[Back to Challenges]

The Issues

The Physical Challenges we are considering here are, roughly, the subject matter of the 'hard sciences', which address questions about energy and atoms, particles and forces, and also living organisms; we are asking questions like, "What is happening?" and "Do we have the physical resources?"  In other words, everything other than the social or spiritual challenges.

Let's identify the main areas of the physical challenges we face.

• The Earth:
• Global Climate Change
• Pollution - both chemicals and plastics
• Fresh water - increasing demand and decreasing supply
• The Biosphere:
• Loss of biodiversity
• Mass extinction - both species and genera
• Ocean warming and acidification, leading (amongst other things) to the death of vital coral reefs.
• Species migration - including human migration
• Antibiotic resistance
• Loss of topsoil
• The Human Race
• Overpopulation - and the consequences of ageing populations
• Unrestricted economic growth
• Pandemics, currently the Covid-19 Pandemic 

There is a short (under 20 minutes) video by Economics Explained which summarizes many of these issues: MIT Has Predicted that Society Will Collapse in 2040.

The Solutions

These proposals to address the physical world problems are (to a first approximation anyway) all necessary. We can't just pick one and think we have 'done our bit' - we have to do all of them, or the world as we know it does not survive.

• Energy
• Farming (and growing things, generally)
• Water
• Finance
• Construction - there are recent reports that China is replacing wood with bamboo - a crop that can be used after 3 years, not 30, and doesn't need to be replanted.
• Manufacturing
• What is manufactured
• Where it is manufactured
• Plastics
• Poisonous chemicals
• Transport

 About antibiotic resistance: Study shows small animals use 'stolen' genes from bacteria to protect against infection.