how can one person change the world essay

If I Could Change the World Essay: Examples & Writing Guide

To write an engaging “If I Could Change the World” essay, you have to get a few crucial elements:

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

• What? How? Whom? When? Where?
• The essay structure that determines where each answer should be;
• Some tips that can make your writing unique and original.

Let us help you a bit and give recommendations for “If I Could Change the World” essays with examples. And bookmark our writing company website for excellent academic assistance and study advice.

• 🗯 What Would You Change?
• 💁‍♂️ How Would You Do It?

👉 Whom Would Your Changes Affect?

⏱️ when would you change the world, 🌎 where would you make changes, 📦 out-of-the-box thinking, 🤔 deep understanding, 🧠 an intelligible structure, 🗣️ excellent language.

• 📝 Essay Example

✏️ Change the World Essay FAQ

🔗 references, 💡 if i could change the world essay: essential questions.

What do you think about the world we are all living in? The vast majority of people love their lives, being human, and living on the Earth. They may have no time to think about the world around them or notice that this world requires changes.

And do you have time to notice this? Do you believe that our world is no longer the best and safest place to live in? If you do and have some suggestions on how our world can be changed, you can write a good “If I Could Change the World” essay.

Start crafting your paper by considering these questions:

Just in 1 hour! We will write you a plagiarism-free paper in hardly more than 1 hour

Answering them will boost your imagination and help with outlining your essay. Besides, you may find something new about yourself and your mind.

🗯 If You Could Change the World, What Would You Change?

What do I want to change in the world? Start this essay with those particular things that you believe require fixing. We are sure you will not have difficulties with this point because the problems we face these days seem endless.

We’ve gotten used to having such problems, and many people are sure that nothing can ever change. But what if millions of people became more conscious and decided to make even a minor effort to solve just one problem? In that case, we would already live in a better place.

For example:

Why not mention global warming or air pollution? There are plenty of problems common to humanity that require our intervention, so essay writing about global issues is also a great opportunity to narrow down your topic.

Receive a plagiarism-free paper tailored to your instructions. Cut 15% off your first order!

Use your imagination and describe your great ideas in your essay about changing the world for better. You could build up a fantastic paper—or maybe even change the world.

💁‍♂️ How Would You Change the World?

What ways do you think would be the most effective to make necessary changes? Whose help might you need? You have to speculate, “How can I change the world?” for the essay.

You’ll have to use your imagination here again:

• Delve deeper into the topic. List the ways, methods, or strategies you’d utilize to help the world we live in.
• Make a list of these people or organizations.
• Explain how they could contribute to achieving your aim.

For instance, you could consider involving global charities or celebrities to assist you on your path to a better world.

Would your changes influence society in the world? Or some particular groups of people would need them more than all the others?

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

This is another exciting idea that you could develop in your essay. Give insight into whose lives your actions would change. For example, you could think of improving the lives of poor, hungry children in Africa or helping animals suffering from global warming.

Do you think that the problems you are talking about require immediate solutions? There are issues worldwide that can’t wait any longer and need to be changed urgently.

Why not discuss them?

Here’s an idea: Bring up a topic related to a pressing global health issue. For example, focus your main point on incurable diseases or infectious diseases that annually kill more than 17 million people .

In what part of the world would you change something?

It’s essential to touch on the location of your global changes. Are you audacious enough to implement your great ideas worldwide? Or would you be better off starting in a small area and eventually growing it into something on a larger scale?

Consider these ideas as well, and don’t forget to mention the location in your paper.

You can also read our article on world peace to learn more about current problems and issues that require changes.

✒️ If I Could Change the World Essay: Writing Guide

What are the criteria that guide your professor when evaluating your “If I Could Change the World” essay? Are there any one-size-fits-all characteristics you can safely incorporate to end up with a breathtaking paper?

There are! And knowing them will help you write more convincing essays that earn better grades.

Representing your original thinking as an author doesn’t mean that you have to invent something new or discover some unknown theory. Not to discourage you, but chances of doing that are pretty small.

Try writing a “changing the world” essay different from other students’ papers because of its original approach . You could look at things from an unusual angle or come up with a new hypothesis. Even the purpose of your writing can differ if you add creativity.

Your “If I Could Change the World” essay topic is a platform for unlimited imagination and original thinking. Go ahead and make the most of it!

A perfect essay about the world’s problems—just like any other essay—shows in-depth knowledge. Demonstrate the comprehension of all the facts, concepts, and issues you’re talking about. You also need to clearly understand why these ideas matter, both to you and your reader.

To end up with a fantastic “changing the world” essay, you should do the following:

• Craft and polish a persuasive thesis, stating your position clearly.
• Find credible sources to add quotes and value to your writing.
• Use engaging, relevant facts for your arguments and central hypothesis.
• Consider and analyze different viewpoints.
• Summarize and synthesize data from various sources.
• Double-check information that you’re uncertain about.
• Write a reference list at the bottom of your essay.

Don’t forget to analyze and consider all points of view and include quotations from reputable sources.

The first and foremost thing to bear in mind when outlining your essay is that it should answer the following three questions:

Also, a high-quality essay contains all of the necessary parts of an academic paper:

• Introduction : Starts with a hook that grabs the reader’s attention. Directs the reader, identifies the focus, and provides the context of the issue. Most importantly, it includes a thesis statement. If you struggle with this part, try to make use of a thesis statement generator .
• Main body : Provides the argumentation for your thesis and supporting details. Includes quotes and other data that you’ve gathered. Every paragraph starts with a topic sentence and ends with a concluding one, tying the text together.
• Conclusion : Restates and develops the thesis and summarizes the arguments. Gives the last impression on the reader, leaving the final thoughts in the concluding sentences. May include a call for action.

Your “If I Could Change the World” essay should have a consistent discussion and a balanced argument. Relevant facts and data should support all the points. The conclusion weighs your evidence and provides your final opinion about the paper’s central idea.

Your discussion should be smooth and effortless so that your readers feel like they are in safe hands. The sentences should be flowing naturally and logically from one to the other. The reader should understand everything from the first read. Do not deviate from your topic, or else the focus of your essay will be lost.

You should strive for flawless grammar, spelling, and punctuation, without mistakes or typos. To ensure its flawlessness, proofread your paper or ask someone to do it for you.

If I Could Change the World: Essay Topics

• Can one person change the world?  
• What can we do to eliminate the global violence?  
• How I would change animal rights and welfare laws .  
• Helping homeless people is a critical task for humanity.  
• Becoming a social service assistant is the best way to change the world.  
• Creativity can change the world and make it a better place to live in.  
• If I could change the world, I would destroy nuclear weapons.  
• Can courage change the world when the cost is so great? 
• We need to stop climate change to save the world.  
• What I can do to save the world from global warming .  
• The things I would do to eliminate gaming addiction from the world.  
• I would save the Earth from destruction by making hanges in an energy crisis.  
• Why we should pay more attention to the overpopulation problem .  
• Fighting inflation and unemployment is a way to change the world.  
• What I can do today to help integration of children with special needs . 
• Elimination of smoking will change the population’s health for the better.  
• If we want to save the Earth, we should reduce air polution .  
• The best career choice to change the world. 
• If I could change the world, I would improve the humanity and nature relationship .  
• The most important thing I would change about this world is the disease prevention level .  
• Combat the growing trend of obesity to improve health in the community.  
• Should we ban consumable plastics to save oceans wildlife?  
• Using electric vehicles instead of gas cars will improve people’s life quality.  
• Removing domestic violence and abuse is the thing I would do to change the world.  
• What I would change to create an ideal society .  
• Becoming a teacher is my way of improving schooling for young learners .  
• How I would change the economic situation in modern Latin America.  
• My plans on banning experiments on animals .  
• Preparing effective tools to change the children’s world. 
• We need to change the system to remove health disparities .  
• What I would do to change the situation with alcohol abuse in the world.  
• Racism is the global issue that requires an immediate change.  
• The things that can be done to change the level of substance abuse among adolescents.  
• If I could change the world, I would remove gender inequality from it.  
• The solution to social problems within educational institutions is the change we should make in this world.  
• What changes can we make to overcome the world poverty? 
• Why it’s important to resolve the global water crisis .  
• The solution of immigrant problems is a step towards a better society.  
• How eliminating corruption will make this world better. 
• What can I do to help resolve the problems of older adults ?   
• Lowering crime rates will change the world.  
• How I would change the situation with indigenous Australians.  
• Preventing and curing breast cancer is one of the greatest concerns in modern society.  
• What can we do to prevent disease outbreaks?  
• Why the problem of school violence requires our immediate attention.   
• How I would change the food distribution to combat the issue of world hunger .  
• Why we should promote renewable energy sources.  
• Terrorism is the most urgent problem in modern society.  
• What would I do to change the situation with school bullying?   
• What should we change in the world to resolve the problems of LGBT people? 

📝 If I Could Change the World: Essay Example

In this section, you’ll find an essay example on the topic. The downloadable PDF version is under the preview. Hope it will inspire you to write your own If I Could Change the World essay!

If I Could Change the World: Pros and Cons (Essay Example)

The idea of having a tremendous influence on the course of the world history is rather tempting since it implies huge power and the availability of any resource possible. Thus, the possibility of changing the world might be perceived solely as a positive concept at first. However, without the ability to encompass and understand the global implications of the changes that I would make, I would take the actions that would most likely result in the suffering of multiple people, which is why the described scenario is highly undesirable.

Now that you know a little more, it’s easy to come up with even more “If I Could Change the World” essay topics. Just think about them carefully or surf the web for some inspiration.

Thank you for reading till the end! Leave your comment in the section below. Share the article with friends who also have to write an “If I Could Change the World” essay.

Further reading:

• World Peace Essay in Simple English: How-to + Topic Ideas

It is a paper that deals with a controversial question “Can we change the world” (or similar). There are many ways to develop this topic: from telling about a person, invention, or idea of speaking about skills for changing the world.

To be concise within such a broad topic might be a challenge. One strategy might be to think about who or what in human history has changed something in society a lot. It might be an invention, a politician, a scientist, etc. Then, focus just on that subject.

There many ways to change something, both negatively and positively. If we do not care about ecology, we ruin the world’s biosphere. If we do our best to stay eco-friendly, we make it a better place. We can also change the world with the help of education, science, medicine, etc.

If you do not like the topic you are given, there are always ways to divert from it. Meanwhile, you will formally keep it the same. You can, for example, start by introducing a correlated idea. Then, write about that idea and its connection to the topic.

