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Last week we looked at some big ideas for transforming the

world. This week, we look at what you as an individual can do.

Plus, more ideas from big thinkers

Part 2How you can make the world better

Eliza Jane Maggiore died of AIDS in 2005, aged 3, after her HIV-positive mother refused to let her be treated for HIV. Eliza wasn’t the first child to die as a result of HIV denialism , and she won’t be the last.

Even more children will die as a result of climate change deniers . Making the dramatic cuts in greenhouse emissions that are needed would be extremely difficult even if everyone in the world accepted that humans are to blame; the refusal of many to accept the facts continues to delay meaningful action.

We humans are not inherently rational creatures. Sometimes our very desire to make sense of the world leads us astray: when parents discover their child has autism , for instance, it’s very hard for many to accept that, as yet, no one can really explain why.

Once we form an opinion, we are liable to seize upon anything that appears to confirm our beliefs, however tenuous, while rejecting mountains of solid evidence. Fear , especially, leads us to make poor decisions.

Rationality has its problems , too. Many of the things that motivate us and move us, like love and sex, have little to do with reason. And occasionally believing things really does make them true – just look at the placebo effect .

So being rational can be difficult – it often goes against our gut feelings. But if we want to stay alive, let alone make the world a better place to live in, there is no substitute for science and reason. We need to base our actions on how things really are, rather than how we would like them to be – and elect leaders who do the same. Michael Le Page

Get real

Personal choices, when multiplied,

are a powerful tool for change. If we

all refused to drink anything but

organic, shade-grown coffee, that

choice would have a major positive

effect on Neotropical migrant

songbirds, whose numbers are

plummeting. And if the world were

to ban fishing by bottom trawl

dragging, the devastation of the

ocean floor – which is proceeding at

breakneck pace and leading to the

near-total destruction of the ocean

fish we eat – could be halted before

it is far too late.

Margaret Atwood, author, feminist

and social campaigner

Shutting down the rise in the

atmosphere’s carbon dioxide is a

must. It will prove to be a huge and

costly task. Conservation and non-

fossil fuel energy alone won’t be

enough. In addition CO2 capture and

storage will have to play a big role.

Key to this will be the ability to

capture CO2 directly from the

atmosphere.

Wallace Broecker, environmental

scientist at Cornell University, New

York, who coined the term “global

warming”

There are huge health inequities in

the world. This is not simply due to a

lack of access to medical care. It is

the result of inequities in power,

money and resources, which in turn

shape the conditions in which

people are born, grow, live, work

and age. We need to take action to

solve the problem. Health equity

should be part of the consideration

of all policy-makers. If we can get

the United Nations, World Bank, IMF

and national governments to start

thinking and talking in this way, that

would be a good start.

Michael Marmot, epidemiologist,

University College London

Big thinkers,

big ideas

We asked prominent thinkers

and doers what they reckon

will make the world better...

BETTER WORLD