G7

"Group of Seven" (G7) is a group of ministers and governors from economically advanced countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdoms, and United States.

G7 was originally G6 ("Group of Six). Founded in 1975, G6 consisted of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdoms, and United States. In 1976, Canada became the seventh member. Later, in 1998, under term of President Yeltsin, Russia joined the group, which changed into "Group of Eight" (G8). In 2014, because of the annexation of Crimea, Russia was forced to leave G8, which now becomes G7 again.

G7 functions following key principles of freedom and human rights, democracy and the rule of law, prosperity and sustainable development.

G7/G8 tries to solve problems of Africa (debt relief, humanitarian, and fighting malaria), climate (green energy - nuclear energy), Peace in Middle East, Counter-terrorism, Nonproliferation, Trading, Global Economy and Oil, etc.

Is G7/G8 even necessary? Should the world economy rely on strongest countries' economies? When specific countries leading the whole world, there will be unfairness, to some degree. Leaders will try to make their countries stronger and more stable. However, if no one leads the world economy, countries follow their own rules, there will be chaos. Putting pros and cons on scale, I, personally, prefer the presence of G7/G8.

There is information about China and India joining G7/G8. There are both good side and bad side. While developing countries joining G7/G8 will make G7/G8 decisions for objective, too many members will also cause controversy. 

Nuclear Energy

World energy need is getting serious right now. When widely used energy sources like coal or fossil fuel are no longer sustainable, people turn to another source - Nuclear energy.

Nuclear energy is the energy produced during nuclear fission or fusion, coming from uranium. 

Because of the characristics of nuclear energy production, no carbon dioxide is released, and a lot of energy is produced.

Nuclear energy production compared to other sources

However, there are always to sides of a coin. Nuclear energy production costs a lot of money. Uranium is very hard to find, also takes thousands years to return to neutral state. There are also known and unknown risks of radiation.

Let's take Japan for example. Nuclear plants provides a lot of energy for the country and reduces air pollution. However, in March 2011, following huge earthquake, a tsunami destroyed Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Harmful radioactive chemicals were released to environment. Area around reactors were seriously contaminated. Are the risks worth the benefits?

Personally, I think we should keep using conventional energy sources until technology provides a better way to store and process nuclear waste. It's a long run...

Clean Water

Humans, like any other living animals, have essential needs to survive. One of the most important needs is drinking water. How clean must be drinking water be? How clean must water be in order to be consumed safely by human? There is no definite solution for "clean water". Therefore, the only way to define "clean water" is by defining "unclean water".

"Unclean water" or polluted water is water that contains contaminants, including chemicals, particles, and bacteria. Polluted water is not safe for cooking, drinking, cleaning, bathing, and other daily uses. Polluted is not just simply dirty, but it is deadly. Polluted water does not only affect humans, but also harm other organism. First, polluted water poisons aquatic animals and terrestrial ones, including human, that drink polluted water. Once the smaller species at the base of the food chain are affected, the whole food chain is disrupted. Disruption with food will lead diseases in human eventually. Sooner or later, humans will become victims of our own actions.

We, intentionally or unintentionally, cause  water pollution and scarcity of clean water through sewage, septic tanks, waste dumping, underground and on-water leakage, industrial production, etc.

As a result of global warming, the need of clean water is critical. For example, a serious drought has been in California since 2011. Area of clean water has been decreasing significantly. (Photo) Beside trying to save water as much as possible  with regulation and police force, people in California are finding another supplies. They use a desalination facility to turn seawater into drinking water (Source).

However, desalination alone is not the solution because it is so expensive. There must be other long-term acts:
- Educate to change consumption and lifestyle.
- Recycle waste water appropriately.
- Improve irrigation and agricultural practices.
- Address pollution.

Save water. Save future.