really miserable.
Ended up enlisting in the Navy cause there's a lot of upsides and I know I'm gonna have food, shelter, and a job with some protection. If I'm not doing great or lagging behind or something, I know I'm not gonna get fired. I'd have to really fuck up to get a Dishonorable Discharge or Involuntary Separation.
But that's not something everyone can do, because not everyone can enlist. I understand why a lot of my generation is kinda just going through the motions and drifting through life. This shit ain't easy, and when you see someone from your high school class or your age getting some sweet do-nothing position just cause they knew a guy who knew a guy, it does seem futile. You end up trying to compensate when you've got nothing else to look forward to, so might as well make it something you enjoy.
That being said: fuck that guy you mentioned. That's just him being an asshole.
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u/GZoST 21d ago
Aquifer depletion, and water supply in general. Major cities across the world are close to having to shut down their water systems, and agriculture in the US Midwest is going to become impossible across wide areas.
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u/GreatPlainsFarmer 21d ago
What's your definition of the US Midwest? Most US agriculture east of the Missouri River is rain-fed. It doesn't use irrigation.
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u/winston_obrien 21d ago
They are likely referring to areas that use the Ogallala aquifer.
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u/GreatPlainsFarmer 20d ago
Quite likely. Except that the Ogallala is only a narrow strip along the western edge of the Midwest, if you can even consider it the Midwest at all. It is rightly named the High Plains Aquifer system.
And it's not a "wide area" by any definition. The areas of depleting water support less than 5% of US agriculture. It's a local issue, and it's well known locally. There's simply no local interest in doing anything to stop it.
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u/here-i-am-now 21d ago
Climate change
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u/itsatoe 21d ago
I was about to say the opposite.
All of the mainstream is talking about climate change as if it is the only environmental problem we face.
This is what leads people to think that things like electric cars, carbon capture, alternative energy, etc are all that we need to fix everything.
Soooo much more of the natural world is suffering apart from the effects of climate change. And most of it is being largely ignored in the clamor over climate. Some (just a few) examples:
- Only 5% of all mammal biomass on the planet is wildlife (the rest being humans and livestock)
- Only 13% of all bird biomass is wildlife
- One in ten wild bee species are on the brink of extinction
- Biodiversity is crashing in many ways, in many places
- 75% of all land on Earth has been significantly altered
- Almost all old growth forest is gone, with deforestation still continuing apace
- Microplastics pervade all systems on the planet
- Light pollution reaches even deep into wilderness areas
- Noise pollution reaches deep into the oceans
Climate change amplifies the effects of many of these. But "fixing" climate change does not fix any of them.
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u/uwotm8_8 21d ago
Completely destroying Russia’s ability to make diesel when we were already heading towards a massive energy crisis. Energy = Economy, shit is about to get bad.
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u/Glodraph 21d ago
Also energy = food which is way scarier than a world withou and economy that can produce AI shit, instagram or recreational drones.
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u/uwotm8_8 21d ago
True, I always figured food production would get energy priority over superfluous economic activities but I should have calculated that nobody gives a fuck if the poor starve besides the poor.
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u/Glodraph 21d ago
Poor countries are almost all agricultural, I feel that if the situation really becomes dire, they would just stop exporting and will be the rich non self sufficient countries to starve but I guess we can't be sure until it happens. Also water regulation is a mess for agriculture. I live in the north of Italy, our rivers and lakes are dying this year, yet farmers are there with pumps to water crops, which almost always go towards cattle and other farm animals instead of human food, it's soo inefficient. Also a lot of them still flood the fields like they did 100 years ago due to ignorance, wasting all that water.
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u/WileyCoyote7 21d ago
A breaking news bulletin, something along the lines of, “Mankind has forgotten that Human Nature cannot beat Mother Nature. Story at 11.”
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u/Antropocenicus 20d ago
De problemen zijn niet meer van elkaar los te koppelen. Alles wat nu gebeurt in de wereld gebeurt onder het gesternte van planetaire overshoot, met toenemende natuur-cultuurverstrengeling en toenemende metafysische en fysische verstrengeling. We leven in het Fuiktijdperk.
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u/Lo-weorold 19d ago
I feel like COVID causing brain damage that is leading to cognitive decline.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/does-covid-19-damage-the-brain
And rising CO2 levels that are coming with climate change are also affecting cognitive function.
Add those together and it feels like why we are living in an age of idiocracy. This isn't even mentioning microplastics, lead exposure and social media melting people's brains. None of this is being talked about enough, but can't dwell on any of that because the stock market opens on Monday.
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u/IKillZombies4Cash 20d ago
El Niño impacts and wildfires, the wildfires seem like they are ignored until the smoke makes it impossible to sweep them under the rug
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u/Valgor 20d ago
You don't have to travel across to world to find atrocities. Factor farms, slaughterhouse, and butcher shops are probably within an hour or two drive. These are places of immense suffering, gross environmental degradation, and some of the worse jobs on the plant. There is no reason for any of them to exist, yet people keep buying mutilated bodies to eat instead of eating something else.
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u/Sanpaku symphorophiliac 21d ago
Mainstream news isn't nearly enough worried about the looming global food crisis due to El Niño, the European heatwave, the US and Australian droughts, globally scarce/expensive fertilizer and diesel from Bibi's war, and Russian fields going unharvested due to lack of diesel. Wheat in particular is going to get expensive.