WOMEN’S RIGHTS Though gender equality is advancing, women worldwide remain financially and politically disadvantaged.
GAY RIGHTS Gay people experience varying degrees of acceptance from fellow citizens and authorities.
Health of the People
Health of the Planet
MALNUTRITION Many of the world’s poor suffer from diets deficient in calories and/or vital nutrients.
OBESITY Many of the world’s rich suffer from diets deficient in nutrients, but over-packed with unnecessary calories.
SMOKING Between a third and a half of smokers die from tobacco-related diseases.
CANCER As countries become more prosperous, and their lifestyles and diets are changing, their cancer rate is rising.
HIV/AIDS Education and treatment are beginning to slow the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections and deaths.
MENTAL HEALTH Poor countries lack the resources needed to treat mental and behavioural disorders.
LIVING WITH DISEASE Years of healthy life are lost to disease and disability.
WARNING SIGNS Things are changing in the natural world – and not many of the changes are to the good.
BIODIVERSITY Efforts to slow the loss of species of animals and plants have not been successful so far.
WATER RESOURCES By 2025, two-thirds of the world population will have an inadequate supply of water.
WASTE Waste, especially plastic waste, is a serious global problem on both land and sea.
ENERGY USE World energy use is increasing, especially in the most rapidly developing economies.
CLIMATE CHANGE The build-up of carbon emissions has reached a critical point.
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES There are limits beyond which human impact on the Earth’s balanced ecosystems will have as yet unknown consequences.
Vital Statistics
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dan Smith is Secretary General of the London-based
international peacebuilding organization International Alert, and
former Director of the International Peace Research Institute
in Oslo. He has also held fellowships at the Norwegian Nobel
Institute and Hellenic Foundation for Foreign and European
Policy and was, for over a decade, the Chair of the Institute for
War and Peace Reporting.
He is the author of The State of the Middle East, as well as
successive editions of The State of the World Atlas and The
Atlas of War and Peace. At International Alert he produced
the path-breaking A Climate of Conflict (2007) report on the
links between climate change, peace, and war. He is regularly
invited to advise governments and international organizations
on policies and structures for peacebuilding, including through
his