The Spanish influenza of 1918/19 killed 20 million people. In the last two decades, about 19 million died from AIDS, and some 35 million now have the virus that causes it. Millions of children are left without parents—they died from AIDS. And untold numbers of babies are dying from AIDS, passed on to them when they were still in the womb.
Many view the future with foreboding. A group of scientists stated: "Human activities . . . may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know." They added: "Even at this moment, one person in five lives in absolute poverty without enough to eat, and one in ten suffers serious malnutrition." The scientists took the occasion to "warn all humanity of what lies ahead" and said: "A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated."
Due to climate, drought, poor agricultural planning, political instability and ineffectiveness, and the mismanagement of natural resources, there are millions of starving people throughout the world. It is estimated that each year between 5 and 20 million people die of starvation or from diseases resulting from malnutrition. Most of them, like these Nigerians, are children.