Sample 4 - Severity of Starvation

Title: WWII is happening all the time.

What you should know:
Currently about 8.5 million people die every year from starvation.
The total number of lives lost in WWII was approximately 50 million. The Second World War was from 1939-1945 (i.e., six years).

The deaths from starvation over a 6 year period are approximately 51 million. (6 x 8.5 = 51.)

This means that in EVERY six year period, deaths from starvation are equivalent to deaths from WWII.

Why you should know it: WWII is seen as one of the greatest tragedies of recent history. Everyone thinks it was a terrible war (as if wars are ever nice), but that it was almost a necessary war because a murderous evil had to be stopped. WWII was recognized and is continually recognized as a horrific situation, in which so many died. There are memorials, commemorations and the overt discussions of the evil exhibited.

But if one is measuring shear number of deaths, there is a great imbalance. As mentioned above, WWII ended 50 million lives, but it ended 60 years ago. So if we multiply the starvation deaths over this time period, we end up with 500 million dead from starvation.

I guess you have to ask yourself what is worse: the human traits of greed, power, domination, violence and apathy that lead people to try to destroy one another, or the human traits of greed, power, domination, violence and apathy that lead people to not share their food.

Further thoughts:
It should be mentioned that at the time of WWII the population of the planet was less than one billion, while today it is over six billion. Proportionally then, the deaths of WWII are much higher. Alternatively, 20-30 years ago, when the population of the planet was 4-5 billion, 100 million were dying from starvation every six years, so the proportions may not be that disparate.