Crowdsourced backend of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
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Ice
Ice is a smokable, crystalline form of methamphetamine. It is easily made from ephedrine, an...
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Theft of vehicles
Virtually every type of vehicle, mechanical, motorized, or otherwise powered, has been and still...
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Myotubular myopathy
Myotubular myopathy is a slowly progressive, but rarely fatal, disease of voluntary muscle....
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Human-caused climate change
For more than 10,000 years, and the entire history of human civilization, the climate has been...
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Natural disasters
Relatively sudden and widespread disturbance of the social system and life of a community or...
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Conjoined twins
This phenomenon of unknown cause arises during the process of monozygotic (identical) twinning....
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Gonorrhoea
Gonorrhoea is an inflammatory disease affecting the mucous membrane. The infecting agent is the...
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Militarism
Militarism is a policy or doctrine, or a system of power relationships that values war and...
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Decline in food production
After two decades of impressive gains, global food production has slowed. The rocketing growth...
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Heat disorders
A high level of climatic or environmental heat, possibly accompanied by high workload, may...
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Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which progressive damage to the joints...
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Bulimia nervosa
People with bulimia nervosa have recurrent episodes of binge eating and once eating has begun...
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Drunk driving
The presence of excessive amounts of alcohol in the blood of the driver plays a substantial role...
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Stagnating social methods
The techniques used to create, support and enliven humane societies have become useless....
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Earthquakes
Major earthquakes and the majority of smaller ones are generated by sudden decrease or release,...
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Extinct species of Bufo periglenes
The Golden toad appears to have become extinct, along with 20 other species of toads and frogs...
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Essential hypertension
Essential hypertension refers to abnormally high blood pressure without known cause. In adults...
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Proliferation of commercialism
Individuals or societies are becoming more and more dominated by acquisitiveness and valuing all...
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Leveraged buy-outs
Junk bonds are securities that pay high interest because they are issued by companies with...
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Flight-related illness
Air travel has become an increasing source of pain, discomfort and illness among passengers and...
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Psychological intimidation
The use of irrational fear or uncertainty to exploit others may be on an individual, group,...
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Meaninglessness
There is a general sense of lack of meaning and purpose which dominates literature, art and...
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Coastal erosion
Every land mass on Earth has miles of coast at the interface between the hydrosphere and the...
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Kidnapping
Abducting another person, or having abducted another person continues to hold them is kidnapping...
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Unsanitary and inhumane food animal conditions
Under modern systems of livestock production, traditional husbandry has been superseded by...
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Struggle for existence
Response by living creatures, in the form of novel or intensified efforts, to their...
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Biased presentation of news
News media may only present sensational items which give an exaggerated impression of a certain...
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Diseases of wild animals
Difficulty in controlling disease in wild animals may lead to the establishment of enzootic...
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Fournier's gangrene
Fournier's gangrene occurs in the perineal (genital area). The bacteria usually enter the body...
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Quelea
Swarms of quelea birds regularly cause considerable damage to crops of sorghum, millet, rice,...
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Illness
Illness is the state that is perceived by the individual when he is suffering from disease or...
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Mastitis in animals
Mastitis in female mammals reduces milk yield, is irritable for the animal, and is the most...
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Student revolt
Student dissent has led to widespread criticism of the educational establishment. Some of this...
The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential was initiated in 1972 following a collaboration between two international non-profits, the Union of International Associations (UIA) and Mankind 2000. It is the result of an ambitious effort to collect and present information on the problems humanity is confronted with, as well as the challenges such problems pose to societies' values, development strategies and concept formation.
The online version of the resource is currently undergoing significant transformation, and the publishing model is changing in exciting new ways. The main points are:
- Whilst the above NGOs remain equal copyright holders of the data, it is becoming possible for partners to re-publish any content on presentation sites under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA)
- Content of the database is being made centrally editable at edit.ewphp.org — to allow content changes on this site to propagate to any and all presentation sites
Please feel free to get in touch if you want to know more about the project, the ongoing transformation, or if you aspire to join the volunteer team as a database editor, presentation site developer or any other skill you feel might benefit the project!
News
- March 2016: An initial version of an API that allows retrieval and licensed re-use of the data is ready at demo.ewphp.org. We are currently working with selected developers, and a first public implementation of the API is taking shape as well. News about launch of both will follow soon!
- June 2015: Read the paper and presentation "Loop Mining in the Encyclopedia of World Problems" prepared for the 17th International Futures Conference "Futures Studies Tackling Wicked Problems" in Turku, Finland, 11-12. June 2015 — www.futuresconference.fi/2015