The true American middle class.

You are either upper middle class or working poor. The middle class has eroded steadily for at least 30 years.

w4559 Report

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Factual information on the Internet. There's a churn of AI created content that's being taken as fact, and used as the basis for new articles and content. Sifting through information to validate it is already too much effort for many and will only become more difficult.

allbrightwes Report

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The Ogallala Aquifer. You know how Kansas and Nebraska are known for essentially being endless fields of wheat and corn? Well they do that by drilling wells to one of the world's largest aquifers deep under the Midwest. There isn't enough consistent rain fall in those areas for all those crops, so well water makes up the difference. But, we're draining it and it can't be replenished. Once it's drained, it's Dust Bowl 2.0 and no more large scale farming in the Midwest.

Judge_Bredd3 Report

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Antibiotic effectiveness.

Crafty_Bad_6232 Report

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General common courtesy and civilized behavior.

Funkrusher_Plus Report

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Bees.

We are losing bees at an alarming rate.

As far as important species go, they are top of the list. They are critical pollinators: they pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world. ~~Honey~~ bees are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops.



[Produce options with Bees](https://bestbees.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/produce-with-bees-wf.jpeg)

[Produce options without Bees](https://bestbees.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/produce-without-bees-wf.jpeg)

When the Bees are gone, we will shortly follow.

DoctoreVodka Report

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Publicly traded companies constantly being like "we did good not great. More money next quarter. Oh that's good not great. Even more money next quarter" in the 4 years ive been with my company, my production quota has tripled and it's unsustainable. Every quarter has to make more money than the last otherwise it's failing. This is almost every single publicly traded company. Corners being cut, profits maximised, employees compromised. It's endlessly happening

16RabidCats Report

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Honestly, the education system feels like it's barely holding on.

nerdy99 Report

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The tower of laundry I've been avoiding for weeks

FlorallFairy Report

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The Garisenda -- one of two remaining 12th century towers in Bologna, Italy.


I saw them in April. It looks pretty ridiculous to be honest. They have the area blocked off by some shipping containers because that towers probably going to fall any day. It looks like there are some half-hearted restoration attempts happening but no idea what their plan is...

doodle_rooster Report

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The food chain. I’m still amazed no one is talking about the fact that insect biomass has declined by ∼47% and abundance declined by ∼61.5% over the last 35  years. In some areas it’s measured 75% decline in a single generation.

This “insect apocalypse” is…very bad. Don’t just take my word for it:

> Indeed, most biologists agree that the world has entered its sixth mass extinction event, the first since the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million y ago, when more than 80% of all species, including the nonavian dinosaurs, perished.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023989118

MantisAwakening Report

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The education system. We have maybe 10 more years before a whole section of teachers retires, and then we’re absolutely screwed. 50% of teachers quit within the first 5 years, and that statistic is much higher for SPED teachers. We aren’t going to have anyone to work in the schools. Get ready for your kids to be “taught” by an online program with a person who babysits 50 kids at one time and has no training. It’s going to get bad fast, even faster in bad union states. And if you have a kid with a lot of support needs? Truly I don’t know what they’ll do. I work with that population and we currently are missing two teachers and 3 others are on emergency permits. It’s a huge problem and keeps getting worse because the pay is so bad that no one wants to work with these students. I went to the hospital on Friday from a bite from a student (truly a manifestation of his disability) who desperately needs a 2:1 but the district is making it impossible. I barely get to teach cause I’m putting out fires all day.

ipsofactoshithead Report

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The red supergiant star, Betelgeuse. It's speculated to soon be going to or have already undergone a core collapse supernova but the light of the explosion hasn't yet reached us. It will shine as bright as a full moon for a year when its light reaches Earth, casting its own shadows even. The radius of the supernova is just out of harm's reach, but wild animals tend to use the moon to help them navigate at night, and scientists are concerned that wildlife all over the globe may confuse this supernova with the moon, potentially disrupting the ecosystem.

OoTgoated Report

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The Florida citrus industry -- specifically oranges. There is a fungus that is spreading and infecting groves across the state. Unfortunately, we have no way to kill the fungus. The only solution is to cut down all citrus trees within a certain radius of an infected tree. Many farmers are choosing to sell their farm rather than try to start all over.

halleberryhaircut Report

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A month ago I was at my grandparents' house. For an inheritance issue they called an architect. The first thing he told them is that they can no longer live in the house, because it is at risk of collapse. That night nobody slept.

angel_withredeyes11 Report

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There's a waste product of burning coal called fly ash. We use it in concrete. It makes the concrete better and cheaper. Nobody is building new coal power plants, and old ones are shutting down. It's getting harder and harder to source the ash. If we have to source it from far away, like China, the transportation costs erase the cost saving. We can get the same concrete with just cement and added chemicals but it's more expensive. In ten years we probably won't be using it at all.

It's a really minor thing that will have far reaching consequences. Architects and engineers will probably look at ways to reduce concrete in their buildings as the costs increase. It's not likely to impact residential, but big downtown architecture is sure to be affected.

-im-your-huckleberry Report

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The Colorado river as the main water supply for 3 states with major cities.

ImprovementFar5054 Report

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Abundant water and food. I think things will hold up ok through most of our lives, but sh**s going to get grim in the next couple generations.

Wookie_Nipple Report

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Health care in the U.S.

I'm not talking about paying for health care in the U.S. I think that's fixable. (You can cut the costs by 30% by making it all covered by Medicare For All.)

I'm talking about actually having enough physicians, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants to treat everyone.

Burnout has gotten a lot worse in the U.S. Almost every physician I know is talking about retiring within five years or at least cutting back dramatically.

