There are many world-wide issues that can only be solved by total world-wide effort and action, but I fear that we may never see any of these tackled in unison and eradicated.
One, of course, is the eradication of the current deadly virus, or protection from it, and its ongoing mutations across all nations. Whilst country A may achieve this status, any country from B to Z failing to control the virus puts those from nation A hoping to travel abroad at personal risk as well as their home nation.
Another world-wide challenge is the need to eliminate roadside pollution from fossil fuels. As data has shown, there were one billion cars on the world’s roads in 2009 and this has risen to over 1.4 billion and rising. 98% of all cars on the roads are powered by petrol or diesel. Three cars are being build every second, one million built every year. Five million more cars are sold than destroyed.
As I have written before, how long will it take to gather all fossil fuel cars off the roads and scrap them. We are given a date of 2030 when sales of such vehicles will be banned. Conversion of existing vehicles to safe liquid/gaseous fuels may be a better solution and more cost effective.
Go electric and oil demand will drop; refineries will reduce in number and petrol stations will cease to exist. The end of coal mining saw thousands of men made redundant. As the scientific law advises “For every action there is a reaction”.
It seems a hopeless dream that world-wide action, in totality, to remove any adverse situation will be possible. I recall the statement that World War One was ‘the war to end all wars.’ It did not stop, and has not stopped countries from taking up arms, even against their own people.
Political ‘talking the talk’ from whatever quarter fools no-one. There have been many international conferences and G7 gatherings where delegates met, issued world targets, and then went home and ignored them.
The world is too complex now to unthread the interconnected strands of how we live, what we expect, what we demand. What we each cherish, what we each discard.
Perhaps nature itself will sort it all out.My book, Poems by an Old Codger, reflects on my past life over eighty years, offering an insight into the enormous changes in all aspects of life over that time, and the resulting consequential world health problems we are now facing.