Fixing the world

The goal of this page is to give a global perspective on the problems of the world and the way to fixing them, if can be singled out.

The problems it's looking to identify must clearly be identified as bad. "hunger, violence..." and similar.

''Note: try to stick to Millions when quoting figures regarding to worldwide population or budget, in order to keep a better perspective. 265 millions has the trick to unconsciously seem higher than 1.2 billions''

Hunger
Source: wikipedia
 * Basal metabolism is between 4600 and 9200 kJ a day depending on stature, age and gender.
 * Physically active people must be able to spend a minimum of 12,500 kJ a day.
 * Most people around the world require daily physical exertion.

Source: Wikipedia
 * 1000M people are considered malnourished
 * 36M people die of malnutrition every year (58% of the yearly death toll)
 * Of which 5M children, more than half the child-death toll.
 * Children have higher basal metabolism and are more subject to die from lack of calories.
 * Note that the causes of death for children must be somewhat dramatic. They can't die of natural causes.


 * 884M 13% people have no access to a protected source of water
 * Source: Wikipedia


 * Links to hygiene and epidemies

Healthcare

 * XXX people have no health insurrance. XXX have partial health insurance.
 * Due to low income, XXX people are not in the position of getting treatment for a grave illness or accident.

Diseases

 * Epidemic prevention is bellow current standard for XXX people
 * Epidemics are not worried about in regions where XXX people live.

War
Megadeath war like WW1 and 2 seem to be out of fashion. The most deadly recent conflict (Congo) has killed 4M over the course of 6 years (98-04), which is way bellow the rate achieved mid-century in Europe.
 * Sudden death from war does not represent a significant death toll.
 * Source: Heavy web research. Put numbers if you can.


 * XXX people are directly affected by a war in the past 10 years
 * Can someone dig that number?

Sources: Global Issues, Global Security
 * Amount spend yearly worldwide on military: $1,500,000M ($1,5T)
 * 3% of the World GDP
 * Of which 46% is only for the USA (10 times that of the nr2 (China))
 * Rising steadily at the rate of 6% per year.
 * Estimated arm contraband budget worldwide: XXXX
 * It seems there are no available figures, neither in $ nor in volume.
 * An high availability of guns on a black market is likely to tip political protest into violence.
 * Violent protest seem to not work very well. Non violent protest is more likely to lead to change.
 * Reducing the availability of weapons is likely to promote social change, in addition to reducing war consequences. (Move to "solutions")

Inequalities

 * Racial
 * Gender
 * Social

Overpopulation

 * 2010 growth rate: 1.2%, steadily losing 0.03 points every year
 * Leads to a 2050 peak of 9,200M people followed by a decline (prospect likely to change).

Carrying capacity of the Earth
Current: 5,100M humans reducing steadily (as developing countries are developing and consume more per capita).

Arable land available on Earth: 10 to 20% of exposed surface: CIA factbook: 15M sq km Webster: 31M sq km Irrigated: 2,7M sq km source (also CIA factbook)

XX% of arable land in under intensive farming, XX% in organic farming, XX% in extensive farming.
 * Max: XXXX (optimizing production, limiting consumption)
 * Max with current cultivated land: XXXX

Is food the limiting factor? Is in not water? Or energy?
 * It could be something as unimportant as lithium. If one ingredient goes missing, many recipes will be unavailable.

70% of drinking water goes to irrigation.

Discrimination
Globalisation allow for strong mixing of populations. Cultures are confronted to each other more and more.

Ecology

 * Fossil fuel is running out
 * Biodiversity is running out
 * Desertification
 * Climate change
 * Possible rise of the sea level
 * Few recycling chains are available
 * The planet will be handed over to the next generation in a worse state

Causes of problems
Do not try to make one cause correspond to one problem. War creates violence AND famines for example. Stick to what is clearly causing problems globally.

Let's also concentrate of causes that can be fixed at an acceptable cost.

Please post your name if you're criticizing an entry.


 * Systemic flaws
 * Debt-driven monetary system
 * Over-consumption
 * Cause: excessive production.
 * Disagree. Excessive production is fueled by over-consumption, which is fueled in turn by good marketing, that exploits a human-nature flaw. Sitarane 13:59, 8 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Ability to make more money just by having money (widening wealth gap)
 * Etc
 * Human nature
 * Corruption
 * Greed
 * Ignorance

Possible solutions
Please wait for "cause of problems" to be thick enough before submitting here

Links

 * http://fix-the-world.wikispaces.com/