2018

This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this people-centred Agenda. We are resolved to free the human race within this generation from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet for the present and for future generations. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. Eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, and ending hunger remains the greatest challenge facing our world today. We recognise the intrinsic interlinkages between poverty eradication and the promotion of sustainable development. These Goals and targets are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. The Goals and targets build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business. We acknowledge that sustainable development and peace are mutually reinforcing. The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in the following areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet: People We want to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential. We want to end poverty in all its forms and dimensions; end hunger and malnutrition; achieve food security; respect and promote human rights and human dignity; combat inequalities in and among countries; achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; ensure quality education, sustainable management of water, sanitation and hygiene, and a healthy life for all; ensure reliable access to natural resources, a healthy environment and well-being for all; and secure the participation of all peoples and groups, including children and youth, persons with disabilities, migrants and indigenous peoples, in the realization of the Goals and targets. ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION BY CO-FACILITATORS Preamble We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, resolve to chart a new era of sustainable development and to end poverty in all its dimensions by 2030. This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet. We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet: People We are determined to end poverty in all its forms and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment. Planet We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, managing its natural resources sustainably, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations. Prosperity We are determined to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature. Peace We are determined to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence. There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development.

Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity.

Ethical Record, 2018

Natural science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. First, we need to acknowledge that the actual aims of science are profoundly problematic, in that they make problematic assumptions about metaphysics, values and the social use of science. Then we need to represent these aims in the form of a hierarchy of aims, which become increasingly unproblematic as one goes up the hierarchy; as result we create a framework of relatively unproblematic aims and methods, high up in the hierarchy, within which much more problematic aims and methods, low down in the hierarchy, may be improved as scientific knowledge improves. Then, we need to generalize this hierarchical, aims-and-methods-improving methodology so that it becomes fruitfully applicable to any worthwhile endeavour with problematic aims. Finally, we need to apply this methodology to the immensely problematic task of making progress towards as good a world as feasible.

The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 2005

Within the 2030 Agenda, sustainable development, poverty reduction and climate policy are inextricably linked. This agreement, which was adopted by the global community in 2015, seeks to promote global economic progress while at the same time fostering social justice and the conservation of natural resources. And ensuring that no one is left behind. That is why the 2030 Agenda's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place special emphasis on the weakest and the most vulnerable members of society. To ensure it succeeds, developing countries, emerging economies and industrialised nations must all do their part. The 2030 Agenda and the 17 SDGs are important benchmarks for GIZ. To ensure that they are implemented in our daily work, we have prioritised five principles drawn from this framework: UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE: To achieve sustainable development, every country needs to develop or change. The 2030 Agenda therefore applies universally to all countries of the world-developing countries, emerging economies and industrialised nations alike. LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND: All human beings should be able to lead a decent life free from hunger and poverty. In future, no one should be left behind or excluded from social development. INTEGRATED GOALS: The SDGs are integrated and indivisible, and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. SHARED RESPONSIBILITY: The Agenda aims through partnerships to preserve the world's vital natural resources and promote prosperity and peace. Governments, business, civil society groups, citizens, and the scientific and academic community will all play their part in this. ACCOUNTABILITY: Implementation of the Agenda will be reviewed at the national, regional and global levels. Regular progress reports will be published. GOAL 2 Zero Hunger GOAL 3 Good Health and WellBeing GOAL 4 Quality Education GOAL 5 Gender Equality GOAL 6 Clean Water and Sanitation GOAL 7 Affordable and Clean Energy GOAL 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth GOAL 1 No Poverty GOAL 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure GOAL 10 Reduced Inequalities GOAL 14 Life Below Water GOAL 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities GOAL 15 Life On Land GOAL 12 Responsible Consumption and Production GOAL 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions GOAL 13 Climate Action

2015

In his well-known essay "Civil Disobedience" (1849), the nineteenth-century American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau makes a thought-provoking comment about the world in which he finds himself: "I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad." Though Thoreau's statement is concerned with effecting political change, making this world a better place to live in seems a secondary concern. But for many people, living in this world involves making it a better place to live in. Making a difference is part of who they are and what they do. Volunteer translators and interpreters are making this a better world to live in, mainly by donating their time and language skills to organizations that are dedicated to improving lives. Global organizations such as the four profiled in this article-Kiva.org, Kidlink, International Children's Digital Library and the American Red Cross Serving King & Kitsap Counties-depend upon volunteer translators and interpreters to fulfill their missions. The reasons why people volunteer their time and skills are many, but the result is the same-the world is a better place because of what they so generously do. Kiva.org Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Kiva.org-kiva being a Swahili word for agreement or unity-fights global poverty by making, as the organization's slogan says, "loans that change lives." Founded in 2004 by Jessica Flannery and Matthew Flannery, Kiva.org helps people "to connect with and make personal loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world." Loans can help a woman in Nicaragua operate a tailoring business (loan amount: $200), a man in Ecuador open a shoe-making business (loan amount: $600) and two women in Senegal begin a fish-selling operation (loan amount: $1,000). The word loan is repeated and emphasized throughout Kiva.org's website (www.kiva.org). The money given to low-income entrepreneurs is not a donation, a handout or a contribution. According to the website, "a loan through Kiva.org is not a handout: it is a source of empowerment for both the giver and the recipient. Kiva.org users are not donors; they are lenders in 'peer-to-peer' microfinance, a process based on mutual respect and trust. Kiva.org lenders see exactly who their money goes to, what the recipients are doing with it, and how it is making a difference." Lenders can make loans of "as little as $25 to the entrepreneur of their choice via PayPal, a globally recognized online payment service." Loans through Kiva.org are administered by microfinance institutions (MFIs)-"organizations that give small loans that help poor people who wish to start or expand their small businesses but are too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Over 10,000 MFIs exist worldwide." Once a loan is repaid, the lender has two options-either withdraw the money or reloan the sum to another entrepreneur. Naomi Baer, Kiva.org's translation program manager, oversees 175 volunteer translators located in eight countries ranging from Cambodia to Iceland and in more than 15 US states. According to Baer, "volunteers translate and

Socialism and Democracy, 2020

Early Marx's famous philosophical thesis, "[t]he philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point is to change it" (Marx, 1964: p. 69), is half-right and halfwrong. Yes, leaving aside Marx himself and a few other philosophical activists (see, e.g., Hanna, 2020), philosophers have only ever variously interpreted the world. But no, the point isn't that philosophers should act upon the world precipitately and unreflectively, as if they were being shot out of a revolutionist's rifle. Instead, the point is that (i) philosophers should critically and reflectively shape human thinking about the world, so that (ii) people, not only individually but also social-institutionally, can freely shape and change their own lives for the better or even the best, and then finally (iii) all of them, philosophers and non-philosophers alike, can act freely together in order to change the world for the better or even the best. This is the basic rationale behind The Shape of Lives to Come project, aka The SLTC project.

Essentially every day for the past 50 years, the front-page news of any newspaper could have read “22,000 children died today of easily preventable causes!” Extreme world poverty results in thousands of daily deaths due to malnourishment, hunger, or diseases that often cost less than a dollar to prevent or treat. Not only is this state of affairs depressing due to the ongoing immense human suffering and because the world could have solved these problems decades ago, but also because still, not enough is being done. On the bright side, extreme poverty can be eliminated.