Dire warning

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that millions of people around the world are now at risk from hunger and famine, in a world where hunger is no longer the consequence of a lack of food, but is due to the actions of humans everywhere on the planet. The UN secretary-general has said that at the end of 2020 as many as 88 million people around the world were on the brink of acute hunger, with factors such as Covid-19 and climate change having worsened the crisis, but not necessarily created it. He has also pointed out that some 30 million people in three dozen countries face acute hunger. The situation has worsened sharply over the past few years.

We need to take immediate action to ensure that people at risk do not suffer death or acute disease as a result of this situation in which they live. The World Food Programme and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation have already sought an increased amount of $5.5 billion in order to try and combat hunger and all that it brings. We need governments and world leaders to be more aware of the problem. There is plenty of food in the world. There is also plenty of wealth. The problem is that it is concentrated in only a limited number of places and not spread out equally between people and between countries.

The only way to change the world is to work against the spread of disease, including battling the Covid crisis, but also for longer-term change, such as ensuring healthcare for every citizen on the planet and immunization for all children. In addition, the dangers caused by climate change have to be combated by the richest countries in the world by bringing about policy changes, which can make the globe a safer place for everyone who lives on it. Leading industrialized leaders who are the biggest creators of pollution, and the global warming that is initiated by this, need to take the first steps. If they fail to do so, the results could be catastrophic – with more and more people pushed to the brink of famine. This is not a world any one of us should be willing to live in. The only answer is for every citizen on the face of the earth, to fight against disaster and urge governments to work for change so that lives can be saved and misery brought to a halt without yet more deaths and more hunger.