Food, Agriculture

The issue: Since penicillin was introduced in the 1940s, antibiotics have saved countless lives. But we have used these drugs so much for so long that the diseases they once killed have adapted and developed immunity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 23,000 Americans now die each year from infections by bacteria that are impervious to antibiotics.

Many countries require labeling and reporting of alcohol levels in beverages, but the accuracy of these claims may be far from perfect, at least in the case of wines.

Human activity has negatively affected animal populations on land for tens of thousands of years, with numerous instances where unsustainable hunting practices or deliberate, widespread acts of eradication have led to what scientists call “defaunation” — the human-caused global extinction of a species.