Explain contemporary global challenges: environmental change and human impact, terrorism and conflict, population pressures and migration, and the role of international cooperation (Framework Key Idea 10.10).

What this topic is asking

Framework Key Idea 10.10 asks you to explain the major challenges facing the contemporary world: environmental change and human impact, terrorism and conflict, population pressures and migration, and the role of international cooperation. Because these problems cross borders in an interconnected world, they raise the enduring issues of the impact of humans on the environment, conflict, and interconnectedness.

Environmental change and human impact

Terrorism and conflict

The contemporary world faces continuing threats from terrorism (violence used by groups to spread fear and advance political or ideological aims) and from regional, ethnic, and religious conflicts. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 on the United States, and the conflicts that followed, are a major example. Such violence shows that, even after the Cold War, the enduring issue of conflict remains, and that security is a shared global concern.

Population and migration

The twentieth century saw a rapid growth in world population, driven by better food (the Green Revolution) and medicine, which strains resources such as food, water, and energy and pressures the environment. People also migrate in large numbers, sometimes as refugees fleeing war, persecution, or disaster, and sometimes seeking work and a better life. Migration reshapes societies, enriches cultures, and can also create tensions, making it a significant contemporary issue.

International cooperation

Because challenges such as climate change, terrorism, pandemics, and refugee crises cross borders, no single country can solve them alone. They require international cooperation: nations sharing information, setting common rules, and coordinating action, through the United Nations, international agreements (such as climate accords), and other bodies. The interconnected world that globalization created therefore depends on the world's ability to cooperate, an ability that is often tested.

Try this

Q1. Name one contemporary global challenge that crosses national borders. [Recall]

• Cue. Climate change (or terrorism, pandemics, or refugee crises).

Q2. Explain why climate change is an example of the enduring issue of human impact on the environment. [Short explanation]

• Cue. Human activity, burning fossil fuels and deforestation, releases greenhouse gases that warm the planet, showing how people have altered the environment, a recurring issue from the Industrial Revolution to today.