What terrifying event is happening in the world right now that most people are ignoring? According to a popular online forum, there are plenty. Here are a handful of their biggest concerns. What do you think?
1. Disappearing Insect Population
Insect numbers are absolutely plummeting around the world. One notes, “There is about a 2.5% loss in terms of mass per year.” Without insects, the food chain will collapse – this effect is already starting to be seen.
2. U.K. Sewage
Another forum member explains, “Here in the U.K., water companies have been dumping tonnes and tonnes of sewage into our river systems and the sea, making some beaches close. It is truly disgusting, and the whole water industry is in about £60bn ($2.5 million) of debt and could collapse.”
3. Vanishing Birds
The birds are disappearing, most likely because the bugs are, too. Someone shares, “I’m from Latin America. This is something we can see for a long time! When I was a kid, during the parrot’s migration time, the birds’ noise was amazing.
You could hear them everywhere in our country for days! When I was a teen, it became rare to hear them, and when I was a young adult, we heard them even less.”
4. Avian Flu Outbreaks
Have you heard anything about the 9,000+ sea lions, otters, penguins, and small cetaceans that have died from the H5N1 bird flu? Numerous people in the thread confess to not knowing anything about it before one adds that cats are coming down with and dying from it in Poland, too.
5. Ocean Currents Are Slowing
Did you know that ocean currents regulate global climate? So, the slowing of the currents is nothing to ignore. Someone explains, “If the overturning ocean currents continue to change at this rate, the current pattern will probably collapse soon, and global weather patterns will be messed up.
For example, the U.K. and other parts of Europe warmed by warm ocean currents will become super cold if those currents shift. It won’t just mean people have to wear thicker jackets. Many areas we depend on for farming won’t be suitable anymore.”
6. Extreme Heatwaves
“Heatwaves in India are killing possibly thousands of people. It’s not in the media anywhere,” notes one. Heatwaves have also killed hundreds in Mexico and claimed many lives in the Southern U.S.
7. Sudan
Another forum member states, “A civil war and possible genocide are occurring in Sudan right now. No one cares, not even with the potentially thousands or maybe even millions of refugees this creates.”
8. Depression Has Become an Epidemic
Several thousand people acknowledge that depression has become an epidemic disease worldwide. One person suggests, “The WHO (World Health Organization) declared depression as a global health emergency.” Another adds, “Higher costs of living create depression. Our greatest depression on record was because of higher costs of living and poor employment standards.”
9. Privacy
“The rise of surveillance capitalism and AI,” says one. “Privacy is essentially nonexistent anymore, and it feels like absolutely no one cares.” A second person replies, “The golden age of privacy is dead, and we’re entering a far scarier era without it.”
10. Insider Trading
Numerous people are concerned about insider trading in Congress from both sides in this thread. A user admits, “It is wild to me how blatant the insider trading is from prominent congresspeople on both sides.
The right likes to dig on Pelosi for it, and she’s definitely suspicious. Still, she might not even be top five in suspicious earnings. It is a complete and obvious wrong that congresspeople can make trades while in office.”
11. Human Trafficking
Someone shares, “Sex trafficking is at an all-time high in the U.S.” According to the U.S. Department of State, “There are an estimated 27.6 million victims worldwide at any given time, human traffickers prey on people of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities, exploiting them for their own profit.”
12. Bacterial Resistance
“Bacterial resistance,” says one. “Due to the overuse of antibiotics and bacterial evolution, bacteria can develop themselves and change their DNA and cellular structure to become immune to antibiotics.”
Certain infections can’t be treated with the same antibiotics that were effective 10-20 years ago. The user continues, “In the near future, we may return to the pre-antibiotic age in which simple lung or urinary infections can kill us simply because we don’t have effective antibiotics.”
13. Genocide in China
“The fact that China is still actively committing genocide, and nobody is talking about it,” admits one. A second person adds, “Chamath Palihapitiya discussed this on the All In podcast. He said people don’t care about the Uyghurs in China.
The cohosts were aghast at the statement, but then he explained our collective consumer behaviors, and everyone on the show basically acknowledged, “Yeah, he’s right.'”
14. Missing 85,000 Migrant Children
The New York Times reported that while the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) checks on all minors by calling them a month after being released to sponsors, data showed that over the last two years, the agency could not reach more than 85,000 of them and lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children.
The Times continues, “Some of those children had been trafficked and forced into dangerous jobs. A whistleblower further told Congress this week that the government is delivering migrant children to a ‘sophisticated network’ of human traffickers.”
15. Global Warming
“As a geographer, I feel global warming isn’t stressed enough,” one confesses. “What I feel people don’t understand is that the world as we know it will literally change in ways we can’t imagine: whole countries will cease to exist as they are covered entirely in water. Where do the hundreds of millions of people who are affected by this move to?
We are on the verge of the largest loss of land ever known by humanity, and global warming is seen as this thing that we have to worry about, but it isn’t the be all, end all. It is absolutely the be all, end all.”
Another adds, “Land getting covered by the ocean isn’t even close to the biggest problem with global warming. Ecosystems collapsing is the greatest danger as it will result in food shortages. History has shown time and time again that when people don’t have vital resources, they will go to war to retrieve said resources.”
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Elizabeth Ervin is the owner of Sober Healing. She is a freelance writer passionate about opioid recovery and has celebrated breaking free since 09-27-2013. She advocates for mental health awareness and encourages others to embrace healing, recovery, and spirituality.