Billions of people around the world live on only a few dollars a day, but many people believe that science can provide solutions for this unfortunate situation.
How do you think science could help fight poverty?
Posting on this Question of the Week is now disabled.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Question of the Week: March 7
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
91 comments:
I think the solution will be based on the most simple of biological principles, WATER. Clean water, less poverty--less flying toilets.
Indeed, clean water would be an inexpensive and indispensable solution to poverty. Sources say that worldwide, one child dies every eight seconds due to a water-related disease. The digging of wells would make those diseases less prevalent, thus saving the citizens' much needed money from going towards scant medical attention. The same applies for aid organizations; instead of spending money for cures to water-borne illnesses, they could use it to provide other essentials.
While water is a good solution, it isn't the only one. I would say to aid to getting rid of poverty we need to make advances for science in schools. We need more people to be scientists... so to get clean water we need to have investors realize they need to aid science related activities in schools.
Science has a lot to do with poverty like advances in medicine, cleaner water,mostly cleaner water though because everybody needs water and if your water is poisoned or something then you will not do so well.
josh foster
I think that scientist should create a drug to stimulate the human brain and make celebrities not so important. Then we wouldn't be wasting 1 Million dollars on a photo of Angelina Jolee's babies photo. We could use money for much more needed help.
Well I think that we should use the money that people use to make stupid movies and t.v. shows, to help the homless and people living in poverty. Also I think that we should start growing our own food and stuff like that instead of importing it.
Josh Davila
Fighting poverty is something we can only help. I think it would be nearly impossible to end poverty. If we advanced in science and technology, so we would have clean water on a global scale, that would decrease poverty. But I think making medical and education cheaper for other countries is something that would definitely help fight poverty. Just a thought
Kory Hendershot
Water is always an issue for those in poverty. There is so much money being put toward disease cures, and I am glad for that. However, once those cures are found, they expect half the time for everyone to pay for it. How are those in poverty going to pay for a cure to their problems? The air can also be a problem, depending on how we all treat to it. People spend a lot of money to smoke, but they are hurting themselves as well as those around them. Air pollution is also a part that could contribute to health problems to many.
Davis Thorne
well like josh said people spend money on the stupidest stuff
i mean dr phil gets like two thousand dollars for saying like three sentences when there are children dying everyday because of starvation! its a freaking outrage!
I agree with Luke and Josh. The world doesnt (quite frankly) need television for any purpose other than to relay important information. Other than that. Poverty is only based on the definition of others. How can we say that a person is in poverty when they can get a good paying job any time they want to. The only reason people are in poverty is because they choose to be. If people in this world werent so lazy and prideful, there wouldnt be any poverty. All we have to do is train those around us to learn to do the jobs nessicary to get basic needs
I think that water bike is a perfect example of how science can help poverty. A simple thing like that could supply a whole family with clean water. If we put a few of these water bikes in areas where clean water is an issue then we could save thousand of lives. Jake Weber
Well I agree with all of these, they all make good points. One thing that we do pay a lot to the government is for welfare. And I do support the people that actually need it. But some of the people are on it because they do drugs, they loose their money, they can't take care of their kids etc.-just because of drugs and other situations. Things they should take responsibility for and not others to take care of. And we have to pay for that. Also with people who have AIDS. It's just hard to say and think if there's a way to help proverty. I really don't think that it will ever get fixed. There's way too much going on in the world and new things happen everyday -new expenses that we have to deal with. Just like the gas prices and stock markets.
A.W.
I think that would should create a new sturdy building material that could be become readily available to everyone, making housing available for everyone. A good percentage of our nation is homeless, so providing homes seems like an obvious answer. We could also help convert wasted areas of land into land with fertile soil, so we can make food even more widely available and create jobs with the farming as well.
- Miss Hannah W.
i agree with kokko
if we do something about the water,
we could seriously help out a lot of people going through poverty.
well, i believe that each person in our world should take at least 5 minutes a day to recycle their plastics and other recyclables. If we did this it might help with how much poverty is in our world.
-Maddie Smith
but remember that poverty is only defined by the people that are in it. IF they were to beleive that they could do the things in which they say they lack, the world wouldnt be full of people that sit on their rears all day and hold a sign. How is that going to solve your problems?
remember the mind set is what causes it!
