World Problems – Better or Worse?

We’ve always had problems to solve everywhere in the world at any time. 
Here are some facts and opinions about world problems.

Poverty
Brian: ‘About 1 billion people worldwide live in absolute poverty. They don’t have basic things like food and water.’

Ann: ‘It’s terrible. I think the rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer. This has to stop.
I think the rich should give a share of their money to the poor.’

Greg: ‘That’s not true, though. 200 years ago, 95% of the people in the world lived in extreme poverty.
Now that number is about 10%. This shows that a lot of the poor have got out of poverty.’

Water pollution
Shirley: ‘Water pollution is a serious problem everywhere in the world.
I think the United States has the worst water-pollution problem.’

Tina: ‘I don’t think so. We live in the countryside, and none of the rivers or lakes in our area are polluted.’

Linda: ‘Shirley may be right. About 40% of lakes and rivers in the US are polluted.
But the biggest problem is in China. About 70% of their rivers, lakes and waterways are seriously polluted.’