The big problems:

1. Not enough medical schools / residency programs to train physicians. My hospital is in need of just about all specialties. Pre-Med programs remain as a weed-out for medical schools, which just means we need more medical schools. We make up for the lack of them by importing physicians from other countries. We need more medical schools and weed out a lot less potential graduates. PreMed undergraduate courses include Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry. I'm not saying any of them need to be removed. Just make enough medical schools that the medical schools will take B's in these courses than require almost perfect GPAs for admissions. I can guarantee that almost no physician uses any of these courses in their day to day practice of medicine. If they did, it would be required in their continuing medical education, which it is not.
2. Too much paperwork. Too much hoops we have to go through on a regular basis. Not just the hundred+ hours of continuing education, the quarterly tests to keep our board certifications up to date, the every two year Basic Life Support / Extended Life Support classes we have to take, Now there is mandatory education for opiod abuse, child welfare, and God only knows what else. Also every two year licensing by your state medical board, DEA certification, etc.
3. Too much competition in an area (!), forcing physicians to compete with each other and therefore burning us out faster. It also means more duplication of effort in an area.
4. Most physicians now work for health networks / big business, which means less leniency when we need something. ie: need to take a day off? You need to put it in the calendar 3 months in advance. You want to buy a stethoscope? It counts as part of your tech purchase for the year. Yes, a stethoscope (not an electric one) is considered tech, just like a phone or computer.
5. Patients have gotten a heck of a lot more demanding, and aggressively so. Everyone Googles up their problems and thinks they have the most rare BS disease. No one wants to listen to their physicians advise and just give time to see if things get better on their own. And if the physician doesn't say exactly what the patient wants to here, the patient screams it from every website and review place so everyone else thinks the physician is an idiot. You don't like what I say? Please go elsewhere. I don't have time for your BS and the fact that you think you are the 1 in 10,000,000 20-year-olds who actually has a congenital cause of heart attack at your age.

BTW: I see #5 on Reddit almost every day. I sometimes comment about it and get downvoted to oblivion. Now I just sigh and move onwards. I won't convince people that unnecessary testing is (almost certainly) not going to make them better and more than likely cause more anxiety when a result comes back not exactly what they expected.

P.S. Sorry for the rant. Just a burnt out physician taking a couple minutes off before getting back to work on a Sunday morning. Cut me a break. I've been working 14 days in a row now. Most weeks not this bad, fortunately.

lobsterman2112 Report

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The Amazon

To some degree it generates its own weather patterns with the vast amounts of water evaporated into the atmosphere from leaves. Deforestation is putting it close to a tipping point where it can no longer maintain those patterns. Once reached, the feedback loop is likely irreversible.

Random Safety Tip: First dates (with someone you don’t already know and trust) should always be someplace public with cameras like a coffee shop. Trust your gut if something feels off.

Mr-Safety Report

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Literally all infrastructure in North America. The majority of underground infrastructure (pipes, water lines, sewer systems) has been completely ignored in terms of maintenance, and has been TOTALLY ignored in terms of budgeting replacing the assets.

There are towns that have coming bills of 10s-100s of millions (not even mentioning larger cities) that have saved approximately 0% of the required amount by constantly pushing out the life time estimation of the assets.

lots and lots of bills are coming due shortly if the engineering estimates are accurate and very few towns have saved anything for this scenario.

We're basically living in a world where no one wants to be the person to say that we need to save money for long term planning, and instead everyone hopes things don't fail while they are leading and they can pass the buck.

spinmove Report

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The US blood supply is still hard hit from COVID and the American Red Cross isn’t lying when they say we’re in an emergency platelet shortage so if you can donate platelets, please donate.

TicanDoko Report

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Well, top soil is getting super depleted. What used to be yards deep fertile soil is down to inches. Washed or blown away due to agriculture and irrigation.

Squigglepig52 Report

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Internet security. Both keeping our information safe & keeping the internet lights on. Some predict that a 24 hour worldwide shutdown could be cataclysmic & this whole system is being held up by toothpicks.

eju2000 Report

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Human migration patterns will put a massive strain on various countries around the globe as the environment changes

reiveroftheborder Report

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The Rio Grande levees in El Paso's Upper Valley are old and need repair, and will fail in a major flood. The low lying suburbs in the Upper Valley were recently deemed to be in a FEMA flood plain.

oddlotz Report

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The young childcare industry. Increased regulation to make facilities safer (a very good thing!) had the unintended consequence of increasing costs for owners. You now need more teachers who have training and certification, not to mention the patience and stamina to work with young kids all day. The pay is comparable to fast food without the benefits. Owners have to find a way to pay teachers enough to retain them while keeping costs down so parents can afford to send their kids. It's damn near impossible without an infusion of government investments.

gpedp Report

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Housing prices along the coast in Florida. Most of the state is barely three feet above sea level and flooding is getting worse and worse every year. In fifty years, sea level is going to be much more inland than it is now and no amount of "beach restoration" is going to help it.

TrishPanda18 Report

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The UK criminal justice system  Edit: For any non Brits passing through. The new gvt has had to announce it's releasing prisoners early because it's got no space for incoming suspects on remand and new convicts. The last gvt shut like half the courts, the remaining ones are falling apart and understaffed. There aren't enough judges so there's a two year backlog of serious cases. The junior end of the profession are so poorly paid they've been on strike repeatedly. And let's not forget the police have basically stopped investigating shoplifting and other smaller crimes. This after 14 years of the "law and order" party being in power. Thank goodness the former chief prosecutor is now prime minister so maybe there's a hope of fixing it.

Ruby-Shark Report

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