• One Person Can Change The World
• Essay about Three Things I Would Change in the World
• The Power of Music to Help Change the World (and Me!)
• If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
• To Change the World, Change Yourself
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

Why do you want to be a pharmacist? An essay on this topic can be challenging, even when you know the answer. The most popular reasons to pursue this profession are the following:

How to write a film critique essay? To answer this question, you should clearly understand what a movie critique is. It can be easily confused with a movie review. Both paper types can become your school or college assignments. However, they are different. A movie review reveals a personal impression...

Are you getting ready to write your Language Proficiency Index Exam essay? Well, your mission is rather difficult, and you will have to work hard. One of the main secrets of successful LPI essays is perfect writing skills. So, if you practice writing, you have a chance to get the...

Dengue fever is a quite dangerous febrile disease that can even cause death. Nowadays, this disease can be found in the tropics and Africa. Brazil, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, and India are also vulnerable to this disease.

For high school or college students, essays are unavoidable – worst of all, the essay types and essay writing topics assigned change throughout your academic career. As soon as you’ve mastered one of the many types of academic papers, you’re on to the next one. This article by Custom Writing...

An outline is the main form of organization in academic writing. It implies listing all of the research ideas and components before the writing process starts. To many of you, an outline may seem like just another piece of extra work to do, but trust us, it will end up...

Even though a personal essay seems like something you might need to write only for your college application, people who graduated a while ago are asked to write it. Therefore, if you are a student, you might even want to save this article for later!

If you wish a skill that would be helpful not just for middle school or high school, but also for college and university, it would be the skill of a five-paragraph essay. Despite its simple format, many students struggle with such assignments.

Reading books is pleasurable and entertaining; writing about those books isn’t. Reading books is pleasurable, easy, and entertaining; writing about those books isn’t. However, learning how to write a book report is something that is commonly required in university. Fortunately, it isn’t as difficult as you might think. You’ll only...

A descriptive essay is an academic paper that challenges a school or college student to describe something. It can be a person, a place, an object, a situation—anything an individual can depict in writing. The task is to show your abilities to communicate an experience in an essay format using...

An analysis / analytical essay is a standard assignment in college or university. You might be asked to conduct an in-depth analysis of a research paper, a report, a movie, a company, a book, or an event. In this article, you’ll find out how to write an analysis paper introduction,...

A film analysis essay might be the most exciting assignment you have ever had! After all, who doesn’t love watching movies? You have your favorite movies, maybe something you watched years ago, perhaps a classic, or a documentary. Or your professor might assign a film for you to make a...

Hey, Julia! Really appreciate your efforts And amazing and useful information has been provided. Just a suggestion: if you would write a sample essay for more clear understanding. But, anyway, it was great and time-consuming reading. Thnx, dude??

This website has really helped me. Thank you so so so much and I really appreciate it. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you 🙂 🙂

Thank you for your kind words about the blog, Marylou! I’m glad it was helpful.

Good speech and very easy

I want to compose a full-fledged essay about a different topic. I read your guidelines to get some ideas to write something valid and meaningful. Really these are helpful.

This was very useful for me. Thank you!

Thank you for the inspirational advice!

Essay “if you could change the world”: what would you do and why?

Very nice essay about the world B-)

Hi Pragati! Are you writing an essay on this topic? Did you find the article helpful or you need additional help? Always happy to answer 🙂

How can a person change the world

Introduction.

We all want the world to become better, but how can a person change the world? I believe that the answer to this big question might be quite simple. If you want to change the world, you need to change yourself.

How is it going to work? You are a part of the world, so when you become better, the world becomes better as well. You contribute to changing the world by improving yourself and working hard to achieve your dreams. When you succeed, you provide other people with an example they can live by.

It is very important to identify your strengths and weaknesses, so you have a better understanding of what is going to help you in your journey and what you will need to fix. I think of myself as a hard worker, and I believe it will help in my education. I can acquire more knowledge and skills that I can apply to solve various problems and share with others to help them. Most real-world tasks require the cooperation of many people, so I will use my good leadership skills to organize a team to work on my projects.

I believe that the quality that will help me most is dedication. It is crucial to be devoted to your work to achieve success because if you want to make a difference in the world, you need to be ready to invest a lot of your time and energy. I need to improve every day to change myself and the world for the better, and my dedication and aim for high achievement are the tools I will use for it.

When we improve ourselves, we improve the world. We need to use our strengths to serve us in our strive to become better people. Setting high goals and putting in work to achieve them is the way to live a happy and meaningful life and it leads to a better world for everybody.

Cite this paper

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2021, December 28). How can a person change the world. https://studycorgi.com/how-can-a-person-change-the-world/

"How can a person change the world." StudyCorgi , 28 Dec. 2021, studycorgi.com/how-can-a-person-change-the-world/.

StudyCorgi . (2021) 'How can a person change the world'. 28 December.

1. StudyCorgi . "How can a person change the world." December 28, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/how-can-a-person-change-the-world/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "How can a person change the world." December 28, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/how-can-a-person-change-the-world/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "How can a person change the world." December 28, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/how-can-a-person-change-the-world/.

This paper, “How can a person change the world”, was written and voluntary submitted to our free essay database by a straight-A student. Please ensure you properly reference the paper if you're using it to write your assignment.

Before publication, the StudyCorgi editorial team proofread and checked the paper to make sure it meets the highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, fact accuracy, copyright issues, and inclusive language. Last updated: November 9, 2023 .

If you are the author of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal . Please use the “ Donate your paper ” form to submit an essay.

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Making The World a Better Place — If You Could Change the World, What Would You Do

If You Could Change The World, What Would You Do

• Categories: Making The World a Better Place

About this sample

Words: 686 |

Published: Aug 31, 2023

Words: 686 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr Jacklynne

Verified writer

• Expert in: Life

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1293 words

2 pages / 747 words

4 pages / 1728 words

2 pages / 792 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Making The World a Better Place

Imagine waking up one day to discover that you suddenly possess a million dollars. While this scenario may seem like a fantasy, it presents a unique opportunity to reflect on how one's choices and priorities might change in the [...]

The concept of a perfect world has been a source of human imagination and aspiration for centuries. It represents an ideal state where harmony, justice, and prosperity prevail. While acknowledging the inherent challenges of [...]

Amidst the vastness and complexity of the world, it's natural to ponder one's place and purpose. Many of us yearn to leave a positive mark, to contribute to something greater than ourselves. The question, "How can I make a [...]

Planet Earth has been changing and revolutionizing throughout the course of humanization in both positive and negative ways. Recently there has been a lot more negative things occurring in the world. We all have been doing [...]

Everyone has the right to choose the manner in which they want to live their live. This is an important issue to me as it provides a blueprint of how I will achieve my life goals. Having experienced people suffer because of [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Essays About Change: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

If you are writing essays about change, see below our best essay examples and writing prompts to help expand your horizon on this topic.

The only thing constant is change. It could be good or bad. It could be short-term or have a lasting impact. The best we can do is to ride on this inevitable and never-ending cycle of change and try coming out of it still standing, thriving, and smiling. This ability to cope with change is called resilience. 

However, some changes – such as the loss of a loved one or a livelihood — are too overwhelming to deal with that some fall into trauma and depression, in which case psychological support is highly encouraged. Read on to see our round-up of rich, well-written essays about change, and a list of helpful prompts follows to help you start your essay. 

1. “The Psychology Of Dealing With Change: How To Become Resilient” by Kathleen Smith

2. how prison changes people by christian jarrett, 3. six ways the workplace will change in the next 10 years by jordan turner, 4. “social movements for good: what they are and how to lead them” by derrick feldman, 5. “the right way to make a big career transition” by utkarsh amitabh, 1. changing your lifestyle for the better, 2. be the change the world needs, 3. adapting to life-changing events, 4. addressing climate change, 5. how did technology change our daily lives, 6. people who changed the world, 7. if you could change the world, 8. dealing with resistance to change, 9. coming-of-age novels, 10. changing your eating habits.

“If you can learn to cope with change, you’ll lower your risk for anxiety and depression. Your relationships will flourish, and your body will feel healthier. But if you can’t cope with change, only a minor amount of stress can make you feel overwhelmed by life. You might also struggle to set and meet the goals you have for yourself.”

Instead of fixating on events and people over which we do not have the power to control, we should focus on ourselves and how we can embrace change without fear. Some tips in this essay include practicing self-care, being in the present, and focusing on your priorities, such as health and well-being. 

Check out these essays about being grateful and essays about heroes .

“Ultimately, society may be confronted with a choice. We can punish offenders more severely and risk changing them for the worse, or we can design sentencing rules and prisons in a way that helps offenders rehabilitate and change for the better.”

In an environment where you are forced to follow the rules to the letter and worry about your safety and privacy daily, prisoners could develop a kind of “perpetual paranoia” or “emotional numbing” and deteriorate cognitive abilities. The essay suggests a rethink in how we deal with law-breakers to encourage reform rather than punish and risk repeat offenses.

Check out these essays about police brutality and essays about assessment .

“As technology closes the divide between geographically separate people, it introduces cracks in relationships and cultures. The remote distribution of work means that many employees will not build the same social relationships in the workplace, leading to issues of disengagement and loneliness.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has already disrupted our way of work in our new normal, but more changes are yet to unfold. This essay looks into the future of work where responsibilities and demands will see a sea change; machines will be co-workers; and the best employee is defined by digital skills, not years of experience.

You might also like these essays about cinema and essays about jealousy .

“Social movements for good establish a mass platform of action for a population, which helps inform and cultivate the awareness necessary to help prevent an issue from affecting more people. True social movements for good have the power to generate awareness that produces tangible results, helping the general population live longer, more productive, happier lives.”

A social movement for good aims to bring social justice to an aggrieved community by calling for tangible support and resources. To accelerate a movement’s momentum, an effective leader must possess certain qualities in this essay.

“There were so many questions running through my head during this time. Why should I quit to make this my full-time job? Is this what I really want? When should I quit? Poet Mary Oliver’s words kept ringing in my head: ‘What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’”

Deciding on a career change is more complex than deciding whether you want to do something different. A career shift entails lifestyle, mindset, and motivation changes, each of which has to be carefully reassessed and prepared for. This essay guides you in deciding when or why it is right to leave your job.

10 Interesting Writing Prompts on Essays About Change

Below are thought-stimulating prompts to help with your essay: 

Committing to regular exercise or getting to bed earlier may be easier said than done. Moreover, the determination that was burning at the start of your lifestyle change journey may wane in the latter part when things get tough. So, for your essay, provide practical tips from wellness experts and your own experience on how to sustain a routine toward a better lifestyle. You can split your essay into sections for each health and wellness tip you recommend.

