how you can make the world a better place
TRANSCRIPT
30 | NewScientist | 19 September 2009
33
RP
M A
T D
UT
CH
UN
CL
E
19 September 2009 | NewScientist | 31
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