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Have you heard of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals? In the year 2000, at the Millennium Summit, leaders from around the world identified 8 of the world's biggest problems. They set a goal of fixing these problems in 15 years.

On MyEC, we come from many different nations and have many different concerns just like the UN members. This month, let's form our own mini UN and write about some of the world's biggest problems. 

Your Task

1. Brainstorm a list of the world's biggest problems. Choose the one that is most important to you personally.

2. Start a new blog post. Use the title "Writing Challenge: The World's Biggest Problem". You can also add the topic that you chose to your title. For example: "Writing Challenge: The World's Biggest Problem (Clean Water).

3. Introduce the problem you chose and explain why it is one of the world's biggest problems in your opinion. Give a personal example of why this is a major concern for you. 

4. Offer possible solutions to the problem. (Demonstrate your understanding of how to use conditionals: "If we don't stop polluting the air, we won't have sunshine.")

5. End your post with a comment or two about the future. Will we be able to overcome this problem in the future? If yes, when and how? If no, what will become of the earth and its people?

6. Proofread and publish your post. Leave a link to your post in the comments below.

English Tip: Follow "one of my" or "one of the" with a plural noun. 

One of my friends is rich. 

One of my teachers is going to Mexico. 

One of my sisters is a marine biologist. 

My Example

The World's Biggest Problem: Waste

Did you eat all of your dinner last night? Did you throw out a coffee cup today? How many pairs of jeans are hanging in your closet? 

In my opinion, waste is one of the biggest problems in the world. Food waste leads to obesity and world hunger. Recreational shopping contributes to child labor and modern slavery. Plastic beverage bottles (a complete waste) pollute our oceans and contribute to global warming. The need for bigger houses and businesses leads to clear cutting and animal extinction. Waste is at the root of all of these major problems.

I recently did a food waste experiment in my own home. I tracked how many servings of food we wasted in a month. If my son wasted his dinner, I tracked it. If we threw out rotting vegetables, I tracked it. If we went out for a meal and didn't finish what we ordered, I tracked it. At the end of the month, we were all astonished to see how much food we had wasted. We learned that most of our food waste comes from fresh produce and leftovers that go bad in our fridge. We made a few changes to our daily routines. For example, we don't buy extra berries just because they are on sale anymore. They spoil quickly. We also freeze leftovers instead of placing them in the fridge. 

Some countries have a food waste tax. I think this is a good idea. If we were all responsible for paying for garbage, we might become less wasteful. Maybe there should also be a tax for owning more than three pairs of jeans! After all, the more clothes we have the more laundry we do. Laundering wastes a lot of water. 

The old proverb "waste not, want not" makes a lot of sense to me. If we don't waste the earth's resources, we should always have enough. Is it too late? I don't think so. I believe that humans are intelligent beings who will eventually realize that the earth can't sustain life at the rate we're going. If we want our grandkids to have clean oceans to swim in and clean air to breathe, we'll have to stop keeping up with the Joneses and start finding ways to reduce our consumption.