This is the gist of the famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “be the change you wish to see in the world.” Unfortunately, many of us get frustrated over people refusing to change but fail to see how this change should start with our perception and action. In this essay, write about what an individual can do to focus more on self-improvement and development. 

Have you ever faced a situation where you had to adapt to a drastic change? It could be moving to a different city or school or dealing with losing a loved one. Share your experience and list the traits and practices that helped you through this challenging phase. You may also research what psychologists recommend people to do to keep from falling into depression or developing anxiety. 

To offer a unique highlight in your essay, tackle what your school or community is doing to fight global warming. Interview city councilors and mayors and learn about ongoing initiatives to keep the city clean and green. So this essay could help entice others in your community to work together and volunteer in initiatives to slow climate change.

List down the advantages and disadvantages technology has presented in your life. For example, seeking clarification from teachers about an assignment has been made easier with the many communication channels available. However, technology has also enabled a work-at-home or distance learning arrangement that is causing burnout in many households. 

Feature a person who has revolutionized the world. It could be a scientist, artist, activist, writer, economist, athlete, etc. Preferably, it is someone you idolize, so you do not have to start from scratch in your research. So first, provide a short profile of this person to show his life and career background. Then, write about their ultimate contribution to society and how this continues to benefit or inspire many. 

If there’s one thing you could change in this world, what would it be? This sounds like a question you’d hear in pageants, but it could be a creative way to lay down your life advocacy. So, explain why this is where you want to see change and how this change can improve others’ lives.

Resistance to change is most common when companies modernize, and the dinosaurs in the office refuse to learn new digital platforms or systems. Write about what you think leaders and human resource units should do to help employees cope with changes in the new normal.

A coming-of-age novel tells stories of protagonists who grow up and undergo character transformation. From being eaten up by their fears, the main heroes become braver and better at confronting a world that once intimidated them. For this prompt, share your favorite coming-of-age novel and narrate the changes in the hero’s qualities and beliefs. 

Delivering fast food has become so easy that, for many, it has become a way of life, making it an enormous challenge to replace this practice with healthy eating habits. So, research and write about nutritionists’ tips on creating a lifestyle and environment conducive to healthy eating habits.

If you’re still stuck picking an essay topic, check out our guide on how to write essays about depression . For more ideas, you can check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

View all posts

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Can People Change?

One day, after a talk I had given on altruism , a person in the audience got up and said in an irritated tone: “What are you hoping for by encouraging us to cultivate altruism? Look at the history of humanity! It’s always the same thing! An uninterrupted succession of wars and suffering. That’s human nature, you can’t change anything about that!”

But is this truly the case? We have seen that cultures can evolve. For example, we have gone from regarding torture as an entirely acceptable public spectacle and war as noble and glorious, to tolerating violence less and less, and increasingly regarding war as immoral and barbaric. But can the individual change? And if he can, does this change have an influence on society and on succeeding generations?

True, our character traits change little, so long as we do nothing to improve them. But they are not frozen in place. Our basic traits, which result from the combined contributions of our genetic heritage and the environment in which we grew up, make up only the foundation of our identity. Scientific research in the field of neuroplasticity shows that any form of training leads to a reconfiguring in the brain, on both the functional and structural levels.

Society and its institutions influence and condition individuals, but individuals can in turn make society evolve and change its institutions. As this interaction continues over the course of generations, culture and individuals mutually shape each other.

If we want to encourage a more altruistic society to develop, it is important to evaluate the respective capacities for change of both individuals and society. The scientific discoveries of recent decades show that our genetic heritage, influential as it is, represents only a starting point that predisposes us to showing certain dispositions. This potential—and this is a crucial point—can then come to expression in multiple ways under the influence of our environment and by what we acquire through the efforts we make to train our minds or physical abilities. Thus, it is more appropriate to compare our genetic heritage to an architectural drawing that might be modified as the construction progresses, or else to a musical theme on which a performer improvises.

How the brain and body evolve

The plasticity of the brain plays a large role in our capacity for individual transformation. For a long time, an almost universally accepted dogma in the neuroscience field stated that once formed and structured, the adult brain doesn’t produce any more neurons and changes only through decline with age.

Today we know this doctrine was completely wrong. One of the major discoveries of the last thirty years concerns neuroplasticity, a term that takes into account the fact that the brain changes constantly when an individual is exposed to new situations. The adult brain in fact remains extraordinarily malleable. It has the ability to produce new neurons, to reinforce or diminish the activity of existing neurons, and even to attribute a new function to an area of the brain that usually carries out a completely different function.

There is a second mechanism that allows individuals to change: epigenetics. In order for a gene, which we have inherited from our parents, to be active, it must be “expressed,” that is it must be “transcribed” in the form of a specific protein acting on the organism bearing this gene. But if a gene is not expressed, if it remains “silent,” it’s as if it were absent.

Recent advances in genetics have revealed that environment can considerably modify the expression of genes by a process called epigenetics. This expression of genes can be activated or deactivated under the influence not just of external conditions, but also of our mental states.

Two monozygotic twins, for instance, who have exactly the same genes, can acquire different physiological and mental characteristics if they are separated and exposed to dissimilar living conditions. In scientific terms, one would say they are genetically identical but phenotypically different. Similarly, a caterpillar and a butterfly have exactly the same genes, but they are not expressed in the same way, depending on the times of the insect’s life.

These modifications in the expression of genes are more or less lasting, and in certain cases can even be transmitted from one generation to another, even though there are no changes in the DNA sequence of the genes themselves. These discoveries have truly revolutionized the field of genetics, since hitherto the very notion of transmission of acquired traits was regarded as heresy. The influence of external conditions is thus considerable, and we know today that this influence has repercussions all the way down to our genes.

Could training the mind to cultivate positive emotions lead to epigenetic changes? Studies undertaken at Richard Davidson’s laboratory in Wisconsin, in collaboration with the Spanish geneticist Perla Kaliman, show that within a day , meditating for eight hours on mindfulness, altruistic love, and compassion already induces major epigenetic modifications. We can glimpse here the possibility of an epigenetic transformation of an individual that is due not just to the influence of the environment, but also to a voluntary training in cultivating basic human qualities.

Becoming different beings

It seems that a simultaneous transformation of cultures and individuals is possible. Children who grow up in a culture where altruistic values prevail and where society encourages cooperation will change no only in momentary behavior but also in their general attitude and mental dispositions. They will be different, not just because they will conform to new cultural norms and new rules set by institutions, but because their brains will have beens shaped differently and because their genes will be expressed differently. Thus, a dynamic process of mutual influences will continue over the course of generations.

In the final analysis, it is individuals who put totalitarian regimes in place, and other individuals who overthrow them to establish democracy. It is individuals who have perpetrated genocides when they dehumanized their fellows, and it is other individuals, sometimes the contemporaries of the former, who promulgated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Despite immense progress in the fields of democracy, women’s rights, human rights in general, justice, solidarity, and the eradication of poverty and epidemics, much remains to be done. It would be regrettable to neglect the role of personal transformation in facilitating further changes.

One of the tragedies of our time seems to be considerably underestimating the ability for transformation of the human mind, given that our character traits are perceived as relatively stable. It is not so common for angry people to become patient, tormented people to find inner peace, or pretentious people to become humble. It is undeniable, however, that some individuals do change, and the change that takes place in them shows that it is not at all an impossible thing. Our character traits last as long as we do nothing to improve them and we leave our attitudes and automatisms alone, or else let them be reinforced with time. But is is a mistake to believe they are fixed in place permanently.

More on Altruism

Discover why people make sacrifices for others .

Learn three ways to make giving feel good .

Explore the relationship between awe and generosity .

Here are seven tips for fostering generosity .

Knowing that emulation, inspiration, and the power of living examples—the noble aspects of conformism—are both the framework that ensure the stability and continuity of cultures, and the motivating force behind their transformation and expansion, it falls upon us to embody, in our being and our behavior, the altruism that we want to encourage: the messenger must be the message.

Over the past fifty years, we have seen aversion to war develop, and have witnessed the spread of the view that the earth is nothing but a “big village.” This evolution is underway. Perhaps it is enough to take part in it, by adding our stone to the building, our drop to the ocean. But we can also decide to actively facilitate it and amplify it, like a catalyst accelerating a chemical reaction.

Adapted from Altruism . Copyright ©2015 by Matthieu Ricard. Translation copyright ©2015 by Little, Brown and Company.

About the Author

Matthieu ricard.

After training in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur, Matthieu Ricard left science behind to move to the Himalayas and become a Buddhist monk—and to pursue happiness, both at a basic human level and as a subject of inquiry. His deep and scientifically tinged reflections on happiness and Buddhism have turned into several books, most recently Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World . He is also the founder of the Karuna-Shechen foundation, which brings medical help and education to people in Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bhutan.

You May Also Enjoy

Peace Among Primates

Can Love Change the World?

The Evolutionary Roots of Compassion

Why Is There Peace?

How Meditation Changes the Brain

Is Violence on the Decline?

Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.

• All Latest Articles
• Environment
• Food & Water
• Featured Topics
• Get Started
• Online Course
• Holding the Fire
• What Could Possibly Go Right?
• About Resilience
• Fundamentals
• Submission Guidelines
• Commenting Guidelines
• Resilience+

Act: Inspiration

Individuals and social pressure: how to change the world.

By Julia Steinberger , originally published by Medium.com

January 25, 2022

I recently had an extraordinary and rare experience, as an academic, activist and citizen: I participated in a victorious movement. Doing this upended most of what I thought I knew about how change happens in the world, and it seems very important to share these insights with you, despite my rather embarrassing ignorance in psychology, sociology, politics and many other fields of expertise relevant to this topic. Our world has never needed more fundamental and urgent change, and you, the person who is reading this, can and should be part of making this change happen.

Guillermo Fernandez on the Bern Bundesplatz, surrounded by a candlelight vigil of his supporters.

What I learned is the following:

• Individuals are everything;
• Institutions, alone, are nothing;
• Social pressure works;
• Urgency begets creativity (and effectiveness);
• A culture of love wins the day;
• We only understand what systems are made of when we try to transform them.

Meet the activator: Guillermo Fernandez

Guillermo Fernandez is both extraordinary and ordinary. He is a Swiss IT project manager and father of three. He doesn’t belong to any party or activist group. But he did something extraordinary: he sat down on August 9th 2021 and read the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report  which had been published the day before. But he didn’t just read:  he allowed himself to feel and imagine what the projections in that report meant for his children . That day turned his life upside down, and he decided he needed to act. He decided to go on unlimited hunger strike for climate on November 1st, the first day of the COP26 conference on climate. His demands were modest, but also unprecedented, not just in Switzerland, but perhaps in the world: to have climate & biodiversity scientists meet with the entire Parliament, in an extraordinary session, to be informed about the full extent of the climate & ecological crises. And, after 39 gruelling days without food, in the cold and harsh conditions on the Bundesplatz in front of the Swiss Parliament in Bern, Guillermo  won .