I agree with the person before me if the person who is in poverty doesn't really think of it as poverty and just thinks of it as a way of life then telling them this would probably just confuse them a little....I mean all the solutions are totally and right and it would be nice to help people but what if they like there life the way it is
Priscilla Cuevas
Now, lets see what keller thinks!
someone call him
The way I see it, the solution is education. If everyone was educated on how to do what was needed in the area of the world they live, it would be easier to live and grow what they needed to grow. They could also get educated on how to clean the water they drink so they won't get sick.
by the way, this is Richard Sowards for anyone wondering
The way I see it, the solution is education. If everyone was educated on how to do what was needed in the area of the world they live, it would be easier to live and grow what they needed to grow. They could also get educated on how to clean the water they drink so they won't get sick.
Well, I like what I said early but I just thought of something so here it goes. One way to aid to getting rid of poverty would be to make jobs for the people. 90% of homeless people cannot get jobs for the fact that they have no address or can have good hygene. Due to this homeless people go through a vicious cycle in which they try to jobs and can't so they don't get money and can't get a home or a job. Using science to give people in poverty jobs would be to open all areas of work in which people don't need addresses but just need varifiction that they are a citizen of the U.S. with that said scientists and engineers should come up with a solution to give jobs that have to do say with cleaning water and testing experiments.
-Kacey Killing
*Formally known as TehMaster
well, i just had an apyphony! How much of our aid that goes to africa actually gets to the people it is meant to help? I guess what i'm saying is that you cant solve poverty with science. It really becomes a political issue. In science i think you would refer to it as psychology. There is an issue with the mindset of people that causes poverty.
I LIKE IT!! looks like our minds are starting to roll. Poverty I feel comes in many forms. It may be geographic poverty, educational poverty, situational poverty, mind-set poverty ect... Science will be the solution but you have to cross disciplines in science to get to the root of the problem. Think harder or maybe the problem is the kind of music my students listen too. Ha Ha.
Maybe we should call it poverology.
the music has nothing to do with it! We should call it poverology
thats a good idea
I think one way science can help is what Kraft is doing. They're injecting medicines into foods to sell to rural areas around the world. If more businesses would invest in this idea and make these kind of medical foods availiable and extremely cheap, that won't only help end poverty, but certain diseases that are rare amongst countries like the U.S.
Alright so I think that science could definatly help people in poverty. I think that the water idea is a really good idea because it will help people in poverty to grow their own food so that then they wont need money to actually stay alive.
-Tony Agenbroad
I have a very firm belief in the solution that the suggestions before my own are all excellent ideas to end poverty- however (sorry keller) my answer is not that biological- What needs to happen to end poverty is that scientists need to stop spending so much time, energy, and money on weapons of war, and instead focus on making all of Mr. Keller's (and his brilliant students) theories on anti-poverty possible. thank you
I think there is no real way to completely stop poverty but there are so many ways that we can help. We just need more people in the world that care enough about people other than themselves to hep do something about it!
Education!
More intelligent people will lead to more ways to solve poverty.
It's as simple as that :]]
WOW!!! Everyone has a point, but sorry Rich, I just don't agree with the way you view poverty. How do you know that that person just ran into some bad luck. Such as losing their home and family, or med bills just got to exspensive, and were so consumed by the fact that if they didnt have theie meds they would be in so much worse condition. I've worked in a couple of homless shelters, and a lot of people, mind you not all but a lot, do try to get jobs but come on would you want to hire someone that smelt like b.o.
Any way i do agree with a few of the comments, such as keller's water and josh with growing more of our own food. My idea is that if we all simply drive so much. Im NOT saying stop driving, Im saying carpool. Seriously we all live close to each other and if everyone chips in on gas we can save a lot of money. Then we can use that money to "Sponser a Child." It's a program were you pay $25 and your child gets clean water, food, clothes, and they get to go to school. You can even write back and forth with the child you are sponsering. This way we can help the next generation and they can support the families they will have, eventually people in other countries wont have such high poverty rates. (the program money only goes to children in 3rd world countries, and does so much!!!)
-Krystal Anne Powell-
In my opinion it's a lot deeper than just figuring out ways to make things cheaper. Maybe if more people are willing to take the time to do something without being compensated for it, we would accomplish more. There are too many greedy people in the world and it's only making matters worse.
There's always new inventions that we can create but it takes will power and motivation to do it. Science can help, not by the technology aspect of it, but by the thought process it uses. Maybe we should put that thinking to better use by figuring out ways to better the realationship between people; because i don't think that any one would want to help a person that they don't like.
