Let’s imagine we were giving an award for the worst social problem in the world today. Do you have any nominations?

Did I hear someone say international conflict? Racial prejudice maybe? Environmental destruction anyone? Millions of homeless refugees? Exploitation of women? Turns out there’s one problem that connects all of those, and it’s one you hardly ever hear politicians talk about.

Overpopulation may not be root of all evil, but it is indeed at the root of many of the world’s other miseries.

Just do the math. As a minimum, every additional person needs a certain quantity of food to eat and clean water to drink. Extra people could, in theory, live without clothes on their backs or roofs over their heads, but most of us would not wish for a world with more people, if they had to live homeless and naked against the elements. Beyond basic needs for food, water, and shelter, more people need more energy -- to light their homes and cook their food, and if that level is reached, they’ll be in the market for still more -- to power their refrigerators and washing machines. At moderate levels of economic development, people start to desire cell phones, big screen televisions, and cars to drive. And at the highest levels, they want second homes and vacations in far-away destinations, which they reach by flying on gas-guzzling airplanes.

One solution is to simply open our borders, to allow more of the world’s desperate people to come to the United States, England, the Netherlands, and Germany. That is the case Samantha Power made in her painful stories of the desperate people she encountered as a journalist and later as U.N. ambassador, which triggered the earlier open letter. The statistics seem to indicate that most immigrants are not criminals or terrorists, but are, compared to those who grow up in first world countries, actually more eager to work long and hard hours. Cafaro acknowledges the obvious -- that the opportunities in a first world country are substantially greater than those in a third world country. And if you are rich or middle class American, there are benefits from immigrants – cheaper labor and better bottom-lines on stock dividends (as large corporations have used the availability of cheaper immigrant labor to break unions, and drastically cut salaries and benefits for their employees). But Cafaro notes that those economic benefits to middle and upper-class Americans translate into severe costs for the poorest Americans. Middle-class people are generally out of touch with how those economic benefits to them translate into the hefty costs associated with unemployment or underemployment among African-Americans, poor whites, and native Hispanics. Many of these less fortunate groups have lost the union jobs that permitted their parents to live reasonably comfortable lives. This in turn leads to loss of health care benefits, and many other unpleasant downstream consequences.

First onions, now shrimp: Making ceviche this summer is turning out to be a total nightmare. (Along with everything else.) The FDA has announced a major recall of frozen shrimp sold to large grocery chains including Costco and Kirkland. The questionable crustaceans are said to be potentially infected with salmonella—an organism that can cause fever, nausea, upset stomach, and even fatality in some rare cases.

The recall went into effect last Wednesday and includes various sizes of frozen cooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp sold in 1-, 1.5-, and 2-pound retail bags that originated from Kader Exports. The shrimp is said to have been distributed starting in late February through the middle of May and then sold by major grocery chains nationwide. A full list of the recalled products containing Kader Exports frozen shrimp can be found here.

An emergency proclamation requiring face masks in stores and restaurants in Stillwater, Oklahoma, was nixed after store and restaurant owners received threats.

The proclamation was issued Thursday. Among other things, the order made businesses require patrons to cover their faces to combat the spread of coronavirus.

But on Friday, Mayor Will Joyce softened the rule to encourage, not require, face coverings, after several reports emerged of employees being verbally abused and being threatened with physical violence while trying to enforce the order -- all in just three hours of the rule going into effect.

"Many of those with objections cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional, and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask. No law or court supports this view," said City Manager Norman McNickle in a statement. "It is further distressing that these people, while exercising their believed rights, put others at risk."

McNickle went on to explain the importance of face coverings in preventing the spread of coronavirus. The masks have been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Last weekend, the New York Times wrote a piece about Matt and Noah Colvin, the Tennessee brothers who drove 1,300 miles across two states to buy thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packages of antibacterial wipes so they could resell them online at unconscionably inflated price points. (Matt listed those $1 bottles of Purell on Amazon for anywhere between $8 to $70 each.)

Amazon ultimately yanked Colvin's listings, citing the company's policy against price-gouging. And on Saturday afternoon, just hours after the Times' piece went live—and subsequently, viral—the Tennessee attorney general's office sent its own investigators to Matt Colvin's house to deliver a cease-and-desist letter, reminding him of the state's own law that prevents state residents from charging "unreasonable prices for essential goods and services [...] in direct response to a disaster." Before the weekend was over, Colvin was the subject of a state investigation, he'd been permanently banned from eBay, and the storage company where he kept his ultra-selfish hoard told him that he couldn't rent from them anymore. He was also essentially forced to donate all of the hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes that he'd bought, with a local church collecting the bulk of it, and the state attorney general's office taking the rest of it. All of the products will be redistributed to people who will actually use them, not profit from them.

Countries around the world have witnessed unprecedented panic buying at supermarkets and pharmacies due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Aisles have been stripped bare every day as many try to get enough food to last them through a two week self-isolation.

However, there have been some people who have been greedier than others.

As a result, loads of shoppers have been left to get whatever is left and, in some cases, leave nearly empty handed with no idea how they'll get their groceries.

That was highlighted in a heartbreaking picture of an elderly woman in Australia standing in front of cleared out shelves that used to hold canned foods.

Channel 9's Seb Costello shared the picture on social media of the devastating reality that is facing many people across Australia and the world.

He reported the woman was left in tears at the bare aisles.

A former McDonald's worker has been ordered to stand trial on a felony charge of willfully poisoning food after she allegedly spit on a hamburger before serving it to a police officer.

Tatyana Hargrove, then 21 years old, was arrested last November in Bakersfield, California, and is due in court March 23.