I played a small part in Guillermo’s campaign and victory. Others did far more. But what I was able to do, and saw others do, completely upended my understanding of how we are able to create moments and movements of change. I want to share some core insights with you, then explain how and why they go against deeply engrained theories of change, which we generally base our strategies on.

First insight: individuals are everything

Individuals make change happen..

This was the biggest shock to me, and also the fact I need you to grasp the most strongly, because it holds so much promise. Individuals, starting with Guillermo, obviously, made change happen. And one reason it worked was because Guillermo, as an individual person, appealed to us as individual humans. Faced with his action and his challenge, each of us was compelled to make a choice: step up, or look away. Many people chose to look away, but a few, just enough, chose to step up and join his struggle. Guillermo called this the theory of dominoes: one domino can cause a few others to fall over, but each of these can act on others, and so on until the whole area around has been forever transformed.

At each step, in each sphere, one or two individuals, rarely more, took it upon themselves to expand and activate what they could.

These individuals harnessed their social connections, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and talked and pushed and strategised to get that network to help with the campaign. I did it in the sphere of Swiss climate & biodiversity scientists. At each step, I was not certain I was doing the right thing, but in the end each step built on the previous one, until we too were part of the large number of dominoes pushing to change the whole area.

A couple of politicians (ultimately a group of 4 formidable young women Green Parliamentarians) did the same for the Swiss Parliament. Seasoned and novice campaigners helped Guillermo with website and media support, creating leaflets, petitions and gatherings to support him, as well as building a movement of people committed to volunteer and help. A couple of people with NGO connections helped harness the support of their organisations. In each case, one or two or three people took it upon themselves to be reasonably relentless in pushing this campaign forward, without a pre-established plan, by hook and by crook, each in their own way. And those people moved mountains.

The most important thing here is that these individuals refused to be limited by the normal ways a campaign should operate, or their work or social connections should be defined. They just tried every which way to make some progress on what seemed an unsurmountable and impossible challenge.

They strategised together, sometimes came up with good ideas, sometimes with bad, tried everything. They woke up in the morning determined to do a few things to push the campaign forward, and ended the day thinking of more for the next.

They made it happen, and you can (and must) too.

Second insight: institutions, alone, are nothing

This is the corollary to the first insight, and it came as a bit of a shock, quite honestly. On the ‘left’, broadly speaking, we tend to put a lot of faith in social structures, organising and organisations, and much less in individuals. This experience flipped that understanding on its head for me.

Quite simply put, almost every organisation and institution that had a mandate to do the things we wanted to do not only failed to help us, but were often actively hostile, even trying to stop us every step of the way.  That came as a nasty surprise, but we were able to overcome their resistance thanks to the strong bonds between individuals created across the political/science/activist domains during the campaign.

Some organisations (or, once again, individuals within them) were great, from the start providing space and support for the campaign to exist. In particular, one person and their organisation stepped up in an extraordinary way, working around the clock behind the scenes to make the campaign a success. But that story is theirs to tell when they are ready — even now, they are still battle-weary, and resting up.

However, as the campaign gained steam and our pathway to victory became clearer, these very same institutions that were hostile had a core role to play in legitimating the victory.  So despite these institutions being hostile during the campaign phase, they had to be come collaborators during the victory proclamation and then implementation phase. This is a really important lesson: not to burn bridges openly, but also not to ever delegate the work to someone else, who sees their role as blocking your agenda. You need to learn, somehow, how to do the work of these institutions for them. Despite being internally hostile, they can play a hugely important protective role, and are certainly very important from a public perception point of view. It’s quite strange doing so much work for a hostile organisation to then take the appearance of credit for your hard-won victory, but in the real world, this is often how it plays out, and it’s important to be prepared for it.

Third insight: social pressure works

A hunger strike is obviously the ultimate act of social pressure. That’s how it works. Witnessing someone literally dying of hunger in public, for a cause, is unbearable social pressure. It worked on me, and on many others: it became hard to sleep, hard to do anything but think about how, somehow, I could help Guillermo win, so he could live and go back to his family.

I am not encouraging anyone to go on hunger strike.  But I am encouraging you to create and respond to social pressure, and to understand our social intelligence.  We humans are incredibly responsive creatures. We respond to each other — when we are addressed as individuals, especially. It is entirely possible for you, as an individual, to create social pressure on others, a pressure that they will have to respond to, in one way or another.

As stated above, I am not a specialist in any social science, but this is how I understand what I describe as ‘social pressure’ works:

1. One person speaks to another, standing as an individual with integrity and emotion, and makes a claim to that other person’s actions.

Guillermo, with his hunger strike, was putting social pressure on us. He was effectively saying to all of us:

“Climate inaction is unbearable to me, unacceptable because of the suffering it will cause my children. I demand of you your time, attention and actions to change this, right away.”

2. When you put social pressure on someone else, that person will feel compelled to respond — whether they want to or not.

Because human beings are so hugely responsive to each other, living in community, and caring so much about our role and understanding of that community, we are always affected when someone tells us, with integrity and emotion, that we need to pay attention to them, and become involved in helping them.

It is what parents and carers do for their children, but it’s also, more broadly, how our entire social fabric works. Human responsiveness is not a purely negative burden, quite the contrary: helping and supporting others is a large part of how we bolster our self-worth, and it’s also how we find meaning in life. So you shouldn’t ever feel bad about creating social pressure about the climate & ecological (& other) crises, but use it as honestly and effectively as you can. [Pro tip: it doesn’t work without honesty. At all. Human beings are good at spotting dishonesty, it’s part of being extremely social communicative animals.]

3. A person’s response to social pressure can vary.

They might immediately see the validity and purpose of your claim to their efforts, and respond with a variation on “How can I help?”. This is your cue to help them strategise and figure out their most effective course of action:  help them use their own capabilities, knowledge and creativity to move the campaign forward.  Your role is to encourage them to become one of the dominoes who knocks even more dominoes over, to figure out how to create and amplify their own version of social pressure.

Another response is to shut down a bit and go off and think it over. To be honest, this was my initial response. But I kept thinking, and Guillermo’s actions left me no respite: I had to figure out how to act.  So simply maintaining your social pressure can help people who are initially silent or hesitant to jump in and help eventually.  Don’t back down, and be accepting and responsive to hesitations, since most will come around, especially if their concerns are addressed with honesty and empathy.

Another response is to respond negatively. This usually comes with a certain level of aggressivity, since (again, due to social conditioning), most people would rather respond positively than negatively to a request that puts into play their position as a ‘good’ person in society.  This kind of response is also, paradoxically, a positive outcome of social pressure.  You have compelled someone to respond and state their position: that is an opening, either to further dialogue (expounding on why inaction is not, in your view, compatible with them being a person in good standing in society, and enabling them to find a way to help), or, if that breaks down, or it’s more expedient for your campaign, to accountability: to expose that person as an obstacle to positive change. The later is only for people with public roles, obviously.  But holding individuals to account for their responses, publicly or privately, is a core part of social pressure.

Effective campaigners and organisers use social pressure all the time to make progress in their work. The legendary labour organiser and theorist  Jane McAlevey  for instance highlights the importance of ‘organic leaders’, who are respected and trusted within their work and community, because if they express the need for change, people listen to them, and come to agree. You may or may not be an ‘organic leader,’ but if you speak with honesty, integrity, compassion and emotion, you will be able to change your community.

The point here is that you can exert social pressure, starting from who you are and what you know and care about. If you make your integrity and caring the centre of your claims on others, they will have a very hard time dismissing you, and will soon enough helping with your efforts, and helping you to convince others. And if that happens, one way or another, you become unstoppable.

Fourth insight: urgency begets creativity (and effectiveness)

We all know we are in races against time for the complete transformation of our societies away from trajectories of increasing harm and danger, but, for the most part, we have obligations and habits in our day-to-day lives which, alongside a culture of denial and delay, help us push that urgency to another day. Guillermo’s action of hunger strike made the urgency extremely personal (see first insight on individual action) and extremely real. It forced all of us who wanted to help him win to get off our routines, and get change done in the here and now. It was disruptive and caused us to become extremely creative and effective.

The challenge is how to bring that urgency and reality into our daily lives, as a constant.

We can move mountains when we know the clock is ticking, and we need to make immediate progress. We take risks, we cut corners, we reach out to each other, we get things done. One of my core resolutions this year is to hold on to that urgency, to remember that even if Guillermo is not, thank goodness, still sitting out in the cold & wet with no food, there are others who demand my attention and help, even if I don’t see them with quite the same clarity. That urgency has to become part of our daily lives, which is how we will transform our governments and policy-makers to  emergency-mode  as well.

Fifth insight: a culture of love wins the day

This one is difficult for me, because I am a (recovering?) rage and negativity monster. But Guillermo is very different, and we can learn from each other. Practically the first thing he told me, when I went to Bern to sit with him for a couple of hours early on in his hunger strike, was “My greatest character fault is my jolly disposition.” And I came to learn this was quite close to the truth.

Guillermo always had a smile and a kind word to all those who came to see them. People often came, desperate and in tears, because they shared his great fear of the unfolding climate crisis and government inaction, and were also worried about him and his health. There were often shared tears, but always compassion, and Guillermo always left everyone with a sense of fun and joy. He might have been dying, but he still enjoyed people’s company and exchanging thoughts and feelings with them. His movement grew through the support of activists who ran empathy circles, where everyone was welcome to express their grief and concern — and then activated to work on changing it.

I still don’t know how exactly to make it work or unlock that key, but the fact is that the vast majority of humanity shares concern for each other, grief when others are hurt, fear when others are in danger, and wants desperately to be able to help protect and support others, even if we are often paralysed by the hugeness of the task, or our ignorance about how exactly we can help. So here, the point is to be kind.  Listen and make space for the love, grief and fear that so many of us feel at this time, and then make even more space to help those people to grow into their activism.  Help them see themselves and each other as agents of change, who can do so much to protect and support each other. This is what love looks like.

Sixth insight: we only understand what systems are made of when we try to transform them

This point is a bit more theoretical, and combines my experience and the writings of  the pioneering systems theorist Dana Meadows  especially. If you haven’t yet read “ Leverage Points: places to intervene in a system ,” do yourself a favour and go read it now. In this piece, Dana explains that different types of intervention have more or less potential to change systems, with some intervention points being more shallow (for example changing single parameters within systems), and others much more powerful (for example changing system structures or goals and operating paradigms).