I don't think poverty will ever be eliminated but helped some what with education. And not spending money on useless items. If you know what is going on around you or know not to spend money unwisely then you can prevent yourself from being in poverty. I also think taking care of the world without dumping our wastes and polution just any where would be a whole lot more helpful.
Also, clean water might be a plus for people in third world countries because they polute their water and then use it for their own food in gardens.
I'm not sure if this is actually scientific but i think education is the answer. If more people had an education then they good get an actually good paying job. easy!! i had better get extra credit for this keller!!
kelly green :)
I think that the soluntion to all of this is if we all helped out just a little bit many people wouldnt be in poverty. Or there wouldnt be so many flying toilets. Also make things way cheaper. Another way we can solve this is educate people more about science so they can become good scientist.
karina Cardona
Science can clone animals like cows and chicken that way all the countries that don't have food and are living in poverty. Well have food to feed their poor people.
April Rodriguez
I think that we should help out other countries and give them the medications and other things they need. we should try to help with running water and other things that they need.
<33alex<33
Dats so ewwww... flying toilets..yuck..imaginne one lands on ur head keller...ahhh
...look at da bright side,then u wouldnt b so bald!!LOL
=D JP
Earlier today, people were asking about my comments on poverty being a mind set. Let me explain alittle the setting in which I was refering to. I was talking about poverty in the united states. But after some thought, I have decided on what to do about the world. We should do what everyone on this blog has suggested. Every comment on here has a very valuable place in this, and should be heeded to. Maybe someone should e-mail the president or who ever is in charge of the UN this post with all the comments.
Science to help fight poverty...
scientists work every day to help the people in the world. The "aqua-bike" is proof of that. I have always wondered if people were supposed to live together as one nation. We are all seperated, by race, where we live, our beliefs, etc... we are human. We see differences in other people. Our only way to solve poverty is if the whole world were to accept that we are all one people, one race that should learn to live together in unity. Power wouldn't matter. We would all help eachother and that would be enough for all of us. Not very realistic, but scientists can only do so much, what is really going to matter is weather people care about eachother enough to help and save eachother from poverty.
Nice thought Frob (who are you?)
-Kacey Killingbeck
*Formally known as TehMaster
~The Admin's sidekick (GO ME!!!)
well a way we could use science is to make things more economic friendly and those items cheap and available for everybody that way you save money with everybody else.
I think we could scientifically measure the amount of money and energy used each day by an american family and then cut prices/decrease energy costs to half that. Then use the money to help fund projects, such as the wells and water solutions kokko and Mr.Keller suggested.
this is Erin Stretch
Check it out
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/1780
Thank you Frob
that was almost my point
except yours was better
and more thought out.
:[
Awesome point Allie ^^ We really could do a lot for each other if stopped to help.
I agree that the bike is a perfect example of what science can do for the people who live in poverty every day. If we could think of ways to 'kill two birds with one stone' like the bike that filters water, impoverished people could get the help they need. With science on our side we could also come up with ways to help other needs, like food. If we had some sort of super plant that produced more fruits or vegetables than normal, they could use those to feed whole villages in, for example, africa!
Emilee
i think that poverty starts with health a lot of people in poverty
die because thay cant see a doctor or anything i think we should start from there cure everybody and then build sewage cleaning system
i dont know if that made sense but i tried and it took me awile to remember what the website was called
im not goNna say who I am beCause
yOu might think my answer had nothing to do with anything
so ya ;)
I think that we need to stop paying oprah 260 million dollars a year and start spending that on lots of rice, and clean water
-Travis Gropp
having schools world wide in third world countries where there are major poverty issues that are accessible for not only boys but also girls would greatly improve the world poverty rate. the knowledge on average would create more successful people boosting the economy in places all over the world. plus clean water and the advancement of medicine would also improve keeping people healthy and able to work and make money on a consistent basis.
Sam Cook
availability to clean water is definitely important, but i think the end to poverty goes a lot deeper than that. as far as science goes to helping the fight, im not sure how big of a benefactor itll be there. for the third-world countries that are entirely in poverty though, itd be pretty sweet if they could figure out how to change a type of food that they grow to be more abundant and survive the weather. you could always change where the money goes, figure out how to entice people to finish their education more, and make the public more aware of what people have to go through daily [[like having people try to live off of a dollar a day and see how far that would get them]] but that doesnt really have much to do w science..
I think that we could take our clothing, that we give to the youth ranch etc., and give them to the third world countries including shoes and everything.
