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The Encyclopedia
of World Problems
& Human Potential

The rapidly changing state of the world makes planning in the face of complex interconnected problems a formidable challenge. Our ability to conceive adequate solutions and strategies is often undermined by our lack of understanding of the nature of problems in their wider context.  The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential offers a radically different perspective to associations, policy-makers, social researchers and those concerned with development strategy.  By clarifying the ways in which problems reinforce and sustain each other, the Encyclopedia shifts the level of attention from isolated problems to problem cycles, and thus to sustainable strategy cycles. This allows for a more holistic understanding of the environment in which global problems and strategies are situated.  

SELECTED PROBLEMS


  • Experimental visualization of narrower problems

    Juvenile delinquency

    Nature:

    Juvenile crime, as all crime, has been increasing. Brutal crime among young offenders also is increasingly evidenced in reports, particularly on urban areas. Some offenders are psychotic and their offences may range from suicide to mass murder. Others are anti-social and given to minor acts of defiance. Ease of access to weapons, drug addiction, unemployment, and economic motives, are the more obvious circumstances leading to crime; but modern societal stress, breakdown of family life, deviant role models, threats of nuclear war and the confusion in values which produce unstable feelings and distorted ideas, all contribute to aggravate violence among youth.

    Broader Problems:
    Deviance
    Criminals
    Anti-social behaviour
    Social disaffection of the young
    Narrower Problems:
    Shoplifting
    Youth gangs
    Youth violence
    Electronic piracy
    Infectious revenge
    Driving delinquency
    Student absenteeism
    Juvenile alcoholism
    Juvenile prostitution
    Drug abuse by adolescents
    Health risks of teenage sex
    Execution of young offenders
    Crimes committed in urban schools

  • Experimental visualization of narrower problems

    Malignant neoplasms

    Nature:

    Cancer, which is not a single disease but a spectrum of diseases that includes more than 100 kinds, is characterized by the unrestrained growth of cells. Cells naturally grow and multiply, but in a healthy body this growth is controlled by a complex series of regulatory mechanisms. Cancer occurs when this regulation fails and cell division goes haywire. In most cancer cases, unrestrained growth leads to the formation of tumours which spread into and often kill normal tissue. When not attended to, such a tumour (which is called malignant) ordinarily leads to death, but there can be a long delay between its onset and the appearance of obvious symptoms.

    In connective tissues (such as bone, cartilage, tendon, muscle) cancers are called sarcomas; in epithelial tissues (such as skin, bladder, lung, breast) they are called carcinomas; and in cells of the blood system they are named leukaemias.

    Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the industrialized world and is rapidly becoming a major disease in the Third World as well. Though the aetiology is still undetermined, certain cancers are linked to certain environmental and lifestyle factors such as carcinogenic substances in the work environment, cigarette smoking, excess exposure to the sun, alcohol, diets high in fat and low in fibre, and stress.

    Speculating about the origins of cancer, many oncologists describe a cancer personality - repressed and depressed - and draw attention to the loss or bereavement which commonly precedes the onset of the disease. Lung cancer patients are most often people unable to express strong emotions. Cancer of the cervix occurs most often among women with a tendency to helplessness or a sense of hopeless frustration derived from some unresolved conflict in the preceding six months. Overall, the most important factors in the development of malignancy are: a loss of raison d'être; an inability to express anger or resentment; marked self dislike and distrust; and most significantly, loss of an important emotional relationship.

    Broader Problems:
    Chronic illness
    Lifestyle disease
    Cancers
    Health hazards of uranium
    Narrower Problems:
    Breast cancer
    Animal cancers
    Thyroid cancer
    Occupational cancer
    Cancers of the nervous system
    Cancer of the endocrine glands
    Malignant neoplasm of mouth and throat
    Malignant neoplasm of respiratory system
    Malignant neoplasm of genito-urinary organs
    Neoplasms of lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue
    Malignant neoplasm of bone, muscle, skin and joint
    Malignant neoplasm of digestive organs and peritoneum

  • Experimental visualization of narrower problems

    Human consumption of animals

    Nature:

    The consumption of animal flesh (whether meat, fowl or fish) or the use of animal products (leather goods, products of bone-processing, eggs and cheese) is unethical, unaesthetic, uneconomic, and without nutritional justification. It may be considered unethical because human beings should not needlessly kill sentient animals. The consumption of animal flesh is not the most economic method of obtaining the highest yield of nutritional products from agricultural land. The economic and social costs of meat consumption include hugely inefficient use of freshwater and land, heavy pollution from livestock faeces, rising rates of heart disease and other degenerative illnesses and spreading destruction of forests.

    Broader Problems:
    Cancer-causing foods
    Unethical consumption practices
    Excessive consumption of specific foodstuffs
    Excessive consumption of resources in industrialized countries
    Narrower Problems:
    Killing of animals
    Hunting of animals
    Human use of animal by-products
    Consumption of unclean animal products
    Environmental hazards from meat production
    Increased demand for meat and egg products
    Unsustainable exploitation of fish resources
    Health hazards from meat and meat preparations
    Insufficient consumption of vegetables and fruit
    Denial to animals of the right to a natural death
    Misuse of agricultural resources for production of animal feed
    Excessive commercial exploitation of farm animals by industrial concerns

  • Experimental visualization of narrower problems

    Restrictive trade practices

    Nature:

    Trade protectionism is the result of governments acting to save certain sectors of their economies from foreign competition. The impact of this on the fledgling industries is considerable but they are in no position to retaliate. Protectionist policies have also been directed by developed countries against each other, but this is usually carefully negotiated to avoid retaliation.