Leverage points to intervene in/on a system  as per Donella Meadows, representation by Leuphana.

Because we desperately need transformative change to avert the worst of the climate and ecological crises, we want our activism to be effective on the deeper leverage points: the rules, structures, goals, and design paradigms of the systems that surround us. And in order to do that, we have to have some idea of how those systems work to start with. But here’s the problem: we usually have absolutely no idea how the systems that govern our daily lives really work. Not the foggiest.

It takes activism and active confrontation with systems to really understand what they are made of, how they work, and how to change them.

We often  think  we understand the systems that make up our societies. We have history, civics and economics classes which tell us stories about how these systems work. And almost invariably, these stories are fairytales. They do not correspond to reality at all. Just two examples, to give a flavour of what I mean:

• We are taught that social progress against injustice is the normal arc of enlightened history: all it takes is for someone to point out the injustice, then the powers that be, supported by concerned citizens, make the system become more just. This is the liberal “information and awareness-raising” theory of change. Sometimes, it’s even known as “speaking truth to power.” According to this false fairytale, information of shocking or unjust facts is enough, somehow, to percolate through society, create awareness, mobilise concerned citizens, and shame those in power into acting. Of course, this is not the case. Information and awareness are crucial, but even more important is action: acting to mobilise, organise, campaign, be relentless forces to transform the system away from injustice. Just highlighting injustice on its own has never cut the mustard.
• Another fairytale is economic in nature: that the market delivers what we desire, and is the source of our well-being. This fairytale has been comprehensively debunked by scholars like Tim Jackson, Kate Raworth, Jason Hickel and many others, so I won’t rehash the arguments here. But I do want to explain how paralysing this fairytale is in terms of transforming our economies. It stops us from acting, because the belief that we create the market via our consumer desires means that we see ourselves as culpable, like in a distorted funfair mirror. It leads people to build campaigns around “voting with our dollars,” rather than target the large megacorps designing both production and consumption.

The core point here is that it’s often only when we confront existing systems with our actions that we understand what these system really are: how they responds to defend themselves tells us much more about what we need to do to change them.  And for academics, this particularly hard, because we are used to theorizing. Those theories are helpful, sure, but confrontation with reality is the best teacher here. So don’t sit back and read and think and wait for to have achieved the perfect theory to develop the perfect strategy for action: get out there. Interfere. Talk to people. Try like all heck to change bits and bobs of the systems that surround you. As you’ll try, you’ll learn, and as you’ll learn, your chances of success will expand extraordinarily.

Teaser photo credit: Author supplied.

Julia Steinberger

Related articles.

How Do You Protect Something Most People Will Never See?

By David Shiffman , The Revelator

Meet the Fab Five: A combination of visual and virtual community engagement tools using charismatic species to help win hearts and minds toward saving the ocean.

May 7, 2024

Why Sociocracy Helps Organizations to Thrive

By Nick Natrella , Post-Growth Institute

The serenity, inclusivity, and gratification experienced within sociocracy has to be encountered first-hand to be fully appreciated.

Is Degrowth an Academic Field or a Mass Movement? Taking Degrowth to the People!

By Phil Wilson , Resilience.org

Degrowth, I believe, is at a critical cross road – advocates must now choose to continue to regard degrowth as an unending thought experiment, or to take degrowth into communities of ordinary folks.

Make a Difference: Change the World, Change Yourself

The relationship between society and individuals is closely connected, and what we do as individuals can have an impact on society as a whole. This means that the choices we make, both for ourselves and for others, can make a real difference in the world. However, many people who want to make a positive impact on the environment and society don’t know where to begin.

To help out, this article provides a guide for readers. It explains how acts of kindness can make us feel happier, and it offers seven practical ways that people can make a positive difference in the world.

CAN WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

According to Jane Goodall, we cannot get through one day without making a difference. The question is, what kind of a difference do we want to make?

We now have scientific proof that, the more we care about the happiness and wellbeing of our fellow humans, the happier we get . One pleasant side effect of making that kind of a difference is that, by changing the world around us, we change ourselves. And vice-versa. It is a “virtuous cycle.” So let’s get down to business and talk about three ways we can make a difference.

Top 7 Ways to make a  difference

Here are the top 7 ways to make a difference for your life and the world you live in:

1. Volunteer your time

Giving back to your community can be a fulfilling way to contribute to the world around you. Volunteering also provides an opportunity to connect with others and build strong relationships .

2. Donate to charity

If you have financial resources to spare, consider donating to a cause that you care about. This could be a local charity or a larger organization that is working to make a difference in the world.

These are some of the most well known websites that provide opportunities to volunteer:

• Volunteermatch
• Pointsoflight

3. Practice gratitude 

Taking time to appreciate the good things in your life can help cultivate a positive mindset and increase happiness. Consider keeping a gratitude journal or simply taking a few moments each day to reflect on what you are thankful for.

4. Reduce your environmental harm  

Taking steps to reduce your environmental impact can help to create a healthier planet for future generations. Also, proactive behavior for protecting the planet can improve your happiness since it helps you to engage with Earth in a meaningful way . 

According to United Nations , simple changes like: 

• Using public transportation
• Consuming less water
• Being a well informed consumer and so on can all make a difference.

5. Be kind to others 

Spreading positive vibes and emotions can make the world a happier place. Small acts of kindness can have a big impact on those around you. Whether it is: 

• Complimenting a stranger
• Helping a neighbor
• Or simply smiling at someone who looks like they could use it. 

6. Learn about science of happiness

One of the most enjoyable ways of making a meaningful difference is to learn more about the new science of happiness (the focus of this website) and sharing insights with your loved ones . You will discover, or perhaps you have discovered, that depression and unhappiness are not only generated by the “wrong” DNA. Many people are digging their own “unhappiness hole” out of pure ignorance. They have no idea how much of an impact their actions, or life skills, have on their mood.

• Practice self-care : Taking care of yourself is essential for your own happiness and well-being. This might include exercise, meditation, or simply taking time to do activities that you enjoy.

• Speak up for what you believe in : Whether it’s writing to your elected officials, participating in a peaceful protest, or simply having a conversation with someone who holds different beliefs than you, speaking up for what you believe in can help to create positive change in the world.
• Spread joy : Finally, don’t underestimate the power of spreading joy and positivity. Whether it’s through sharing a funny meme, sending a heartfelt message to a loved one, or simply expressing your enthusiasm for something you’re passionate about, spreading joy can help to make the world a happier place.

7. Learn about other cultures

Expanding your understanding of different cultures and perspectives can help to foster empathy and reduce prejudice. Consider reading books or watching films from other countries, or engaging in conversation with people from diverse backgrounds.

Act of Kindness

If you are too busy to volunteer, or you are looking for easier ways to make a difference, small acts of kindness can go a long way..and they are infectious! Acts of kindness not only bring happiness to those you assist, science shows that they can provide a big lift to your mood as well.  Randomactofkindness website is a treasure.

Finally, if you would like to make a difference with a few taps on your keyboard, please support our cause . We teach about depression prevention (a leading cause of opioid abuse) in schools .

Further Readings

We offer several articles that introduce habits practiced by happy individuals. Here, we have selected three of them for you.

• Relationships and Happiness
• Unique Strengths & Happiness
• The Philosophical Basis of Caring, Compassion, and Interdependence

Start Your Journey to Happiness. Register Now!

Pursuit-of-Happiness.org  ©2024

How can young people change the world? Top tips for youth activists

Melati Wijsen shared tips for youth activists at Davos in 2020. Image:  REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Joe Myers

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Future of the Environment is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:, future of the environment.

Listen to the article

• Melati Wijsen was just 12-years-old when she co-founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags in Bali.
• She offers her tips for other youth activists hoping to drive change.
• Her generation has great potential to be change-makers, she believes.

Melati Wijsen was just 12-years-old when she founded Bye Bye Plastic Bags with her younger sister in Bali. The organization imagines a world free of plastic bags, but also one where people - in particular, young people - feel empowered to act justly.

More recently she's also co-founded YOUTHTOPIA , an educational platform for young change-makers.

In a recent interview with the World Economic Forum, she gave her top tips for youth activists wanting to drive change and explained why she thinks her generation is ready to make a difference.

Have you read?

This young activist explains how to change the world in 3 steps, this teenager has a plan to mobilize young people everywhere, 'we are unstoppable' - what we learned at our sustainability summit in new york, ready to make change.

"I am excited about almost everything when it comes to our generation," she says. "We know we can't wait until we're older and so we're leading by example and not waiting for permission.

"I think as a generation we understand that we don't have the luxury of time, that we need to start leading with examples from the grassroots up."

Redefining our values

For youth activists, achieving impactful change in 2021 requires education and an exchange of knowledge, but also a shift in our mindsets, Wijsen believes.

"What it comes down to is adjusting and redefining our norms and values, so we're back in touch with our purpose and we're able to make decisions based on those values," she explains.

She gives the example of the environment, where we're not placing enough value on Mother Nature. She says 2020 has challenged us to take pause and reflect on how we value things. "There was really no other option."

The Global Shapers Community is a network of young people under the age of 30 who are working together to drive dialogue, action and change to address local, regional and global challenges.

The community spans more than 8,000 young people in 165 countries and territories.

Teams of Shapers form hubs in cities where they self-organize to create projects that address the needs of their community. The focus of the projects are wide-ranging, from responding to disasters and combating poverty, to fighting climate change and building inclusive communities.

Examples of projects include Water for Life, a effort by the Cartagena Hub that provides families with water filters that remove biological toxins from the water supply and combat preventable diseases in the region, and Creativity Lab from the Yerevan Hub, which features activities for children ages 7 to 9 to boost creative thinking.

Each Shaper also commits personally and professionally to take action to preserve our planet.

Join or support a hub near you .

Top tips for youth activists

"I know that to start something can be incredibly daunting, especially at a young age," she says.

That's one of the reasons she started YOUTHTOPIA, to bring young people together from around the world, to share ideas, to "literally pick up the phone and say, 'Hey, how are we going to change the world today?'"

Her advice to other youth activists hoping to change the world?

1. Involve the community

"Well, first and foremost, you always have to do your research, because it's so important that you understand what is happening locally in your area. Who are the key players? Who are the people that you really need to convince who are preventing the change from happening?"

Involving the community right from the start of projects is vital for youth activists. She explains, "helping them really own the project so that the long-term change is always there".

It's important that you're clear on what it is that you want to achieve, she says. And you can't do it on your own: "Build a team around you."

2. Make space to make change

It's also important to make space in everyday life to demand change, and make room for activism around leisure time. "What does a normal childhood look like?" she asks.