Weellllll..something that may do the trick for poverty...is maybe stending missionaries over to the 3world countries and purdy much teaching them how to grow dem farms up and keep them up so that can have food,...and they wouldn't have to make mood cookies...cuz man i tryed to make some..o wow man they came out soooooo dry. i think i did it wrong haha :p
Well first of all, I think that we shouldn't waste so much food. The people that go dumpster diving at restaurants are the smart ones because they are using the wasted food. We as Americans waste so much food and I think that if we only took what we needed then there would be more food for those who don't have any. Also, if everyone in America donated $1-5 to some kind of poverty charity, we could help end poverty. It doesn't take much money to make a difference over there if some people are living off less than a dollar a day!
rockstarkng is Krista, for the record.
I'm pretty sure that there are ways where you can solve such a tremendous problem like this. I think that people need to start thinking about different ways on how to spend there money without over doing it. There are quite a few organizations that help the world be a cleaner environment, i just think people need to make an effort to change something so big.
Berenice :]
Hey Kacey!
Frob is Allie!
I think it is based ont the things we take for granted: water, food, and shelter. If somehow we could provide poverty with clean water (that isn't in plastic, since that sort of defeats this), healthy and uninfected food (like Kraft is trying to do), and build them better housing that can be cleaned. Another thing would be supplies to be able to clean everything. If they had purification systems and cleaning products for their homes and schools, then they could prevent disease. Also, medical stuff would help them, like sterile needles for vaccines. Another thing would be the ability to clean their clothing somewhere that isn't infected with illness. We take so much for granted while poverty lives on about $1 a day. We need to provide clean water sources, healthy food, and clean shelter mainly for these people and I believe it would help so much.
Erin Canoy
My family grows our own garden every summer and then we can vegetables and we even make our own tomato sauce. I think that we should bulldoze some of the houses that we have built and start planting more crops (I know how selling farm land effects farmers, since my dad is one). They get a lot of money but a lot of really good land is lost to it.
Erin Canoy
Mitchell, if America really cared about solving poverty they would do something about it!! but if science could help poverty i think that they would need to start by raising the minimum wage.
The way I see it is, not only with the water cleaning sulotion but they need food and clothing. I think that all the food people buy that they don't eat they should donate it. Also for the clothing they buy and don't wear beacuase they are to small they should donate them. Also a very big one keller you have got to open there eyes so they can see with their own eyes too, for people that are taking care of them to not only baby them too.
Cebres, please post your real name, so that you can receive credit.
hi this is TiAnna. my solution to the poverty question is this, you shrink the human/animal races with a shrink ray, that way all the food would be bigger; thus, it would last longer, and feed more people. this would be one small (okay kinda big) step to solve poverty.
creepy that is an awesome video. i think that clean water is a dependable source of energy. really i have no idea i'm just happy to be blogging somewhere other than myspace
that video (why you should go to school) is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ridiculous i cant believe she would say something like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
unbe frican lieveable
I think that the wealthy need to give much more to the less fortunate. I also think that Keller is right with the whole water thing. And TiAnnas idea just might work if we could find a way to follow through with it.
:]
why can't they come up newer cheaper ways of producing foods and objects. So that way they can sell the product. OR maybe they can just imploy all those people to help them out.
its a lot harder than employing all of them, there aren't just a few hundred there are a few million and we teh US cant do everything. the whole world needs to gather ists resorses to help everyone else out. In a way its funny, the whole world seems to think that the us should help with all of their problems yet when katrina hit no one seemed to care. So instead of hammering america with their problems they should ask other contries aswell. we arent the only rich ones. i still wanna help but why pin it all on us right????
i think the solution is to share because sharing is caring!!! yay to peace and love!! you can't have one withouth the other unless you are married. -Angel Tedeski
I can say for those people they didn't school this is a solution to go to school and don't give up and you can get work and have money from it to look after you and your family and survive your need.
babe vasi
They can make cheaper products
and re modify exsiting
also they can clone stuff to reduce usage
they also can help and teach people so they can get into a better job
Justin g
i think that it starts with us
we have to care and not turn a blind eye when it comes to those in need. that we need to be aware of the things around us and what is happening. And as a individual care more, support the good and organizations that help out in 3rd world country's because if one person does it then others follow then others want to help and you create a positive chain and people get the help that they need
so hate it or love but do what you gotta do
[dom ramos]
I think that this could help out poverty by making cheaper ways to grow food by chemicaly enhancing them. I also think that they could filter water and find natural shelter for people who cannot find homes.