    Broader Problems:
    Restrictive business practices
    International economic injustice
    Distortion in international trade
    Autarky
    Narrower Problems:
    Trade harassment
    Embargo on medicines
    Restrictions on market access
    Exclusive dealing arrangements
    Unpredictable barriers to trade
    Tariff barriers to international trade
    Protectionism in the mining industries
    Protectionism in the shipping industry
    Protectionism in the automobile industry
    Collusive international trade arrangements
    Non-tariff barriers to international trade
    Restrictive practices in trade in chemicals
    Restrictive practices in mineral fuels trade
    Unfair trade practices in the service sector
    Protectionism in labour-intensive industries
    Protectionism in the high-technology industries
    Protectionism in the defence and arms industries
    Protectionism in the consumer products industries
    Protectionism in steel and basic metal industries
    Limited observance of multilateral trade agreements
    Protectionism in the textile and apparel industries
    Restrictive practices in trade in manufactured goods
    International trade barriers for primary commodities
    Protectionism against imports of service-related goods
    Restrictive practices in the beverages and tobacco trade
    Trade barriers and protectionism among developing countries
    Protectionism in agriculture and the food production industries
    Restrictive practices in trade in inedible crude non-fuel materials
    Restrictive practices in trade in machinery and transport equipment
    Excessive customs and trade formalities

  • Experimental visualization of narrower problems

    Plant diseases

    Nature:

    Plant disease can be simply defined as any deviation from normal vegetative health and growth; and more scientifically as an injurious physiological process caused by the continued irritation of a primary causal factor, exhibited through abnormal cellular activity and expressed in characteristic pathological conditions called symptoms.

    Some diseases can be attributed to inanimate and nonparasitic factors such as adverse environmental conditions. Physical and mechanical damage brought about by violent storms, improper cultivation practices, etc, besides being disastrous in themselves, may prepare the way for widespread infection by other disease agents. Living agents such as insects not only interfere directly with plant metabolism, but also frequently carry other disease agents from plant. A number of economically important disease-causing factors are plants themselves: bacteria and fungi. Algae are responsible for some relatively unimportant tropical plant diseases. Among flowering plants only a few forms are of occasional importance. Several slime moulds, numerous viruses and nematodes are also important agents of plant disease.

    The symptoms of plant diseases may be death (necrosis) of all or any part of the plant, loss of turgor (wilt), overgrowths, stunting, or various other changes in the structure of the plant. A rapid death of foliage is often called blight, whereas localized necrosis results in leaf spots. Necrosis of stems or bark results in cankers. Overgrowths composed primarily of undifferentiated cells are called galls, or, less commonly, tumours. Chlorosis (lack of chlorophyll in varying degree) is the most common nonstructural evidence of disease. In leaves it may occur in stripes or in irregular spots (mosaic). These symptoms grade into one another and overlap. Often two or more bacteria, fungi, viruses or a combination of them together attack a plant to produce much greater damage than that resulting from a single agent alone. Furthermore, a plant which is already suffering from a deficient environment is more susceptible to attack by such agents.

    Broader Problems:
    Disease
    Hazards to plants
    Vulnerability of organisms
    Narrower Problems:
    Plant tumours
    Seed-borne diseases
    Parasites on plants
    Viral plant diseases
    Fungal plant diseases
    Nematoid plant diseases
    Crop pests and diseases
    Bacterial plant diseases
    Symptoms of plant disease
    Pests and diseases of trees
    Uncontrolled plant diseases
    Environmental plant diseases
    Plant diseases caused by oomycetes

About the Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a unique, experimental research work of the Union of International Associations. It is currently published as a searchable online platform with profiles of world problems, action strategies, and human values that are interlinked in novel and innovative ways. These connections are based on a range of relationships such as broader and narrower scope, aggravation, relatedness and more. By concentrating on these links and relationships, the Encyclopedia is uniquely positioned to bring focus to the complex and expansive sphere of global issues and their interconnected nature.

The initial content for the Encyclopedia was seeded from UIA’s Yearbook of International Organizations. UIA’s decades of collected data on the enormous variety of association life provided a broad initial perspective on the myriad problems of humanity. Recognizing that international associations are generally confronting world problems and developing action strategies based on particular values, the initial content was based on the descriptions, aims, titles and profiles of international associations.

About UIA

The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a research institute and documentation centre, based in Brussels. It was established in 1907, by Henri la Fontaine (Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1913), and Paul Otlet, a founding father of what is now called information science.
 

Non-profit, apolitical, independent, and non-governmental in nature, the UIA has been a pioneer in the research, monitoring and provision of information on international organizations, international associations and their global challenges since 1907.

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