Growing up in Bali, she says she used to make time to play soccer and go to the beach, as well as engaging in activism by collecting signatures.

"I also had beach cleanups and then afterwards we'd go for a surf. So it's about creating these spaces... actually encouraging [youth activists] to follow their ideas and actually turn them into reality."

3. Learn by doing

"Learning by doing and learning from mistakes" is important, Wijsen explains.

"No mistake is a mistake. It's only a mistake if you don't learn from it," she says, a philosophy with which she credits her parents.

4. Have fun as you do it

"Be serious about change, but don't forget to have fun," she concludes. "Our generation has this creative ability to connect the dots and bring ideas into reality in a fun and creative way."

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:

The agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} weekly.

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Nature and Biodiversity .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

G7 agrees to phase out use of unabated coal power plants, and other nature and climate stories you need to read this week

May 6, 2024

How to navigate sustainability in the automotive industry

Lena McKnight and Stefan Fahrni

May 2, 2024

Cambodian mangroves home to more than 700 wildlife species, a new survey finds

Cristen Hemingway Jaynes

April 30, 2024

Robot rock stars, pocket forests, and the battle for chips - Forum podcasts you should hear this month

Robin Pomeroy and Linda Lacina

April 29, 2024

These solar-powered sensors can give coffee plants a voice

How to finance the transition to climate-smart agriculture

Greg Goodwin and John Stackhouse

How Can One Person Make a Difference in the World (With Examples)

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on Published: February 20, 2022  - Last updated: April 6, 2022

Categories Inspiration , Leadership , Self Improvement

If you want to make a difference in the world and are frustrated because you can not make a difference, know that one person CAN make a big difference.

Do not fool yourself into thinking that no matter what you do, it will not make a difference, because that’s only partially true. It is true that you may change one life, but the ripple effect of your actions could affect many lives.

Examples of People Who Have Made a Difference in the World

Mahatma gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi changed the world by leading India to independence from British rule. He was a pacifist who used peaceful methods of protest and persuasion and called his movement “Satyagraha,” a Sanskrit word meaning “the power of truth.”

Gandhi’s nonviolent struggle inspired many other leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, who used similar methods to lead movements for civil rights and against apartheid. His life also influenced generations of activists who brought about political change without violence through passive resistance. Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy is still making a huge impact on today’s society.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was a great leader who spent his entire adult life working for equality and justice in South Africa. Mandela inspired people around the world to fight for human rights.

Nelson Mandela believed that people can change their beliefs and actions if they are sufficiently informed and educated. He knew that violence would have set South Africa back even more, and he chose peace instead.

He advocated peaceful protests as a means to end racism and discrimination in South Africa and impact British bias of South African education.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and that dream changed the United States of America for the better.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an influential figure in the civil rights movement. He is best known for using non-violent protests to gain equal rights for African Americans and is often considered one of the most important figures in the history of the United States.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa is known throughout the world for her virtues and the love she showed in serving the poor. She was a missionary who dedicated her life to helping the poor, the sick, the orphaned, and the dying, living among them in the slums of India.

She was loved by many people and respected for her work. She was a symbol of hope for poor people who had lost everything. Mother Teresa was a woman with a big heart who cared for those in need.

George Washington

George Washington changed the world because he was the first president of the United States. He has been called the “Father of Our Country” because he led America during its most critical years and set many important precedents for future presidents and for the nation, including defending the port city of New York. George Washington was also the only president to be elected unanimously.

Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who has gained international recognition for arguing that humanity is facing an existential crisis due to climate change. At the age of 15, Greta Thunberg began advocating for action on global warming, and today she influences older and young people all over the world.

What Does It Mean to Make a Difference in the World?

The idea of making a difference in the world is not just an idealistic dream, but something that anyone can do. You do not have to be a special person to make a difference in the world, as many may think. It’s as simple as taking one step at a time to reach a goal.

You do not have to be a special person to change the world, as many may think. It is as simple as taking one step at a time to achieve a goal.

There are people who think you have to be rich or famous or come from a rich country to make a positive difference in the world, but that’s just not true. There are so many people who have accomplished great things without having any special powers or abilities. The one great thing they had was their own drive and determination to achieve what they set out to do.

The true definition of “making a difference” is that which makes the soul feel alive and the inner light shines brightest. The reason we want to “make a difference” is that when we do, we become happier – and often the people around us are happier, too.

How an Ordinary Person Can Make a Positive Difference in the World

I believe that every person can make a difference in the world. Because if each individual did just one good deed a day, and each of those deeds affected just one person, we could change the world.

So if you are worried about not having enough influence or power to make a huge impact on the world, do not be. The truth is that anyone can change the world!

Whether from a poor or rich country, every single person has the tools and skills necessary to make a difference in someone’s life. It’s how committed and passionate we are about using those tools and skills to make a difference that matters.

The most important thing to remember is that no matter who you are or what position you hold in life – YOU can make a difference too!

• by being an example to others . You do not have to be a great leader or inspire thousands of people. If you can help just one person, your life is worth living.
• by avoiding stress for others, help them overcome obstacles, and finding solutions to problems, you become a better person and the world becomes a better place.
• by giving yourself confidence and trying new things . Even if you fail at something, do not let that stop you from trying again in a different way. The world needs more people who are not afraid of failure because they know they will succeed in the end.
• by working hard and doing your best in your everyday life . If we all did our best every day, we would not have so many problems in this world!

How Can You Make a Difference in the World?

In the chaos of our daily lives, we can get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the world and forget what we really want to do. How can an ordinary person like you or me ever make a difference? I have asked myself this question for years and have come to this conclusion:

You do not have to be extraordinary to make a difference. You do not have to be a billionaire or a genius to do good in this world. All you need is drive, passion and maybe a little money.

Making a difference does not have to be big or grandiose. I think that’s what makes it so great. There are so many things you can do to make a difference in the world. And they do not have to be big.

You can make a difference just by being there for someone when they need you most and helping them with their problems. Or you could make a difference by showing up to work on time every day with a smile on your face and doing your job well. You could make a difference by going to school every day and getting good grades, or by getting involved in your community by volunteering at the animal shelter or soup kitchen.

You can make a difference just by being nice to your fellow loved one(s) and treating him with kindness and respect. If everyone made an effort to do this, the world would be a much better place!

You can change the world by being kind to yourself and others, giving back where you can, helping others when needed, and volunteering for causes that are important to you, like environmental protection or local charities.

With the Right Attitude, Anything Can Be Achieved

If we want to achieve something, it’s not enough to wish for it. We have to do more than that. We have to take a step forward every day until we get to where we want to be. It’s a question of consistency, and for that, you need the right attitude.

Attitude is everything. It determines how you approach your problems and how you treat those around you. Attitude determines success or failure in life.

The right attitude can help you positively influence the world around you, while the wrong attitude can destroy everything, including yourself.

Related: What Are Positive Influences

Here are some ways you can make a difference:

Everyone is struggling with some kind of problem, and being kind does not cost you anything, but it can make someone else’s day better. Smile at someone who looks dejected on the bus, hold the door open for someone who has their hands full, compliment your neighbor on their garden, or offer to babysit for free so a single mom can get out of the house for a few hours.

Spread Positivity

If you want to help change the world for the better, you have to start with your thinking. It’s not about changing other people or the world, it’s about changing ourselves. As Gandhi said, “We must be the change we want to see in the world.”

One of the biggest problems in our society is that people are unhappy and it’s often apparent on social media. Many people are unhappy because they do not feel fulfilled and do not know how to find happiness and joy.

To be happy, you have to think positive thoughts and do positive things. When you are happy, it shows in your face and body language. A smile is an expression of happiness that can be easily recognized by others. Happiness can spread like a virus when it enters another person’s mind through a smile or other positive gesture.

Stop Complaining

Complaining will not help you in making a positive change. The more you complain, the less they’ll want to listen to you. And if they don’t listen to your complaints and ideas, they’ll stop taking them seriously.

If you want to make a big difference, stop complaining and start putting your complaints into action. Complaining can become an addiction – it’s easy and doesn’t take much effort – but it doesn’t help improve your life or make the world a better place.

Take Responsibility for Your Actions

When we blame others and don’t take responsibility for our actions, we relinquish our power and become victims of our circumstances and other people. We feel that we’ve no control over our lives and that others decide what happens to us.

Taking responsibility means accepting that we’re responsible for our lives, that we shape the outcomes we achieve in life by the actions we take or don’t take, by the way, we respond to situations and opportunities that come our way, and by the way, we exert and engage ourselves.

Helping People Without Expecting Anything in Return

We all have our own ways of dealing with people and situations. Some of us believe that respect must be earned, while others believe that respect is reciprocal. I’m a firm believer in the latter. I believe in respecting others without expecting anything in return.

Take Care of Yourself

You can’t be successful if you don’t take proper care of yourself and your mental health. Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want, whenever you want – that’s not sustainable or productive. Taking care of yourself means knowing what kind of fuel your body needs to get through your everyday life, avid stress, and making sure you get it. Try to eat healthily (which I don’t always succeed at), I make sure I drink enough water, and I exercise regularly.

Take Action

Whether you want to take on volunteer opportunities or make a big difference in a different way, from small acts that make a huge difference, taking action can really make an impact. But the first action to make a positive change starts with being a better person, first in your interactions with your loved one, followed by friends and family, and then in the world.

Don’t Give Up

When one door closes, a new one opens elsewhere. Don’t get discouraged or depressed if things don’t go as planned. There’s always another option that you may not have considered. Always remember: when one door closes, another one opens somewhere else!

Success Is a Mindset

You must believe in yourself and your ability to achieve a great thing. If you don’t, who will? Many people are too afraid to take risks, so they don’t even try. It’s hard to be successful if you don’t try.

True success requires respect, appreciation, integrity, and patience – all qualities that are really hard to achieve by human nature – especially in the face of modern marketers who relentlessly deceive us, control our thoughts, and usurp our independence to increase their profits.

You can’t make a huge difference in the world alone – sometimes we need a little help and small acts from our loved one(s), friends, family, or more. And the best way to make a lasting positive difference is probably not what you think.

It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of life and lose sight of what’s important – especially when it comes to your job. But it doesn’t have to be that way: taking stock of why you do what you do can help you approach your daily tasks with more purpose and passion, which could lead you to make a huge difference in the world.

Related Posts

How Can a Little Help Make a Big Difference

How You Can Contribute to Help and Make a Difference as a Student

How Do Teachers Make a Difference in Students Lives

Related topics

Why Volunteering Is Enjoyable (Answered)

How Local Community Affects the Global Community

What Is Global Community

Essay on We Can Change the World

Students are often asked to write an essay on We Can Change the World in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on We Can Change the World

Belief in change.

