{"id":29323,"date":"2017-10-09T12:19:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T12:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/?p=29323"},"modified":"2025-01-23T12:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T12:21:30","slug":"challenges-facing-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenges Facing Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The OAD goal of this brainstorming session was to find potential projects or areas of overlap where astronomy (or its related tools and skills) could contribute to development. Participants were asked to write down the biggest challenge facing the world. One could broadly categorise the challenges into:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Education, Data &amp; Science Literacy<\/li>\n<li>Inequality<\/li>\n<li>Poverty &amp; Hunger<\/li>\n<li>Climate Change<\/li>\n<li>Disempowered citizenry<\/li>\n<li>Intolerance<\/li>\n<li>Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Antibiotic resistance<\/li>\n<li>Safety and security<\/li>\n<li>Access to resources<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We then split into groups to focus on 3 of these topics<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>inequality<\/li>\n<li>fake news + education<\/li>\n<li>access to resources<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The outcomes of the brainstorming session could be roughly divided into these three categories:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>the value of astronomy and the meaning of development<\/li>\n<li>one of the advantages of astronomy is that it allows for big picture thinking<\/li>\n<li>astronomy may be a useful way to promote empathy, and a useful tool for bringing diverse people into a conversation<\/li>\n<li>there is probably no clear meaning of development, and different people have different interpretations<\/li>\n<li>the sharing and co-creation of knowledge could be explored in many different scenarios<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>More pragmatic suggestions or actions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>tackle the fake news problem by focussing on astrology (see\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/learn\/fake-news-facts-alternative-facts-michiganx-teachout-2x?utm_content=email&amp;utm_source=umich&amp;utm_campaign=email-teach-out-coursera-fake-news-oct-2017&amp;utm_medium=institutions\">this link<\/a>\u00a0for Fake news course on Coursera)<\/li>\n<li>improvement of future brainstorming sessions<\/li>\n<li>realise that figuring out the problems is just as valuable as working on solutions<\/li>\n<li>value could be added by including participants from a wider disciplinary background<\/li>\n<li>in future, topics could be more focused with preparatory reading or engagement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The OAD goal of this brainstorming session was to find potential projects or areas of overlap where astronomy (or its related tools and skills) could contribute to development. Participants were asked to write down the biggest challenge facing the world. One could broadly categorise the challenges into: Education, Data &amp; Science Literacy Inequality Poverty &amp; [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[721],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-full-moon-mashups"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Challenges Facing Humanity - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Challenges Facing Humanity - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The OAD goal of this brainstorming session was to find potential projects or areas of overlap where astronomy (or its related tools and skills) could contribute to development. Participants were asked to write down the biggest challenge facing the world. One could broadly categorise the challenges into: Education, Data &amp; Science Literacy Inequality Poverty &amp; [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/astro4dev\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-09T12:19:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-23T12:21:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1613\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1210\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"joy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@astro4dev\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@astro4dev\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"joy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"joy\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f00747821b7801aa35b3e08e70da610e\"},\"headline\":\"Challenges Facing Humanity\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-09T12:19:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-23T12:21:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Full Moon Mashups\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\",\"name\":\"Challenges Facing Humanity - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-09T12:19:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-23T12:21:30+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg\",\"width\":1613,\"height\":1210},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Challenges Facing Humanity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/\",\"name\":\"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development\",\"description\":\"Astronomy for a better world!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/04_OAD_full_2-DSI.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/04_OAD_full_2-DSI.jpg\",\"width\":2540,\"height\":2327,\"caption\":\"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/astro4dev\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/astro4dev\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/AstronomyforDevelopment\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f00747821b7801aa35b3e08e70da610e\",\"name\":\"joy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/353e2b066b8dd8d404cb81717f80209b9ab762f39f9aafd271ef8c8dc7da3ddc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/353e2b066b8dd8d404cb81717f80209b9ab762f39f9aafd271ef8c8dc7da3ddc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"joy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/author\/joy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Challenges Facing Humanity - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Challenges Facing Humanity - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development","og_description":"The OAD goal of this brainstorming session was to find potential projects or areas of overlap where astronomy (or its related tools and skills) could contribute to development. Participants were asked to write down the biggest challenge facing the world. One could broadly categorise the challenges into: Education, Data &amp; Science Literacy Inequality Poverty &amp; [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/","og_site_name":"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/astro4dev","article_published_time":"2017-10-09T12:19:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-23T12:21:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1613,"height":1210,"url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"joy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@astro4dev","twitter_site":"@astro4dev","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"joy","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/"},"author":{"name":"joy","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f00747821b7801aa35b3e08e70da610e"},"headline":"Challenges Facing Humanity","datePublished":"2017-10-09T12:19:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-23T12:21:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/"},"wordCount":241,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg","articleSection":["Full Moon Mashups"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/","url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/","name":"Challenges Facing Humanity - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-09T12:19:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-23T12:21:30+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/first_brainstorm_small.jpg","width":1613,"height":1210},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/challenges-facing-humanity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Challenges Facing Humanity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/","name":"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development","description":"Astronomy for a better world!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#organization","name":"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development","url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/04_OAD_full_2-DSI.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/04_OAD_full_2-DSI.jpg","width":2540,"height":2327,"caption":"IAU Office of Astronomy for Development"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/astro4dev","https:\/\/x.com\/astro4dev","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/AstronomyforDevelopment"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f00747821b7801aa35b3e08e70da610e","name":"joy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/353e2b066b8dd8d404cb81717f80209b9ab762f39f9aafd271ef8c8dc7da3ddc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/353e2b066b8dd8d404cb81717f80209b9ab762f39f9aafd271ef8c8dc7da3ddc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"joy"},"url":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/author\/joy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29325,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29323\/revisions\/29325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astro4dev.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}