What do you think is the greatest problem in the world? What do you think would solve the problem?

Hunger. I agree with your international approach to solving the problem. What gets in the way is greed and anonymity. Greed is the larger barrier and It’s much easier to ignore the problem by not looking at it. Where do we start? Locally, I guess.

Potable water.
Utilizing sea water or handing out filtration kits would be a start. I’ve said this in Flutherland for years now: I cannot believe that this hasn’t been solved yet. I don’t know how billionaires sleep at night.

A tie between Resource Scarcity and Religion.
The former can be solved by the invention of the replicator.
The latter only be the extermination of the entire human species.

Problem-Denial of, or attempts to control, human nature by authoritarian institutions.
Solution-Accept human nature for what it is and allow institutions to emerge as a result.

Grumpy people that never SMILE, don’t llke to chat with strangers, exist in the tiny little universe atop their shoulders, have no sense of humor, are scroogy, with holding antisocial asshats.
Okay…aside from the obvious big ticket global issues this is my 2 cents.
I just bought candy for 3 little tykes in the grocery store with their mommy, made MY day! :-D

Resources management.

This may be a repetitive answer but if we grew hemp we would be able to provide different varieties of food at the masses. The stalks can be used to make fire resistant houses without having to cut down so many trees. link.

If people are so concerned about air pollution, why are there not any giant air filters made yet?

Have some temple monks teach people how to chill out a bit. Or stoners, take your pick.

Burn down West Boro Baptist Church.

Stop blaming the president for everything. Years ago the president was respected by the congress, now they’re just puppets.

This is a great book: link

I agree, resources we need are an issue. But I’m also nominating money as a big problem. It basically dictates who gets what and how, and it seems hardly fair. Maybe money is a byproduct of needing stuff, but it sure took its throne…

Religion
Solution: People should think instead of believe. If they did, religion would be gone by now.
Religion (Catholic for example), encourages the dad who makes $6/hour to have his sixth, seventh, and eighth kid. Maybe we wouldn’t need as much potable water or food if this wasn’t the case.
Religion is in many (most) cases at the center of hate and war.

I’d say the world’s greatest and most pressing problem is moving to a sustainable form of living that allows all 7 billion humans to eventually live in dignity with the ability to meet their basic needs. I agree with @Charles that Religion plays a disturbingly large roll in preventing this. While I believe that the right form of capitalism could probably provide the solution in conjunction with enlightened government, I don’t believe that the current form of very short-term focus on ever higher profits is sustainable. It will bring the world down on its head and kill billions in the process if left to “regulate itself” and lobby for armies being used to extend markets and grab resources.

The only way we can move towards a sustainable future short of a massive nuclear conflagration destroying most of humanity is through education. And in a world where Muslims and fundamentalist Christians are increasingly discouraging real education and a growing number of Muslims are outright rejecting it for half the humans on Earth, education of the masses is an almost insurmountable problem all in itself.

Widespread extreme disregard for the environment. Short of a sea change in values, I think the solution is to continue enacting more and better environmental protection legislation, regardless of most detriment to large corporations, and with attempts to mitigate negative effects on small businesses. I don’t think that reforming will ultimately end up injuring the bottom line nearly as much as folks say – we’ve R&D’d our way past greater challenges than going green before; we’re already coming up with ways to do it again.

overpopulation and proper resource management. A complete change in motivation of the general population of the world is the only way to change it, from a dog-eat-dog mentality to a one for all and all for one mentality.

Gravity, everyone should lighten up.

I agree with @YARNLADY that the main problem is overpopulation. This is the root cause of many of the problems we face. 7 billion humans is far too many for the life style we all want. Fewer people, more nature and a single world government and everything will be fine.

Not sure there is a “greatest problem in the world”, but I’ll give it a shot…

If 5 people were in a life raft drifting in the middle of ocean, they would all have a sense of “we’re in this together”. They would see their own survival and well-being as directly connected to their own.

Yet, here we all are, floating on a tiny sphere in an unfathomably-immense universe, and we are cooking up ways to hurt each other.

@tom_g For being unsure how to begin, you’re an accurate shot, my friend.

Climate change.

Solution: Innovation.