SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL CENTER science idea

< Back

In 2021, the world produces enough food to feed all the people living on our planet. But at the same time, more than 5 million young children die every year from hunger-related diseases. At least, such data is shared by representatives of the UN World Food Program, who are engaged in the fight against mass hunger. Residents of some regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America suffer especially badly from lack of food, and the situation may soon become even worse. Researchers have noticed an increase in the number of hungry people for a long time, but with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and the emergence of other global problems, an increasing number of people are suffering from food shortages. The pandemic is not the only culprit of mass famine — it all started much earlier and for very different reasons.

 

The United Nations publishes data on the level of hunger in the world every year. The most recent report was published in May 2021 and there is nothing good in it. The document says that 155 million people suffered from hunger in the world in 2020, which is 20 million more than a year earlier. And this indicator is growing every year — about five years ago, the figures were also frightening, but not so much. And in the future, the situation will get worse, because today researchers have counted as many as 23 points on our planet where there is not enough food. Another 41 million people are at risk of joining the number of people already suffering from hunger. Moreover, Ethiopia and Madagascar can already be attributed to the number of countries in distress.

 

For reference, it is worth noting that the number of countries with a large number of hungry people has long included Afghanistan, Angola, Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, and so on. This group already includes Ethiopia — an African state with a population of more than 116 million people. The main cause of famine there is the armed conflict in the Tigray Autonomous Region, which began in November 2020. Madagascar, whose tens of thousands of inhabitants are suffering from hunger due to the worst drought in the last 40 years, can also be added to this group. But what is the cause of mass starvation? The situation is different in each country, but UN researchers identify three of the most common problems:

 

first, these are economic problems, which were also caused by the coronavirus pandemic;
secondly, it is an increase in the number of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and so on;
thirdly, there are constantly emerging armed conflicts.

 

In January 2021, UN representatives noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the economic situation in the world has become worse than during the global financial crisis in 2009. This is due to a large number of deaths, restrictions on stopping the spread of the disease and many other factors. The reason for people's hunger is also a large number of natural disasters — they really began to occur with frightening frequency and we have detailed material about this. And armed conflicts provoke famine by preventing countries with better conditions from sending humanitarian aid to their distressed neighbors.

 

Families who depend on humanitarian aid are in a very bad situation — " said David Beasley, head of the World Food Program.

 

It is worth noting that scientists have been trying to prevent mass starvation for several years. In 2019, American researchers proposed using data from satellites and social networks to learn about impending natural disasters and armed conflicts in time. The only problem was that the rescue services could not always respond quickly to emerging factors. And hardly anyone could have predicted such a sudden problem as the coronavirus pandemic. Anyway, you can read about the technology of preventing hunger with the help of satellites and social networks at this link.

 

Ramis Ganiev

hi-news.ru