Honestly I think that scientists need to figure out how to get money to grow on trees. Its got to be somehow possible. I know it sounds funny, but it could potentially solve poverty for good. Just think if you were gettin a little low on cash, "Bobby, run outside and grab a few 20's of the tree." Its brilliant.
i find it astounding how many solutions we can come up with, yet no one is really doing anything further by helping situations like these.
i mean sure our scientists are working on it, but what can they do that a regular human cant?
not much..
just keep a clean environment-no gas, fuel, not too much electricity..they can be easily replaced, the only problem is America is trying to find an excuse for anything and everything they can.
danica lynn
To fix most problems, the best thing is to get them clean pure water. With that they can also grow their own food without having to spend money. We need to get people over there to provide aid for the people that need it. Also no flying toilets!
i think one way is to lower prices of food, water, and lower taxes so people can actaully buy stuff and have publicate drinking fotains (sorry cant spell) so people will have have clean water.
Brett Haney
I think education is the answer.
with better and more education,more people will be able to come up with better solutions that will help.
Breigh-Anna
I agree with what keller said, clean water would really make a difference, but first people have to realize that there is a huge problem with poverty. I mean before i went into Kellers class i didn't know that there was such a huge problem.. i bet a lot of other people didn't know much about it either. They need to show more about it and let people know that there are people that need help
Jacoby Pintler
i agree with keller water is the biggest problem with poverty. theirs all different kinds of chemicals and bacteria in the water. if it were clean then their would be less poverty.
jordan weaver
I think that if the people were more educated then they would also be able to be helping themselves instead of relying on other people to help them get out of poverty if they were more educated then they would be being able to get better jobs and earning more money
maybe you could give them money but i wouldnt because i believe that they could do something about it. its like something i heard off of t.v. Who would you help more a stray animal or a homeless person and i said a stray animal cause a homeless person can actually go to like a homeless shelter and do something about that.
There are many problems that poverty is based off of. I believe the most important is education. If people could take the time to educate then many more people would have the qualifications for a job. A job would then provide them with money. Unfortunatly some people are just lazy and they don't want to take the time to educate themselves. For those people they got into this themselves. If they don't want to educate themselves and thus become poor then it's there choice but there are people out there who would love to have an education. I believe we should help them get what they want the best we can.
My solution to poverty would be the landfith, we should create trash bags that can disolve into the earth, by that it it will soon later turn into organic matter and less desease.
saengutone<
i think that they should clean the water so that it like bottle water in the resovoirs that way we wouldnt need to buy bottled water.
i think that we should cut back on things we dont need like having the newest cellphone or other gadget...i watched a show about how these actors from a tv series went down to africa to help build a school and they had mentioned that to be able to feed those who live in poverty it would take some where around 12 billion dollars and he also said that americans spend around 12 billion dollars on beauty products alone....i think we should cut back on things we dont need and use it instead on eliminating poverty or something else that helps to benefit others or the world.....the only way in making a change in the world is starting one.
I agree with Hallie. We need to out money to better uses not pictures of some rich famous persons babies. Also the people taking pictures of the babies or whatever celebrities should take pictures of the people in poverty so people actually will realize whats going on and possibly care for these people instead of hearing the latest gossip.
Nathan Prohl
A good way to solve this can be to get clean water. And also we can donate some items that we dont want no more to people that need them.
I think the problem of poverty the only science can solve them all like an example I was sick and I'm conna going to die but my family have money but money can't solve or pay my sick to go away from me so I'm conna going to buy medicine to help me or pay a doctor so this is I can call science coz doctor is about science and medicine is science.
B@be V@si
Science is whats making the future possible..One major major problem with poverty and science is that people dont spend there money wisley. *cough cough* cellphone, new ipod, m3p player..sure you can buy those things and prove that i am wrong but you dont have to have those things to live! do you? mabey if your stressed then yes..but if you helped the world and didnt worry about yourself soo much, you wouldnt be stressed!!
my opinion is that stress is a factor that plays along with poverty, its what makes us do right from wrong and determines if we actually will help people. Have you ever seen somebody extremely stressed? Are they giving stuff to help poverty? Well NO!! there buying alcohol or dumb things that you dont need in life. I think if the world wasnt rushy and things were more time-consuming, then mabey poverty would be solved. Yes it is hard to help poverty when your stressed, but it helps your relax! Theres an old reliabe benfit!!
Post a Comment