'What the World Wants' project – Credits and References

Credits: The 'What the World Wants' section of Media Hell uses content quoted directly from the World Game Institute's research website (which no longer exists). The work here is credited to Medard Gabel and the research staff of the World Game Institute (WGI). The research was also once presented on a UNESCO website (which is also no longer available). The WGI itself was a brainchild of the famous US polymath, Buckminster Fuller.

Major References

• UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

• UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, 1995, 1994.

• Giving children a future: The World Summit for Children (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, 1990).

• UNHCR Refugees II-95, Public Information Service UNHCR, 1995.

• The World Bank, World Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

• World Resources Institute, World Resources 1995-96, 1992-93, World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996.

• State of the World 1988-96, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996).

• Ho-Ping: Food for Everyone; Energy, Earth and Everyone (World Game Institute, Doubleday, New York).

Footnotes (introductory sections)

1 These people were participants in World Game Workshops, held by the not-for-profit, non-partisan research and education organization World Game Institute, 3215 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. A UN-affiliated NGO, the WGI has been conducting its research and educational programs for corporate executives, government leaders, educators and students for the last 25 years.

2 The World Bank, World Development Report 1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

3 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p. 20; UNDP, Human Development Report 1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 17; World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p.146, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996).

4 UNICEF, Giving children a future: The World Summit for Children (New York: UNICEF, 1990), pp. 4-6, Also see, "Child summit: Moving towards a global ethic," Development Forum, 18 (September-October 1990), p. 1.

5 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p. 20.

6 ibid.

7 1.024 billion in V. Lyon and M. Gabel, World Health Care Deficit (Philadelphia: World Game Institute, 1990), p. 4; The figure is 1.5 billion in UNDP Human Development Report 1990.

8 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p. 18; UNDP, Human Development Report 1990, p. 17.

9 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p. 24; P. McHenry, "Adobe: New Look at a Centuries-Old Building Material," Christian Science Monitor, 17 April 1986, pp. 20-21.

10 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p. 24; UNDP 1990, p. 17.

11 UNDP, Human Development Report 1995 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 16; Secretariat of UNESCO, ILY: Year of Opportunity (Paris: UNESCO, 1990), pp. 8-9.

12 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, p. 19, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); UNHCR Refugees II-95, Public Information Service UNHCR 1995; World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p.96, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996); H. Kamm, "One Sign of Our Times: World Refugee Flood," New York Times, 12 September 1990, p. 16. Also, interview with Jewel S. Lapontant, Ambassador-at-Large, U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, 1990.

13 World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p.132, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996).

14 The World Bank, World Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), $103 billion owed by 'severely indebted low-income countries' and $515 billion owed by 'middle-income developing countries', p.126.

15 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 13.

16 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, p. 24, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

17 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, p. 13, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

18 D. Pimentel et. al. "Environmental and economic costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits", Science Magazine, p. 1117, Feb. 24, 1995; L. Brown, et.al. State of the World 1988 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988), p. 60.

19 Brown, et.al., State of the World 1988 p. 6. Original figure in hectares. Actual figure in acres is 14.8 million.

20 World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p.117, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1996).

21 E. Mansfield, Economics: Principles, Problems, Decisions, 5th ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986), p. 487.

22 World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p.64, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1996).

23 J. Weiner, The Next 100 Years: Shaping the Fate of Our Living Earth (New York: 1990), p. 152. Percentage loss is from The New York Times, 5 April 1991, p. A1.

24 L. Brown, et. al. State of the World 1990, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1990), p. 63.

25 P. H. Abelson, "Cleaning Hazardous Waste Sites," Science, 246 (1989), p. 1.

26 Brown, et. al., State of the World 1990, p. 107. Original figure in hectares.

27 World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p. 88, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996); World Resources Institute, World Resources 1990-91 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 324.

28 Population Data Sheet 1996, (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 1996).

29 R. Ackoff, Redesigning the Future (New York: Wiley, 1974).

30 For book-length explications of strategies for dealing with at least two of the areas below, see M. Gabel, Energy, Earth, and Everyone, 2nd ed. (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980), and M. Gabel, Ho-Ping: Food for Everyone (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1979).

Footnotes (main sections)

31 Indigenous organic material refers to animal manure and green "manure" such as intercropping, companion planting, crop rotations and the use of nitrogen fixing plants and trees such as the lucena tree that grows 10-14 feet per year, fixes nitrogen in its roots, and has leaves that are 5% nitrogen which can be used as fodder or mulch.

32 W. C. Liebhardt, A low fertilizer use approach to increasing tropical food production. Background papers for innovative biological technologies for lesser developed countries, No. 6 (Washington: Office of Technology, 1981), pp. 285-87.

