It is hard to see how the world will get by without a major global rethinking of taxation-and sooner rather than later. Tax issues are sufficiently complaex that any idea for changing taxation comes with strong pros and cons. But one thing is sure: the changes that will inevitably have to be made in the methods of taxation should happen in some countries but not in others, if we are to avoid an unholy and unhealthy mess. The world would be far better off with some sort of global framework for rethinking taxation for the twenty-first century. 

During he 1990s, natural disasters-floods, groughts, earthquakes, storms, strong winds, torrential rais, and muudslides-hit the world 500-800 times a year and cost more than $600 billion, more than in the previous four decades combined. Losses in the 1990s were three times those in the 1908s and fifteen times those of the 1950s. 

The world suddenly faces an appalling health crisis. Once more, it originates largely in poverty and destitution-in developing world. AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles now kill 13 million people a year, and the numbers keep going up. They threaten to reverse decades of development in many developing countries. 

Wars between states have given way almost entirely to intrastate wars and armed conflicts. In 1999-2000 there were no fewer than fifty such wars, and they had killed 7 milion civilians since their inception. More than 90 percent of them since 1945 have taken place in developing countries. These conflicts increasingly draw surrounding countries into violence.

Like other global issues, addressing the threesome of peacekeeping, conflict prevention, and fighting global terrorism comes only at a modest cost.  

Just as education can equalize or divide countries and people, information and communications technologies can go either way. Right now, these technologies-even though they have sometimes advanced surprisingly in some developing countires -are very unevenly distributed. The resulting " digital divide " is of great concern.

Like many issues of the second category, it's a powerful " underlier" issue, whose solution facilitates addressing other issues.

One in six adults on the planet cannot read or write. Some 600 million women and 300 million men, 99 percent of them in developing countries, remain illiterate. Some 115 million children between six and eleven-one in five-are not in school. Of those who go to school, one in four drop out before completing five years of basic education.

Reducing world povery is arguably the main global challenge of the next twenty years. Why? First for more reasons, and for the sake of justice and balance. A world where less than 20 percent of the people consume 85 percent of the goods and services just isn't tenable-and will become even less so as we grow from 6 billion to about 8 billion people in the first quarter of this century. 

One of five people on this planet depends on fish as the primary source of protien. Total fish production was estimated at around 160 million tons per year, worth about 70-80 billion. With the population increase and higher standards of living, demand will increase substantially. Fishing is central to the livelihoods and food security of many communities, indeed etnire countries and regions.  

As with many of the twenty burning global issues, the cost of tackling this one could be very modest on a global scale. 

Maritime safety and pollution 

Many places in the world are getting drier-not just becuse of climate change but also because of the demands of irrigation and industry. Lak Chad has shrunk to one-twentieth of its size in 1960. The Aral Sea is about gone. The Colorado river no longer reaches the sea in the dry season. Just 10 percent of Mesopotamian marshlands are left. Worldwide, some 2-3 billion people could face acute freshwater shortages by 2020.