AIDS or Climate Change: The Bigger Threat?

Both AIDS and Climate Change are tremendous threats to the
world.

Climate change will effect every single person on earth.  With the
melting of the polar ice caps, sea levels will rise causing
catastrophic flooding in lowland areas like Manhattan, New
Orleans, and coastal regions throughout the world.  Over two
billion people around the world live within 70 km of the sea.

The melting of the polar ice caps is caused by Global Warming,
which is a build up of atmospheric gases that prevent sunlight
from reflecting away from earth, causing the temperature to rise.

This rise in temperature, though a benefit for those in cold regions, would cause certain crops to not grow.  Without these crops, the world could see widespread famine.

While climate change will effect every single person on earth, AIDS has been a constant issue that the governments of the world have been fighting for a really long time.

In recent years, the spread of HIV/AIDS has dropped in many countries because of a change in behaviour towards sex.  This change includes the use of condoms, the delay of the first sexual experience, and having fewer sexual partners.

Despite the new attitude towards sex, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS continues to climb.  In 2005, numbers showed that 40.3 million people live with the illness, up from 37.5 million in 2003.

It is hard to say which threat is greater to the world.  Where climate change effects everyone, HIV and AIDS has been a long running issue that will continue to effect the world.

Is the UN still relevant?

The United Nations is an organization that stems from the Atlantic Charter, which is a product of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The charter was created to guarantee people certain rights following WWII.

These rights were:

Freedom from Want

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Religious Belief

Freedom from Fear 

Following in the Charters footsteps, 50 nations met in San Francisco and signed the Charter of the United Nations on June 26th, 1945. Later in October, the UN became an official organization.

In October 1945, the UN’s aims were:

“…to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untoldsuffering to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…”

 

To answer the question of whether the UN is still relevent in modern society, one must look at the conflicts in which the UN has helped to resolve and judge whether the aims of the UN are applicable in today’s diverse society.

One conflict that stands out as a failure of the United Nations is the Rwandan Genocide of the early 1990’s.  In this conflict, the Hutu tribe killed millions of Tutsi tribe members. The UN Security Council showed great opposition in aiding the dying nation.

One UN Peacekeeper with UNAMIR, Canadian Romeo Dallaire, was told to evacuate only foreign nationals, however he did not follow orders.  He continued to help prevent Tutsi slaughter. Dallaire is credited for saving the lives of over 20,000 Tutsis. 

In this conflict, the UN failed in their aims of creating and protecting the equality of the Tutsi people.

The failure of the UN in Rwanda is just one of many failures. Others include:

Second Congo War

Srebrencia massacre

And the existing conflict in Darfur and Chad. 

Along with the failures, the UN has had some success.  There has been an 80% drop in genocide and politicide, and a 40% drop in overall violent conflict.

With the failures of the UN outweighing the successes, it is hard to argue that the UN is living up to the expectations it has set for itself in its charters and articles of resolution.

The relevancy of the UN depends greatly on the willingness of the member states to participate in the resolution of conflicts in any region of the world.

In our modern world, there are issues that arise everyday and demand attention, regardless of their location and our agendas.

If UN is remain a relevant organization within the world and live up to the expectations it has created for itself, then the member states must be willing to put aside personal agendas and aid in resolving the issues that create turmoil and strife for citizens all over.