33 Derived by averaging fertilizer use/hectare for developed and developing countries and comparing them. Yields were averaged similarly using cereal yields. (Both data sets from World Resources Institute, 1990/91, pp. 278-281.)

34 J. Cherfas, "FAO Proposes a 'New' Plan for Feeding Africa," Science Magazine, 250 (1990), p. 748.

35 Derived by dividing Africa's cereal yield into the average for Europe and into U.S. total; cereal yields from World Resources Institute 1990/91, p. 278-279.

36 See for example, M. Gabel, "The Regeneration of Africa: Resources, Needs and Capacities" (Philadelphia: World Game Institute, 1985). and M. Gabel and A. Heiland, "National Implications of Resource-efficient Farming Methods for Tanzania", (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press Inc., 1985).

37 See Gabel, Ho-Ping, pp. 114, 117-118.

38 With yields in Africa at 26% of U.S. and European yields, an increase of fertilizer applications to even 25% of what they are in the U.S would double yields, according to normal fertilizer response rates. African use of fertilizer is between 1.6% and 8.3% the application rates in Europe. Also, see endnotes 33, 35, and 37.

39 Figure was derived by subtracting 2400 calories from the average daily calorie consumption per capita. The difference was divided by 2400 and multiplied by 100 to get the %. 2400 is WHO's baseline for minimum calorie consumption per person per day. Average daily calorie consumption per capita from FAO, FAO Production Yearbook 1988, Vol. 41 (Rome: FAO, 1989), pp. 291-292. Population figures from Population Data Sheet 1990.

40 See for example, M. Gabel, "The Regeneration of Africa: Resources, Needs and Capacities" (Philadelphia: World Game Institute, 1985). and M. Gabel and A. Heiland, "National Implications of Resource-efficient Farming Methods for Tanzania", (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press Inc., 1985).

41 See, for example, Gabel, "Tanzania," pp. 3-4.

42 World expenditures on illegal drugs is estimated to be $1 trillion; "For the Record", Washington Post, 8-2-95, p. 35.

43 US spent $29 billion on weight loss in 1989; U.S. Weight Loss and Diet Control Market, Marketdata Enterprises, 3-89. By 1995 this figure had risen to $34 billion.

44 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, p. 16.

45 The Economist, June 1, 1996, p. 100.

46 The Economist, December 4, 1994, The Price of Life, p. 74.

47 13 to 18 million people saved times $1 million results in $13 to $18 trillion.

48 Lowest estimate is $750,000 per human life. One-half of this is $375,000; this amount times the number of humans dying each year from starvation or starvation related causes (18 million) is $6.75 trillion or $18.49 billion per day, $770,547,945 per hour, or 24.6 hours to reach the $19 billion cost of the entire program.

49 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, p. 39.

50 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1996, p. 41.

51 Costa Rica has raised life expectancy to 74 years, one year higher than the U.S. See 1990 World Population Data Sheet (Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1990). Each child is seen at least once per month by a community health worker, more than the average child sees a health worker in the US (personal communication from the Costa Rican Minister of Health).

52 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).p. 41.

53 Derivation based on UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p. 41. If 1 billion health care workers are needed for 200-250 families, then 1.5 million are needed (based on 1 worker per 225 families) for 150 families. At the average training cost of $500 per worker (UNICEF, p. 41), total training would cost $750 million.

54 $8.25 billion per year for salaries, $5.75 billion for supervision, retraining and infrastructure. Salary scale derived from UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, pp. 41-43. Latin America trained 200,000 doctors at $60,000 each or $12 billion total. For the same amount, they could have trained 150,000 doctors (cost: $9 billion) and had $3 billion left over to train and pay half a million health care workers. Since training is $500 each ($250 million total), that leaves a salary of $5500 for each worker ($2.75 billion). Applying a salary of $5500 to each of 1.5 billion health care workers gives a total of $8.25 billion.

55 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p.38.

56 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p.16.

57 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p. 36. Based on 5¢ per person/year.

58 U.S. spent $84.7 billion on alcohol in 1995; (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce).

59 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p.16.

60 U.S. Government Accounting Office, Panama: Cost of the U.S. Invasion of Panama (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1990).

61 U.S. spent $131.95 billion on alcohol and tobacco in 1995; (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce).

62 Figured in the same way that the previous strategies for eliminating starvation related deaths. Each life saved being "worth" $1 million and 10 million lives saved per year as a result of global health care coverage. The World Bank measures the loss in human productivity due to disease in "disability-adjusted life years," or DALYs. There have been 1.36 billion disability-adjusted life years lost each year since 1990. Using this as a measuring stick, and valuing each of these lives at $1 million results in the almost absurd number of $1,360 trillion or over 100 times the Gross World Product. Valuing each life two orders of magnitude lower, at a mere $10,000 results in $13.6 trillion per year.