Change begins with belief. We can change the world if we truly believe it’s possible. Our thoughts and actions can make a big difference.

Small Steps Matter

Every small step counts. Planting a tree, helping a friend, or recycling waste are simple actions that contribute to a better world.

Working together amplifies our impact. By uniting our efforts, we can achieve significant changes.

Think Future

We must think about our future generations. Our actions today will shape their world. Let’s make it a better place for them.

250 Words Essay on We Can Change the World

The power of individual action.

Change is a natural aspect of life, and it can be harnessed to transform the world. Each individual, regardless of their status, has the potential to contribute to this change. The belief that change is possible starts with the individual. A single action, like reducing personal waste or advocating for social justice, can create ripples that influence others to act.

Collective Effort and Its Impact

While individual actions are vital, collective effort is the driving force behind significant change. Movements like the Civil Rights Movement and the fight against climate change have shown how people coming together can create substantial impacts. This collective action, powered by shared beliefs and mutual support, can alter societal norms and create a more equitable world.

Technology as a Catalyst

In the digital age, technology serves as a catalyst for change. Social media platforms enable individuals to share ideas, mobilize support, and challenge oppressive systems. Technology has the potential to democratize information, providing everyone with the tools to understand and act on global issues.

The Journey Ahead

Changing the world is a continuous journey. It requires persistence, resilience, and a commitment to learning. It is about understanding that every action, no matter how small, contributes to a larger cause. By harnessing the power of individual actions, collective effort, and technology, we can shape the world into a place that reflects our shared values and aspirations.

In conclusion, the power to change the world lies within us. It starts with a belief in the possibility of change, followed by consistent action. Together, we can change the world.

500 Words Essay on We Can Change the World

Change is a fundamental part of human existence. It is the driving force behind evolution, progress, and the transformation of societies. While the idea of changing the world may seem daunting, it is not an impossible task. The notion of changing the world implies a collective effort, but it starts with the actions of individuals.

Small Actions, Big Impact

The first step towards changing the world is recognizing that small actions can have a significant impact. The butterfly effect, a concept from chaos theory, illustrates this point perfectly. It suggests that a butterfly flapping its wings can ultimately cause a tornado thousands of miles away. In the same vein, a single act of kindness, a novel idea, or a passionate endeavor can set off a chain reaction of events leading to substantial global change.

Education as a Catalyst for Change

One of the most powerful tools for change is education. Knowledge empowers individuals and societies to challenge the status quo and seek improvements. It fosters critical thinking, enabling individuals to question prevailing norms and ideologies. Furthermore, education equips us with the skills and competencies to bring about desired changes. By promoting education, we can create a more informed populace capable of making decisions that positively impact the world.

Technological Innovation and Change

Technological innovation is another significant agent of change. From the printing press to the internet, technology has always been a catalyst for societal transformation. Today, advancements in areas like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and renewable energy are not just changing the way we live but also the way we interact with our world. Embracing and promoting technological innovation can thus be a potent strategy for world change.

The Role of Policy and Governance

Policy and governance also play a crucial role in world change. Sound policies can promote social justice, economic development, and environmental sustainability. They can help address systemic issues and create an enabling environment for positive change. Therefore, active participation in governance and policy-making processes can significantly contribute to changing the world.

Conclusion: The Power of Collective Action

While individual actions are crucial, collective action is the key to changing the world. It is through the combined efforts of individuals, communities, and nations that we can address global challenges like climate change, poverty, and inequality. The power to change the world is not exclusive to a select few. It resides in each of us. As Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Ways to Save Water
• Essay on Ways to Save The Environment
• Essay on Ways to Save Money

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Life Making The World a Better Place

How I Can Change The World and Make It a Better Place

*minimum deadline

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below

• Personality

Related Essays

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

Cote d'ivoire

South africa, philippines, south korea, netherlands, switzerland, el salvador, latinoamérica y el caribe, puerto rico, trinidad & tobago, united states, new zealand.

• How to Know God

Do you ever wonder what Christians believe? Who Jesus is, what he did and why it matters? Get answers to these questions and more.

• Spiritual Growth

Take the next step in your faith journey with resources on prayer, devotionals and other tools for personal and spiritual growth.

• Life & Relationships

Explore resources to help you live out your life and relationships in a way that honors God.

• Bible Studies

Find resources for personal or group Bible study.

• Share the Gospel

Learn to develop your skills, desire and ability to join others on their spiritual journeys and take them closer to Jesus.

• Help Others Grow

Help others in their faith journey through discipleship and mentoring.

• Leadership Training

Develop your leadership skills and learn how to launch a ministry wherever you are.

• Language Resources

View our top Cru resources in more than 20 languages.

• Quizzes & Assessments

Have some fun taking various quizzes and assessments to learn about yourself and others.

Helping students know Jesus, grow in their faith and go to the world to tell others.

Reflecting Jesus together for the good of the city.

Partnering with urban churches to meet physical and spiritual needs.

Striving to see Christ-followers on every team, in every sport and in every nation.

Equipping families with practical approaches to parenting and marriage.

• High School

Reaching students and faculty in middle and high school.

Bringing hope and resources to military families worldwide.

• Locate Cru Near You
• Mission Trips

Volunteer abroad this year on a short term global missions trip offered by one of the best, most-reliable Christian missions organizations in the world.

• 1-Year Full-Time Internships

Internship opportunities with Cru's ministries.

If you're looking for the best Christian jobs and careers, check out Cru's ministry job openings for full- and part-time missionaries and professionals.

• Go International

Live in another country building relationships and ministries with eternal impact.

• Volunteer Opportunities

Would you like to give your time to work with Cru? We need you.

Find a Cru event near you.

• Explore Your Interests

Use your hobbies and interests to find the best place for you to serve.

How we seek to journey together with everyone towards a relationship with Jesus.

• Donor Relations

Answers to questions on donations, financial policies, Cru’s annual report and more.

• Statement of Faith

What we believe about the gospel and our call to serve every nation.

• Our Leadership

Learn about Cru's global leadership team.

• Cru Partnerships

When the global church comes together then powerful things can happen.

Leading from values so others will walk passionately with God to grow and bear fruit.

• Oneness in Diversity

Cru’s position on oneness in diversity.

• Sexuality and Gender

Today we encounter a wide variety of questions related to sexuality and gender. As followers of Christ, we want to navigate LGBT+ questions in a way that is compassionate to people and faithful to scripture.

Showing God in action in and through His people.

Hear what others are saying about Cru.

• Start A New Gift
• Missionaries
• Featured Opportunities
• More Ways to Give

Your Account

• Your Giving
• Payment Methods
• Donor-Advised Funds
• Stock and Non-Cash Gifts
• Cryptocurrency
• Planned Giving with Cru Foundation

You Can Honor a Woman of Influence!

Your Generosity Can Change Women's Lives!

• Cru22 Recorded Sessions

Evangelism Principles

How one person can help change the world, god wants to multiply his life a thousand-fold, and he wants to do it through you..

• Outreach Strategies , How to Share Your Faith

Remember your favorite teacher? She showed you how the lesson applied to everyday life. Maybe he helped you to experience his passion for a subject firsthand.

But even good teachers rarely expect their pupils to become the teacher to someone else. God wants more.

He has always built a pass-along principle into His creation. God never intended that any living thing He created should just be born, live and die.

When it comes to evangelism, it's not enough to make converts and teach them the basics of the faith; we need to make sure that each one we reach can pass on the life of the kingdom to others who can pass it on to others.

The first 2 commands that God gave mankind were "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). He was saying, " I  want more like  you  -- lots more!"

Jesus Christ demonstrated the principle several times, not the least when He gave us the Great Commission: "... teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:20, emphasis mine).

In other words, Jesus told His disciples to teach their disciples everything He first taught them. And look what happened: "Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied" (Acts 6:7, New King James Version).

In only a few years, they had "turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6, NKJV). Take notice: This was without the benefit of radio, TV, the printing press or the Internet.

Instead, the responsibility was borne by each individual.

Consider the apostle Paul's strategic mission statement in 2 Timothy 2:2. He didn't limit himself to developing a doctrinally sound, well-trained Timothy.

Instead, Paul was looking 2 generations  beyond his young disciple: "The things which  you  [second generation] have heard from  me [first generation] in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to  faithful men [third generation] who will be able to teach  others  also [fourth generation]."

Let's have a race. But we won't match athletes or cars; we'll match strategies. The finish line for our race? Winning all 6 billion people in the world to Jesus Christ.

One competitor will be "Reach the World by Addition." With this strategy, we will equip a church to add 1,000 people to heaven's roll every year. No, wait -- let's think big: Let's equip 10,000 churches to accomplish this supernatural goal every year.

Our other competitor will be...one guy. Meet Joe Multiplier, one lone fellow who decides to lead one person to Christ every year, disciple the new believer and train him how to do the same with someone else. By teaching others to become teachers, Joe will multiply himself.

You might be thinking, "No contest! Poor Joe is going to get smoked!" Well, do the math. The addition strategy, as impressive as it looks on the surface, will take 600 years to reach the world, and that's assuming a zero population-growth rate.

But since statistics suggest that we're currently adding 135 million to the world's population each year, the followers of the addition strategy will actually never reach the finish line.

Joe's strategy, on the other hand, will surpass it. Surely, he starts slow: After one year, there are only 2 disciples. At the end of the second year, 4. Third year, there are 8 followers of Jesus. Fourth year, 16. However, by year 33, you will have more than 8.5 billion Christians.

Worried about the population explosion? No problem -- we'll be at 34 billion Christians just 2 years later. Can you see the powerful potential of a ministry of multiplication, compared to one of addition?

Think about what we're producing with the first strategy above. When we're busy cranking out 1,000 converts a year in a church, we don't have much time, energy or people to pay attention to their spiritual growth.

But Joe Multiplier, and those he has led to Christ and mentored, will spend quality time with each and every "baby" to make sure they are firmly grounded in their faith and able to pass it on to others. Each one becomes a new fountainhead of growth and reproduction.

Yes, this takes time, but quality always does.

In the 21st century, we demand production, numbers and results now. We are the microwave generation. But we must realize that the Eternal One still prefers the Crock-Pot.

His ways are always the best; He has eternity in mind.  So, how do I begin a ministry of spiritual multiplication?

