A Better World: Ten Big Ideas
Mike Treder
2009-09-14 00:00:00
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We live in an imperfect world. Poverty, disease, lack of education, environmental destruction -- the problems are all too obvious. Many people don't have clean water, let alone enough food, and the unsustainable lifestyle of the wealthy few is storing up catastrophic climate change.

Can we do anything about it? You bet we can.

Over the next three weeks, New Scientist will explore diverse ideas for making the world a better place, and the evidence backing them.


That's how New Scientist magazine introduces their special series titled "Blueprint for a Better World." As a start, they offer these ten Big Ideas:

1. Beware of common sense - If governments are serious about achieving their aims, they must base their decisions on hard evidence and not received wisdom.

2. Legalise drugs - Far from protecting us and our children, the war on drugs is making the world a much more dangerous place.

3. Give police your DNA - The only fair, effective answer to the question of whose DNA profiles police should keep is: everybody's.

4. Redefine the bottom line - Governments need to find better ways of measuring progress than simply looking at wealth.

5. Find out if we can cool the planet - We need to do our homework rather than simply assume geoengineering can stave off disaster.

6. Tax carbon and give the money to the people - Goods should be taxed to reflect the damage they do to the planet, with revenues redistributed to society.

7. Learn to love genetic engineering - The technology environmentalists love to hate really could play a big role in saving the planet.

8. End the pillaging of the high seas - We must put a stop to the free-for-all out on the oceans to have any chance of saving their riches from the ravages of climate change.

9. Generate a feed-in frenzy - Paying people who generate green energy and feed it back to the grid is the best way to boost uptake of renewable energy.

10. Take Friday off… forever - The four-day week could boost employment, save energy and make us happier.


Their suggestions all seem pretty good to me. Click on the links above to read more about each item.