63 Estimate by The National Coalition for the Homeless, cited in Fact Sheet: 1989 Campaign for Human Development (Washington, D.C.: Campaign for Human Development, 1989).

64 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 24.

65 P. McHenry, "Adobe: New Look at a Centuries-Old Building Material," Christian Science Monitor, 17 April 1986, p. 21.

66 UNDP, Human Development Report 1990, p. 17.

67 McHenry, p. 20.

68 UNDP, Human Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 24.

69 Approximately $200 worth of materials per inadequately sheltered person, $1400 per family.

70 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p. 37.

71 D. Narayan, The Contribution of People's Participation, Evidence from 121 Rural Water Supply Projects, Environmentally Sustainable Developmental Occasional Paper Series No. 1, (Washington DC, The World Bank, 1995), p. 59.

72 ibid.

73 L. Brown, et al., State of the World 1986, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986), pp. 170-71.

74 See endnote #61.

75 47 countries have more armed forces than teachers (UNDP, pp.162-163.); 33 countries have more illiterates than literates (UNDP, pp. 130-131.); In "least developed countries", there are 121 soldiers for every 100 teachers; the literacy rate is 37% (1985). The 1985 literacy rate for the "developing" world is 60%. (UNDP, pp. 21, 78.).

76 UNDP, Human Development Report 1995 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 16; Secretariat of UNESCO, ILY: Year of Opportunity (Paris: UNESCO, 1990), pp. 8-9.

77 U.S. education expenditure per capita is $928 (5.3% of GNP). Population of developing world is 3.78 billion (from Sivard, p. 47); multiplying the two gives $3.5 trillion, or 130% of the GNP of the developing world ($2.7 trillion).

78 Number of teachers from UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook 1989, (France: UNESCO, 1989), pp. 3-85-3-105, 3-146-3-202.

79 Each satellite would cost about $150 million; each television is $50.; each dish receiver is $50.; each photovoltaic power unit is $100.

80 Literacy correlates with cereal yields: 0.653; literacy with GNP/capita: 0.584; literacy with calorie consumption: 0.672. Correlations were done in the software program Global Data Manager. Literacy rate is from Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook 1989 (Washington, D.C.: CIA, 1989). GNP/capita is from The World Bank, pp. 178-179.; cereal yield is from World Resources Institute, pp. 278-279.; calorie consumption is from FAO, pp. 291-292; infant mortality and life expectancy are from World Population Data Sheet 1990. Also see The World Bank, The Contributions of Education to Economic Growth: International Comparisons. World Bank Reprint Series, No. 320 (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1985), where it is pointed out that 4 years of primary education is associated with an average increase in farm productivity of 10% or more.

81 Literacy with infant mortality: -0.815 ; literacy with life expectancy: 0.822. Correlations were done in the software program Global Data Manager. For sources of data, see endnote #80. On average, each additional year of schooling is associated with a decrease in infant mortality rate of approximately 9 per 1000; K. Hinchliffe, The Monetary and Non-Monetary Returns to Education in Africa. The World Bank Education and Training Series, Report EDT46 (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1986).

82 P.D. Maycock and E.N. Stirewalt, A Guide to the Photovoltaic Revolution, (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1986), p. 90-93.

83 To replace the amount of electricity presently being produced by nuclear power plants in the U.S. would require approximately 1300 square miles of Arizona or New Mexico desert, an area about 36 miles by 36 miles square with photovoltaic efficiency of 8% operating at 10 hours per day.

84 V. Zinger and M. Gabel, World Deficit Report 3: World Literacy (Philadelphia: World Game Institute, 1988), p. 10.

85 Consumer Electronics, January 10, 1994.

86 An increase of one year in average years of education may lead to a 3% rise in GDP. The World Bank, World Development Report 1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990)

87 For energy consumption figures for 1950 and 1964: UN, World Energy Supplies 1950-74. Series J, No. 19 (New York: UN, 1976), p. 11. For 1987 figure: UN, 1987 Energy Statistics Yearbook, (New York: UN, 1989), p. 3.

88 1979 oil consumption: 237 million MT [UN, 1981 Energy Statistics Yearbook, (New York: UN, 1983), p.309]; 1987 oil consumption: 156 million MT (UN, 1987 Energy, p. 156); GNP growth rate (1965-1988): 4.3% The World Bank, 1990, p. 179.; Also see: D. E. Sanger, "Japan's Oil Safety Net: Will It Hold?," New York Times, 9 August 1990, p. D18.

