Do you think the most important problems in the society will be solved in our lifetime?

Do you think the most important problems in the society will be solved in our lifetime?

The fact that we are living in a wonderful period  with advanced technology and flourishing economy impresses someone with thought that we can solve the most important problems during our lifetime. Admittedly, we have settled many significant difficulties like education and productivity, however, there are still many momentous problems remain unsettled and require more time to make progress.

Firstly, efforts of several generations is necessary to solve the serious environmental problems today. The improvement of technology leaves us an undesirable environment with contamination like vehicle exhaust in the air, heavy metal in the soil and industrial sewage in the water. The consistent production is necessary to supply this society, which means pollutions is inevitable in the short term. In this case we need  clean the widespread pollutions and explore new technology to reduce emission of contamination, both of which may take several years, let alone the education of environmental awareness, a task reqiring generations’ efforts.

Moreover, there are also certain  diseases beyond our capacity today and probably only be overcome after futher medical improvement after hundreds of years. Equipped with modern medicine, we are capable of preventing, curing and even exterminating some diseases like smallpox, a kind of illness have not occurred since 1977. However, we are relatively feeble facing myriad cancers, Aids and Ebola. It is worthy to believe the development of medical technology will defeat more illness, nevertheless, it’s just feckless to claim we can solve all  in our lifetime.

Human equality is another significant problem that may last for several centuries before settelement. Euqality is an object many egalitarians have pursued for centuries but now there are still phenomenon of inequality. For example, Martin Luther King forced the progress of racial equality but there is still no real parity. Besides, the sexual discrimination is exhibited by different salsry between men and women in many countries. May be it will cost a few more centuries to realize equality.

To sum up, the most important problems cannot be all solved in our life time because issues about environment, medicine and human equality requires much more time.