I researched online for a short list of the World’s main problems which I needed for Chapter 1 of Series 1. There are so many possibilities for candidates for this list. This page explains how I decided on which ones I would include in my list.
After searching online in 2024, I encountered several organisations with interesting problem lists. The World Economic Forum published its top ten risks for 2024. Development Aid has a list of their own. Time had a list for 2024 that was more USA centric. The United Nations has a list of goals it aspires to work toward. 80,000 Hours – a career-advice organisation focused on social impact — maintained a list of problems it prioritised for being unusually large in scale, unduly neglected, and solvable. (Note that 80,000 Hours restructured this list in 2026 and shifted its focus more heavily toward AI-related risks). The 80,000 Hours version described here was so in 2024.
These resources yielded 38 problems, 8 of which recurred across multiple lists (the orange and pink ones in the chart). Some could be merged into a broader categories – extreme weather and critical change to Earth’s systems could both qualify as “climate change”. Water accessibility and hunger and access to food could both belong in “natural resource shortages”. The reduced my list to 6 main problems.
I then ran a separate search in 2025 using Artificial Intelligence (AI) — specifically Claude — which drew on the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 and a separate Ipsos survey as sources. This resulted in a shorter list of 5 problems. All but one of these (Human Rights) had featured among the earlier list, resulting in a revised list of 7 problems – 6 from the earlier 8 and Human Rights added via Claude. I have taken so long to write this that I was also able to review this in 2026 and add a Gallup poll, which was quite an international study. That added 3 new problems and altered the focus a bit, with only 2 problems in the high priority list. Their report on the different priorities of perceived problems in various parts of the world is interesting.
Here are the seven problems I chose from the various sources –
1) Climate change & changes to Earth’s critical systems – my assumption is that these two are directly linked and fit one category.
2) Interstate armed conflict – Regional conflicts, resurgence of great power competition between nations like the U.S. and China, and military tensions are shaping the international agenda.
3) Natural resource shortages (this includes Water accessibility although hunger and access to food may or may not be included)
4) Global health
5) Involuntary migration
6) Lack of economic opportunity & poverty
7) Adverse outcomes of AI technology – Rapidly evolving, disruptive technology presents both opportunities and challenges and also effects misinformation & disinformation and weakening of democracies
