Crowdsourced backend of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
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Bedbugs
Bedbugs are small blood-sucking insects, ectoparasites, which feed upon warm-blooded animals,...
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Headache
Headache is one of the most common ills. Most adults have experienced a headache at some point....,
Migraine is usually a throbbing, severe pain that occurs on one side of the head. The...,
Tension headaches are a dull and more generalized pain, often affecting the entire head...,
Cluster headaches are the most excruciating, occur most often on one side of the head...
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White-collar crime
Crimes committed by businessmen, politicians and government employees are common to both...
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RNase enzyme deficiency disease
RNase enzyme deficiency disease (REDD).
RNase is an enzyme produced by the human body when...
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Resource depletion
The abundance of natural resources used to be generally assumed, but questions are beginning to...
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Hyperoxaluria
Hyperoxaluria is excess excretion of oxalates (particularly calcium oxalates) in the urine.
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Health hazards of artificial birth control
Health hazards of various birth control devices include breast and cervical cancers, cardio-...
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Denial of access to people in need
In the case of conflicts within a country, the civilian population and refugees displaced within...
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Online shaming
Online shaming is the use of social media, blogs and other online communication networks to...
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Competitive development of new weapons
Military research and development is concerned with stimulating the advancement of scientific...
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Religious war
Religion has often been a useful pretext for internal or international conflicts. On the one...
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Sports accidents
Excessive engagement in a particular sport may give rise to permanent physical damage. Familiar...
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Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which progressive damage to the joints...
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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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Sexually transmitted diseases
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are a wide ranging group of diseases and can have severe...
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Anti-communism
Zealous activity to halt or reverse the spread of communism, derived from profound fear and a...
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Pneumoconiosis
Pneumoconiosis is caused by the accumulation of dust in the lungs and the tissue reaction to its...
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Atheism
Atheism is the denial of a god or gods, in theory or in practice. As such it has frequently been...
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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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Endangered linguistic diversity
Language is central to conceptualization of the world, its interpretation, and to the ways in...
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Disadvantages of homeworking employees
Homeworking employees or sub-contractors often experience the conditions of sweated labour...
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Smuggling cigarettes
Selling cigarettes directly to smugglers or to distributors known to sell to smugglers; labeling...
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Inadequate emergency medical services
Many victims of traffic and other accidents die on the scene or shortly thereafter, or suffer...
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Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive-compulsive neuroses often result from a recurring repression of feeling or behaviour...
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Dermatographia
Dermatographia, also known as “skin writing,” refers to a condition where lightly scratched skin...
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Burglary
Burglary is surreptitiously entering or remaining in a building with the intent of committing a...
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Psychoses
Many so-called psychotics are likely to become incapacitated at one moment or another of their...
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Chronic wasting disease
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is the deer equivalent of "mad cow disease".
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Hypostatic pneumonia
Hypostatic pneumonia manifests at the base of the chest cavity, when the lower portions of the...
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Hazardous wastes
Waste is hazardous which because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or...
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Exile
Prolonged absence from one's country of origin, either enforced by government authorities or by...
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Stagnating social methods
The techniques used to create, support and enliven humane societies have become useless....
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Excessive consumption of fats
Diets high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol are linked to heart disease, strokes,...
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