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When blimp photographs are taken of giant stadia packed full of rock-concert or football fans, we get an idea of what 100,000 people look like. We all think of Hiroshima as the worst single killing of humans by humans. That was about a 75,000-capacity-coliseum-full. Each day of each year, year after year, a 75,000-capacity-stadiumfull of around-the-world humans perish from starvation or its side effects, despite an annual average 5-percent world food-production overage of the amount of food adequate for the total world's population. This daily kill of innocents dwarfs the awful Auschwitz killing.

Buckminster Fuller#75

AwarenessHuman rightsNeglectPolicyScale

About this quote

What does it mean?
Fuller compares daily starvation deaths to mass casualty events, highlighting that systemic neglect kills far more than single historical atrocities.
In plain terms
More people die daily from hunger than did in Hiroshima, yet we ignore it despite having enough food.
What can you take from it?
Recognize that preventable starvation is a massive ongoing crisis requiring systemic solutions.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • humanitarian advocacy
  • public awareness

Putting it to work

  • advocate for food distribution
  • track hunger statistics
  • challenge complacency

Questions to consider

  • Why do we react strongly to sudden deaths but ignore slow ones?
  • How can we address food surplus alongside starvation?

Another view

The comparison to Auschwitz may be seen as trivializing historical trauma.

More from Buckminster Fuller

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  3. Humanity is now experiencing history's most difficult evolutionary transformation.

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