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Get real
BETTER WORLD
Part 2 How you can make the world better 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
Get real 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
Big thinkers, big ideas We asked prominent thinkers and doers what they reckon will make the world better...
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 nonfossil 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
19 September 2009 | NewScientist | 31
Part 2 How you can make the world better 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
Get real 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
Big thinkers, big ideas We asked prominent thinkers and doers what they reckon will make the world better...
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 nonfossil 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
19 September 2009 | NewScientist | 31