Poverty threatens the Earth, its peoples and all its animals. It is difficult if not impossible to envision a World culture that is environmentally sustainable, equitable, just and secure - that does not address the horrible disparities in wealth found today.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Poverty 'is world's worst threat'

The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, says the biggest challenge confronting the world is not terrorism but poverty.
He told a conference called by the UK Treasury that poverty was humanity's "greatest scandal and scourge" today.