World Issues / Problems

Poverty Poverty is the lack (not having) of simple human needs because you can’t afford (pay for) them.

This includes: Clean water Healthy food Clothing Shelter (houses or a place to live) Education Medicine

The feeling of wanting to eat Hunger The feeling of wanting to eat When we use it to talk about a world problem, it means people who feel that a lot because they don’t have enough food.

This can happen for a couple reasons: Poverty – People don’t have enough money to buy food Famine – There isn’t enough rain or good weather to let food grow, so people go hungry War – There isn’t enough food to go around during times of fighting

Pollution Is something that causes some kind of problem or damage to the environment or atmosphere

There are several types of pollution: Air pollution – dangerous gases or dust go into the air, making the breathing air more dangerous and unhealthy Water pollution – dangerous things in the water that make it unhealthy to drink or unsafe for the animals to live in Land pollution – things put in or on the land to make it not safe or not wanted

Pollution comes from many different things: Factories Using things we don’t need and throwing things away Chemicals Gases (air we can’t see) Smoke Cars Using gas, oil, coal

War Any fighting that is organized and uses weapons (guns, swords, bombs…) between two or more countries or groups of people

War happens for many reasons: People want each other’s land People are treating other people badly Religious reasons (how people believe in God) Want to have more power Money Race

Some famous wars in history The Revolutionary War between England and the USA World War I and World War II Different Civil Wars French Revolution

Disease A specific illness, or illness in general

Disease is such a problem because it often is easily fixed with medicine, but isn’t because of poverty and hunger. When people are hungry and live in poverty, they often have bad food and unclean living conditions. This makes their bodies unhealthy, and easier for them to catch diseases. There are also many diseases that aren’t fixable yet. There is no medicine to cure (治疗) them.

Some big diseases in the world: HIV (艾滋病) Polio (脊髓灰质炎) Cancer (癌症) Diabetes (糖尿病) Tuberculosis (肺结核) Malaria (疟疾)