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Where celebrating International Peace Day could help the most, in one map

Attention everyone, please. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for a global ceasefire to mark the International Day of Peace, celebrated by the UN on the third Tuesday of September since 1981.

“I call on all warring parties to lay down their weapons and observe a global ceasefire. To them I say: stop the killings and the destruction, and create space for lasting peace.”

There are a lot of conflicts that could benefit from a pause in fighting, so here’s a map of the places that need immediate resolution, created by the Council on Foreign RelationsCenter for Preventive Action (the two dots in the US are threats related to the war on terror and IT infrastructure):

A limited list of problems is still a good place to start.

The interactive version of the map includes individual backgrounders on each dot and is worth your time. It doesn’t include the most common and often ignored types of conflict, though: domestic violence and gun violence. A complete map of where we need peace every day would look more like this:

A rendering of the Milky Way Galaxy, a.k.a. home.

According to CFR, there are at least 30 large-scale conflicts in the world today. For most of us, celebrating Peace Day might take the form of donations. As sci-fi author John Scalzi suggested, the simplest way to help is to donate to those in need of food, shelter, clothing, and support.

The World Food Programme is asking folks to help provide food to Syrian refugees through donations starting at $1.

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