Our unsustainably unequal world

Ian Explains: Our Unsustainably Unequal World | GZERO World

The past is still very much with us.

It's almost the first anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine. On March 11, it'll be three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. And 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record since ... 1880.

We are still dealing with the fallout from all three events. But not equally.

Since 2020, the richest 1% of people has accumulated nearly two-thirds of all the new wealth created in the world. Just 10% of the population owns three-quarters of global wealth — and account for nearly half of carbon emissions.

What can we do to turn this around?

Watch the GZERO World episode: Inequality isn't inevitable - if global communities cooperate

More from GZERO Media

US President Donald Trump meets with China's President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke Thursday for the first time since the former returned to office, as a recent pause in their trade war looked set to fall apart.

A migrant carries his child after crossing the Darien Gap and arriving at the migrant reception center, in the village of Lajas Blancas, Darien Province, Panama, on September 26, 2024.

REUTERS/Enea Lebrun

More and more people will seek a new homeland over the next few decades, which will pose a major challenge to political leaders. However, politicians have shown little interest in dealing with this challenge in a sensible fashion.

Zelensky and Putin in front of flags and war.
Jess Frampton

On Sunday, Ukraine executed one of the most extraordinary asymmetric operations in modern military history. Using domestically built first-person-view (FPV) drones deployed from deep inside Russian territory, Kyiv launched a coordinated assault against several military airbases as far as eastern Siberia, the border with Mongolia, and the Arctic.