The World's Worst Problems

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

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

    PDF

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.

• Moral assumptions about problems
• Confirmation bias
• Risk analysis
• Global mortality data
• International cooperation
• Socioenvironmental restoration
• Dunning Kruger effect
• Socioeconomic revolution
• Problem severity
• infectious diseases

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

  Walter Dodds

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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