She is accused of rubbing a hamburger bun on the floor of the restaurant and then spitting in it while preparing an order for a uniformed police officer using the drive-thru, KGET-TV reported.

Hargrove also allegedly shouted, "Black lives matter" and "fuck the pigs!" during the incident.

For years, Justyna Zubko-Valva fought to expose the alleged physical, emotional, and mental abuse she says her sons suffered at the hands of their father and his fiancée. But the mom says her pleas for help fell on deaf ears — and the system’s failure led to the death of her 8-year-old son, Thomas.

“It’s such a tragedy that could have been prevented so many times by so many people,” Zubko-Valva tells PEOPLE.

On Jan. 17, Thomas died from severe hypothermia after allegedly being forced to spend the previous night in the frigid garage of the Center Moriches, New York, home owned by his father, New York Police Department Transit Officer Michael Valva, 40, and his fiancée, Angela Pollina, 42.

The night prior, Thomas and his older brother, Anthony, who are both on the autism spectrum, were allegedly provided no blankets or pillows, and had to sleep on the ice-cold concrete floor. The next morning, Thomas collapsed and lost consciousness.

Wells of nearly two dozen Southern California water agencies have reportable levels of PFAS, a chemical family increasingly linked to cancer, liver and kidney damage, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, low fertility, low birth weight and ulcerative colitis.

Seven of those agencies have shut down wells in the past year because of the presence of those chemicals and two more plan closures, an investigation by the Southern California News Group found.

The state only this year began ordering testing for the chemicals, and a state law requiring that customers be notified about the presence of those chemicals won’t kick in until next year.

The substances are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they resist breaking down in nature.

“PFAS is the climate change of toxic chemicals,” said Andria Ventura, toxics program manager for the advocacy group Clean Water Action. “They never go away. Virtually all Americans have them in their blood. Babies are born with them. … They’re some of the scariest things I’ve worked on.”

Old Hickory, Tennessee's No. 1 Chinese Restaurant has pretty decent reviews, save for a Yelp comment from last year claiming its food has a "hint taste [sic] of soap or some other type of cleaner." It turns out, however, that when it comes to washing, that might be the least of the restaurant's problems.

Lance Glover and his girlfriend were visiting the nearby Old Hickory Lake yesterday, when they saw the restaurant's owners in the lake, scrubbing down kitchen supplies. In a video that Glover shared with FOX17 Nashville and posted on Facebook, someone is crouched down in the water cleaning a rack, followed by a second person who brings along plastic containers.

Police say a 16-year-old boy has died after being mauled by three pit bulls inside the fenced backyard of a Dallas-area home where the dogs lived.

Irving police on Sunday announced the boy's death. One officer was treated for a dog bite.

There’s something inherently relaxing and beautiful about watching palms sway in the warm breeze. Palm trees grow well in Louisiana’s warm, humid climate as well, making them a seemingly perfect addition to your landscape.

Of course, humans aren’t the only ones with an eye for palm trees – other creatures love them too, but not necessarily for their aesthetics.

Roof rats, also known as fruit rats, love palms as a place to live. It’s possible that your lovely palm trees are actually harboring roof rats, and might really be encouraging vermin to invade your home.

What Are Roof Rats?

Call them what you want, roof rats, fruit rats, black rats, it all boils down to the same thing. These are the same rats that spread bubonic plague and fleas. They’ve been with humans for eons, and throughout that time, they’ve been less than ideal houseguests. Rats spread far more diseases than the frightening Black Death, though. Others include murine typhus, salmonella, rat-bite fever and leptospirosis to name only a few.

Where Do They Live?

Roof rats actually prefer to live in trees, particularly in palm trees...

It’s back-to-school time, but you might want to think twice before you load up on new outfits at the mall. Green America, a nonprofit committed to social and environmental justice, just studied the chemical practices of 14 American apparel brands. In a report, Green America said four companies—J.Crew, Urban Outfitters, Forever21, and Carter’s—came in last because they all failed to disclose the chemicals they use in their manufacturing.

“These companies had no publicly-available policies about their use of toxic chemicals, and that lack of transparency is a problem,” says Caroline Chen, Green America’s social justice campaigns manager. “Toxic chemicals in textile manufacturing is bad for the planet and workers. And sometimes they remain in the fabric when they are sold, so they could be harming the end consumer as well.” Spokespeople for J.Crew and Urban Outfitters both said that the brands preferred not to comment. We will update this story with any further responses.

A Georgia man died in the Dominican Republic in March, adding to the list of U.S. tourists who have passed away in the Caribbean vacation destination this year.

In a statement sent Tuesday, the State Department confirmed to USA TODAY that an American citizen died there in March.

ABC News and Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV 2 report Tracy Jerome Jester Jr., 31, of Forsyth, Georgia, died on March 17 while vacationing with his sister, according to his mother, Melody Moore.

Moore told ABC she spoke to her son the night before he died and that he noted he drank a soda that tasted odd. The next day, her daughter called to say he was vomiting and complaining he couldn’t breathe.

A toxic algae bloom has forced Mississippi to close all coastal beaches for swimming. There's even a warning against eating local seafood. Now local businesses are feeling the impact. Manuel Bojorquez reports.

Almost 50 children have died in northern India over the past three weeks from a brain disease that has been linked to toxins in lychees.

Health authorities in the state of Bihar said Thursday that 47 children have died of acute encephalitis syndrome, which involves inflammation of the brain. Two hospitals in the city of Muzaffarpur had registered a total of 179 cases since January, they said, but the deaths occurred only in the past few weeks.

In 2013, at least 351 people died of encephalitis in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

"This year, the number [of cases] has gone up a bit. The heat wave has been too intense, and it has gone on for too long," said Sanjay Kumar, a senior state health official.