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The World's Worst Problems

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Walter Dodds

    1. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA

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  • Presents issues that are globally important to mankind
  • Provides a new quantitative framework for approaching problem severity
  • Showcases new insights into the perception of global problems and how people go about solving and thinking about them

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 1-4

  3. Global Problems?

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 5-17

  4. Apocalypse

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 19-30

  5. Disease Now and Potential Future Pandemics

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 31-44

  6. Hunger

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 45-52

  7. Nuclear Weapons

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 53-61

  8. Global Environment in the Anthropocene

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 63-78

  9. By the Numbers: Ranking the Problem

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 79-90

  10. What Do Other People Think the Worst Problems in the World Are?

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 91-98

  11. Progress Toward Solving the Problems and Potential Costs of Solutions

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 99-104

  12. Technochimp: An African Savannah Survivor Looking for Solutions in the Modern World

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 105-114

  13. International Cooperation

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 115-122

  14. Consilience, Global Socioeconomic Political Enlightenment, and Socioenvironmental Restoration

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages 123-130

  15. Correction to: By the Numbers: Ranking the Problem

    • Walter Dodds
    Pages C1-C2

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 131-146
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Keywords

About this book

This book addresses the worst problems currently facing humanity and those that may pose future threats. The problems are explained and approached through a scientific lens, and categorized based on data involving global mortality, vulnerability, and threat level. The book presents indices of problem severity to compare relative intensity of current and potential crises. The approach avoids emotional argument using mainly empirical evidence to support the classification of relative problem severity. The author discusses multiple global problems and ranks them. He also explores specific solutions to each problem, links problems to human behavior from a social science perspective, considers international cooperation, and finally pathways to solutions.


The book discusses confirmation bias and why this necessitates a scientific approach to tackle problems. The moral assumption that each person has the same rights to life and minimal suffering, and that the natural world has a right to exist, forms the basis of ranking problems based on death, suffering, and harm to the natural world.  A focus is given to potential disasters such as asteroid collisions and super-volcanic eruptions, which are then presented in chapters that address specific contemporary global issues including disease, hunger, nuclear weapons and climate change. Furthermore the author then ranks the problems based on an index of problem severity, considering what other people think the worst problems are. The relative economic costs to solve each of these problems, individual behavior in the face of these problems, how people could work together internationally to combat them, and a general pathway toward solutions form the basis of the final chapters. This work will appeal to a wide range of readers, students considering how they can help the world, and scientists and policy makers interested in global problem solving.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA

    Walter Dodds

About the author

Walter Dodds is a University Distinguished Professor at Kansas State University and an Edwin G. and Lillian J. Brychta Chair in Biology. He specializes in environmental aspects of freshwater ecology. He has numerous peer-reviewed publications and has authored several books including Humanity’s Footprint (on global environmental issues) and Laws, Theories, and Patterns in Ecology (a graduate overview of ecology). He is a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, the Society for Freshwater Science, and the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

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