杏吧原创

We asked prominent thinkers and doers what they reckon will make the world better鈥�

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 鈥� which is proceeding at breakneck pace and leading to the near-total destruction of the ocean fish we eat 鈥� could be halted before it is far too late.

Margaret Atwood, author, feminist and social campaigner

Shutting down the rise in the atmosphere鈥檚 carbon dioxide is a must. It will prove to be a huge and costly task. Conservation and non-fossil fuel energy alone won鈥檛 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 鈥済lobal warming鈥�

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

One thing that could be done to make the world a better place is for citizens to demand that their governments shift the tax burden to fall more heavily on CO₂-producing activities. The overall taxes an average person paid would stay the same, so their standard of living would be unchanged, but it would encourage less use of products and services that increase the CO₂ concentration in the oceans and atmosphere.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chairman of Tesla Motors

Within hunter-gatherer groups virtually all members possessed the same non-genetic information. Today even the most educated individuals can鈥檛 possibly store more than a millionth of 1 per cent of their culture. To make the world a better place, societies must start trying to close the gap. If many more people know the basics of how the world works, civilisation has a much better chance of reaching sustainability.

Paul R. Ehrlich, author and population researcher, Stanford University, California

The world population is projected to reach around 9 billion by 2050. If numbers continue to rise beyond 2050, the problems of providing the food, water and energy for an acceptable lifestyle, and of avoiding dangerous climate change, will be aggravated. To make a difference there is no need for the kinds of draconian 鈥減opulation control鈥� that have been implemented in some nations. The social trends that lead to the demographic transition towards lower birth rates include declining infant mortality, availability of contraceptive advice, women鈥檚 education, and so forth. It should be an urgent international priority to bring these benefits to impoverished regions.

Martin Rees, astrophysicist, University of Cambridge, and president of the Royal Society

The most important thing we can do as individuals is to think. Instead of responding with your gut reaction, get the facts, get a complete picture of the problem and the possible solutions. As an exercise, take one of your strongly held opinions and challenge it. Spend a week, or better a month, researching it. You may find that you were mistaken. And if it turns out you were right, then so much the better.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia

We are, arguably, the most intellectual creature to have walked the planet. How come, then, we are destroying it? We make decisions based on 鈥淗ow will this affect me now?鈥� or 鈥淗ow will this affect the next shareholders鈥� meeting, three months from now?鈥� And so on. If we would all 鈥� and particularly the powerful voices in industry and government 鈥� think about future generations, the world would rapidly become a much better place.

Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace

To an extent almost never matched in American history, policy-making has been captured by the interests necessary to fund campaigns. The world would be an enormously better place if policy-makers in America could be independent of those interests 鈥� pursuing policy that made sense, and not that raised campaign dollars.

Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Harvard University

As a little treat for me: if you鈥檙e a 鈥渃omplementary鈥� medical practitioner who can鈥檛 stump up proper evidence, there鈥檚 a new law. Every sentence out of your mouth has to finish with the words 鈥淥f course, everything I say is for entertainment purposes only鈥�.

Dara O鈥橞riain, comedian