89 Sanger, p. D18.
90 Brown et al., 1988, pp. 182-83.

91 The Economist, May 28, 1994, p. 24

92 Gabel, Energy Earth and Everyone, p. 102-103.

93 The Economist, "Climate Tempestuous" July 26, 1996, p. 68.

94 The rapid, and profitable, installation of over 1000 megawatts of wind energy systems in California is a recent example. It is estimated that $30,000 worth of electricity can be produced on each hectare (2.47 acres) devoted to wind farming. (Brown, et al., 1988, p. 177).

95 C. Flavin, "Power Shift", World Watch Magazine, January/February 1996. p. 10.

96 Brown et al., 1988, p. 183.

97The Economist, "Climate Tempestuous" July 26, 1996, p. 68.

98 World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 p. 72-73, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996).

99 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990, p. 1.

100 Brown et al., 1988, pp. 183-85. Also: much of the developing world's current debt is already discounted to 10-20% face value.

101 UNICEF, State of the World's Children 1990 , p. 63.

102 1987 World Population Data Sheet, (Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1987).

103 C. Wahren, "Population and Development-the Burgeoning Billions," The OECD Observer, 155, (Dec. 1988-Jan. 1989), cited in UNICEF, p. 26.

104 UNICEF; p. 27.

105 Population Action International, 1990 Report on Progress Towards Population Stabilization, (Washington D.C.). Also: P. J. Hilts, "Plan is Offered for Stable Birth Rate", New York Times, 26 February 90, p. B9.

106 N. Sadik, The State of World Population 1989-Investing in Women: The Focus of the Nineties, (New York: United Nations Population Fund), cited in UNICEF, p. 26.

107 Valuing the life of a human being at $1 million; valuing the life at $100,000 results in a savings to the world of $4.5 billion.

108 Brown et al., 1988, p. 174.

109 Brown et al., 1988, p. 174.

110 D. Pimental, et. al. "Environmental and economic cost of soil erosion and conservation benefits" Science Magazine, February 24, 1995, p. 1117.

111 WorldWatch Magazine, "Matters of Scale," January/February, 1996, p. 39.

112 Brown et al., 1988, pp. 175-176.

113 Brown et al., 1988, pp. 175-176.

114 A. S. Miller, and I. M. Mintzer, The Sky Is The Limit: Strategies for Protecting the Ozone Layer (Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute, 1986) pp. 13-19.

115 WorldWatch Magazine, "Matters of Scale," January/February, 1996, p. 39.

116 The Economist, March 11, 1996.

117 The Economist, "Climate Tempestuous" July 26, 1996, p. 68.

118 As global warming takes hold most climatologists think that the frequency and intensity of violent storms will increase thereby increasing the losses of the insurance industry.

119 Perfume sales were $4.8 billion in 1994; R. Kline, "A Short History of Smell", Sacramento Bee, February 5, 1995 P. FO1

120 World Watch Institute, Vital Signs 1996.

121 R. L. Sivard, World Military and Social Expenditures 1993, (Washington DC, World Priorities, 1993)

122 Genocide, as well as the preparation for genocide, is something that the international community of nations has agreed upon as a war crime. Because a nuclear weapon is a weapon of mass indiscriminate destruction that kills civilians, it is an instrument of genocide, its use an act of genocide, and its users guilty of committing genocide. By the same token, anyone building and stockpiling nuclear weapons is guilty of preparing for genocide and should be prosecuted for such. At Nuremberg, a similar logic was used to convict the builders of the gas chambers at Nazi death camps during World War II. If the bomb, or gas chamber, is used, it is for genocide. Building such a device then is an act of preparing for genocide. One could use this logic to bring current world leaders and their predecessors to trial for genocide.

123 M. Klare, Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws: America's Search for a New Foreign Policy, (Hill and Wang,) 1995.

124 "Defense Spending 1: The morning after high noon", The Economist, August 10, 1996, p.20.

125 L. Diamond, M. Plattner, Editors, Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Democracy, (Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press), 1994.

126 A modest beginning of this tool is the internet based NetWorld Game which can be seen at http://www.worldgame.org/~wgi

127 Brown et al., 1988, p. 184.

What the World Wants Chart >

Eighteen Strategies...

...for tackling the major problems confronting humanity:

1. Eliminate Starvation and Malnourishment >
2. Provide Health Care & AIDS Control >
3. Provide Shelter >
4. Provide Clean Safe Water >
5. Eliminate Illiteracy >
6. Provide Clean, Safe Energy: Efficiency >
7. Provide Clean, Safe Energy: Renewables >
8. Retire Developing Nations Debt >
9. Stabilize Population >
10. Prevent Soil Erosion >
11. Stop Deforestation >
12. Stop Ozone Depletion >
13. Prevent Acid Rain >
14. Prevent Global Warming >
15. Remove Landmines >
16. Refugee Relief >
17. Eliminating Nuclear Weapons >
18. Build Democracy >