Crowdsourced backend of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
-
Inadequate road maintenance
Sub-surface water may, by erosion or freezing and melting, cause cracks and breaks in roadways....
-
Theft of works of art
Art thefts are increasing. Apart from representing a menace to the cultural heritage, it makes...
-
Discrimination against youth
Ageism commonly denotes discrimination of the elderly, but recent studies suggest the need for a...
-
Rape
Sexual assault involving the forcing of a person to submit to sexual intercourse may be...
-
Alcohol abuse
The level of alcohol consumption that qualifies as alcohol abuse varies considerably. In Canada...
-
Discrimination against non-human species
Homo sapiens has a tendency to assume itself to be overwhelmingly superior to all other species...
-
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is any act of public defiance of a law, practice or policy of authorities, if...
-
Threatened coral reef ecosystems
Coral reefs are under attack by enormous numbers of starfish of the variety called 'crown-of-...
-
Water insecurity
The water cycle makes available only so much water each year in a given location. That means...
-
Hunger
World hunger today is a paradox of scarcity amidst plenty. The reason so many millions in both...
-
Fear of increased autonomy
The genetic and cultural conditioning of human beings to be social animals necessarily induces...
-
Social revolution
As a radical change in social systems and structure, social revolution may result in or be aided...
-
Debauchery
People have always craved for intense mental states, which are most easily gratified by induced...
-
Diseases of wild animals
Difficulty in controlling disease in wild animals may lead to the establishment of enzootic...
-
Generic drugs
Generic drugs are laboratory-developed products engineered to be recreational drugs or discount...
-
Professional burnout
People, especially professionals engaged in work demanding extensive personal commitment, are...
-
Misperception
Indefinite knowledge or incorrect interpretation can result from defective sensation. The defect...
-
Abusive treatment of the aged
Abuse of an elderly person in many cases remains a silent affliction, as the victim is often...
-
Disease vectors
A vector is a transmitter of disease from one animal to another or to man. Most of the causal...
-
Overdependence on few crop species
Although there are at least 20,000 species of edible plants worldwide, fewer than 150 are...
-
Legionnaire's disease
Caused by the legionella bacterium strain. Patients affected by Legionella pneumonia inhale the...
-
Scandal
Scandal arises when a member of a community, by actions or opinions goes against the commonly...
-
Adenovirus infections
Adenoviruses are respiratory pathogens, widespread in nature, infecting birds (aviadenoviruses)...
-
Pneumonic plague
Pneumonic plague is a highly infectious disease which can destroy a victim's lungs within hours...
-
Disadvantages of homeworking employees
Homeworking employees or sub-contractors often experience the conditions of sweated labour...
-
Excessively large families
Despite the apparent advantages of many children, it is not clear that, from a strictly economic...
-
Terrorism
Terrorism can be defined as (a) indiscriminate military violence or as (b) indiscriminate...
-
Conflicting uses of water
***** There are many uses for water that humans have control over. ***
-
Depressed industries
Decline may stem primarily from the emergence of a cost-effective domestic substitute, in which...
-
Maternal mortality
"Labour" – the act of giving birth – is the most dangerous labour in the world. Outside of a...
-
Paranoia
Paranoid personality disorder is a pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others...
-
Health hazards of passive smoking
Tobacco has its victims other than smokers: those living among smokers can be considered as...
-
Silence about historical situations
The refusal to discuss particularly painful episodes in the life of a people.
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