• Pray Never forget that God is infinitely more concerned with growth and reproduction than you could ever be. He causes and directs the growth, and generates spiritual transformation. And the most amazing thing of all is that He invites you to join in partnership with Him. So ask God what to do, who to begin investing your time in and how to start. As you begin working with someone, pray every day for love, discernment and direction.
• Read The DNA of spiritual multiplication is disciplemaking. There are many great books that will inspire and inform you regarding how to engage in this vital, one-to-one or small-group ministry. For example, Robert Coleman's  The Master Plan of Evangelism , Bill Bright's  How You Can Help Fulfill the Great Commission and my own  Personal Disciplemaking    have proven helpful to many people.
• Find a "Barnabas" Paul built into Timothy's life, but for many years Barnabas built into Paul's. There is no better way to learn how to be a spiritual multiplier than to be on the receiving end of a multiplier's ministry. Find a more mature man or woman who would be willing and able to mentor you.
• Have a plan What will you do with your disciples? Teach them to study the Bible and apply it to their lives, but interact with all areas of their lives. Start out with a good, foundational Bible study, such as Cru's 10 Basic Steps Toward Christian Maturity   or Disciplemakers International's Connecting With God .
• Talk about it -- a lot Don't let the disciple forget that he is not meant to be a dead end, but a freeway. God wants to travel to many others through him and help them grow to maturity. That's not the model of teaching we are used to, so you will need to frequently remind him of the pass-along principle.

God's ministry method down through the ages has always been for us to work with the few to reach the many: "The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation" (Isaiah 60:22, New International Version). God wants to multiply His life a thousand-fold, and He wants to do it through you.

A Legacy of Changed Lives

See how students are making a lasting impact through summer missions with Cru.

Related Topics:

Previous story, your story is god’s story: creating your testimony, faith steps: what are you afraid of, related products, soularium banner set (with stands).

What Matters?

Soularium Images Banner (No Stand)

Soularium Questions Banner (No Stand)

A Grander Story: An Invitation to Christian Professors

Transferable Concept 6 - How You Can Introduce Others to Christ (Ebook)

CoJourners Field Guide

Honor Restored

Knowing God Personally - Reconciled into God's Family (pack of 10)

QUEST - Men: Can YOU Know God Personally? 10 Pack

Knowing God Personally - Gray and Blue - Folding

4 Spiritual Laws Bilingual

Made to Thrive

Latest Stories in Evangelism Principles

3 tips for sharing your testimony.

Sharing the story of how you came to trust in Jesus requires courage and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Here are three tips to make sharing your story easier.

Rescue the Dying

A classic message from Ron Hutchcraft about our primary purpose.

Videos - Cojourners

©1994-2024 Cru. All Rights Reserved.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services.

A Message From the Assistant Director of Content Development 

The Purdue OWL® is committed to supporting  students, instructors, and writers by offering a wide range of resources that are developed and revised with them in mind. To do this, the OWL team is always exploring possibilties for a better design, allowing accessibility and user experience to guide our process. As the OWL undergoes some changes, we welcome your feedback and suggestions by email at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us via our contact page  if you have any questions or comments.

All the best,

Social Media

Facebook twitter.

Russell Millner/Alamy

Defend Our Planet and Most Vulnerable Species

Your donation today will be triple-matched to power NRDC’s next great chapter in protecting our ecosystems and saving imperiled wildlife.

What Are the Effects of Climate Change?

A rapidly warming planet poses an existential threat to all life on earth. Just how bad it gets depends on how quickly we act.

An area flooded by Super Typhoon Noru in the Bulacan Province of the Philippines, September 26, 2022

Rouelle Umali/Xinhua via Getty Images

• Share this page block

Climate change is our planet’s greatest existential threat . If we don’t limit greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the consequences of rising global temperatures include massive crop and fishery collapse, the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of species, and entire communities becoming uninhabitable. While these outcomes may still be avoidable, climate change is already causing suffering and death. From raging wildfires and supercharged storms, its compounding effects can be felt today, outside our own windows.

Understanding these impacts can help us prepare for what’s here, what’s avoidable, and what’s yet to come, and to better prepare and protect all communities. Even though everyone is or will be affected by climate change, those living in the world’s poorest countries—which have contributed least to the problem—are the most climate-vulnerable. They have the fewest financial resources to respond to crises or adapt, and they’re closely dependent on a healthy, thriving natural world for food and income. Similarly, in the United States, it is most often low-income communities and communities of color that are on the frontlines of climate impacts. And because climate change and rising inequality are interconnected crises, decision makers must take action to combat both—and all of us must fight for climate justice. Here’s what you need to know about what we’re up against.

Effects of climate change on weather

Effects of climate change on the environment, effects of climate change on agriculture, effects of climate change on animals, effects of climate change on humans, future effects of climate change.

As global temperatures climb, widespread shifts in weather systems occur, making events like droughts , hurricanes , and floods more intense and unpredictable. Extreme weather events that may have hit just once in our grandparents’ lifetimes are becoming more common in ours. However, not every place will experience the same effects: Climate change may cause severe drought in one region while making floods more likely in another.

Already, the planet has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since the preindustrial era began 250 years ago, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . And scientists warn it could reach a worst-case scenario of 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 if we fail to tackle the causes of climate change —namely, the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) .

Tokyo during a record-breaking heat wave, August 13, 2020

The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images

Higher average temperatures

This change in global average temperature—seemingly small but consequential and climbing—means that, each summer, we are likely to experience increasingly sweltering heat waves. Even local news meteorologists are starting to connect strings of record-breaking days to new long-term trends, which are especially problematic in regions where infrastructure and housing have not been built with intensifying heat in mind. And heat waves aren’t just uncomfortable—they’re the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States.

Longer-lasting droughts

Hotter temperatures increase the rate at which water evaporates from the air, leading to more severe and pervasive droughts . Already, climate change has pushed the American West into a severe “megadrought”—the driest 22-year stretch recorded in at least 1,200 years—shrinking drinking water supplies, withering crops , and making forests more susceptible to insect infestations. Drought can also create a positive feedback loop in which drier soil and less plant cover cause even faster evaporation.

More intense wildfires

This drier, hotter climate also creates conditions that fuel more vicious wildfire seasons—with fires that spread faster and burn longer—putting millions of additional lives and homes at risk. The number of large wildfires doubled between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States. And in California alone, the annual area burned by wildfires increased 500 percent between 1972 and 2018.

Evacuation after Hurricane Harvey in Houston, August 28, 2017

David J. Phillip/AP Photo

Stronger storms

Warmer air also holds more moisture, making tropical cyclones wetter, stronger, and more capable of rapidly intensifying. In the latest report from the IPCC , scientists found that daily rainfall during extreme precipitation events would increase by about 7 percent for each degree Celsius of global warming, increasing the dangers of flooding . The frequency of severe Category 4 and 5 hurricanes is also expected to increase. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey, a devastating Category 4 storm, dumped a record 275 trillion pounds of rain and resulted in dozens of deaths in the Houston area.

From the poles to the tropics, climate change is disrupting ecosystems. Even a seemingly slight shift in temperature can cause dramatic changes that ripple through food webs and the environment.

The lake at Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon in Iceland, which has grown because of continued glacial melting

Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

Melting sea ice

The effects of climate change are most apparent in the world’s coldest regions—the poles. The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on earth, leading to the rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, where a massive amount of water is stored. As sea ice melts, darker ocean waters that absorb more sunlight become exposed, creating a positive feedback loop that speeds up the melting process. In just 15 years, the Arctic could be entirely ice-free in the summer.

Sea level rise

Scientists predict that melting sea ice and glaciers, as well as the fact that warmer water expands in volume, could cause sea levels to rise as much as 6.6 feet by the end of the century, should we fail to curb emissions. The extent (and pace) of this change would devastate low-lying regions, including island nations and densely populated coastal cities like New York City and Mumbai.

But sea level rise at far lower levels is still costly, dangerous, and disruptive. According to the 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report from the National Ocean Service, the United States will see a foot of sea level rise by 2050, which will regularly damage infrastructure, like roads, sewage treatment plants, and even power plants . Beaches that families have grown up visiting may be gone by the end of the century. Sea level rise also harms the environment, as encroaching seawater can both erode coastal ecosystems and invade freshwater inland aquifers, which we rely on for agriculture and drinking water. Saltwater incursion is already reshaping life in nations like Bangladesh , where one-quarter of the lands lie less than 7 feet above sea level.

A waterlogged road, caused by rainstorm and upstream flood discharge, in the Shaoguan, Guangdong Province of China, June 21, 2022

Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In addition to coastal flooding caused by sea level rise, climate change influences the factors that result in inland and urban flooding: snowmelt and heavy rain. As global warming continues to both exacerbate sea level rise and extreme weather, our nation’s floodplains are expected to grow by approximately 45 percent by 2100. In 2022, deadly flooding in Pakistan—which inundated as much as a third of the country—resulted from torrential rains mixed with melting glaciers and snow.

Warmer ocean waters and marine heat waves

Oceans are taking the brunt of our climate crisis. Covering more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface, oceans absorb 93 percent of all the heat that’s trapped by greenhouse gases and up to 30 percent of all the carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels.

Temperature-sensitive fish and other marine life are already changing migration patterns toward cooler and deeper waters to survive, sending food webs and important commercial fisheries into disarray. And the frequency of marine heat waves has increased by more than a third . These spikes have led to mass die-offs of plankton and marine mammals.

To make matters worse, the elevated absorption of carbon dioxide by the ocean leads to its gradual acidification , which alters the fundamental chemical makeup of the water and threatens marine life that has evolved to live in a narrow pH band. Animals like corals, oysters, and mussels will likely feel these effects first, as acidification disrupts the calcification process required to build their shells.

Ecosystem stressors

Land-based ecosystems—from old-growth forests to savannahs to tropical rainforests—are faring no better. Climate change is likely to increase outbreaks of pests, invasive species, and pathogen infections in forests. It’s changing the kinds of vegetation that can thrive in a given region and disrupting the life cycles of wildlife, all of which is changing the composition of ecosystems and making them less resilient to stressors. While ecosystems have the capacity to adapt, many are reaching the hard limits of that natural capacity . More repercussions will follow as temperatures rise.

Climate change appears to be triggering a series of cascading ecological changes that we can neither fully predict nor, once they have enough momentum, fully stop. This ecosystem destabilization may be most apparent when it comes to keystone species that have an outsize- role in holding up an ecosystem’s structure.

Coffee plants destroyed by frost due to extremely low temperatures near Caconde in the São Paulo state of Brazil, August 25, 2021

Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Less predictable growing seasons

In a warming world, farming crops is more unpredictable—and livestock, which are sensitive to extreme weather, become harder to raise. Climate change shifts precipitation patterns, causing unpredictable floods and longer-lasting droughts. More frequent and severe hurricanes can devastate an entire season’s worth of crops. Meanwhile, the dynamics of pests, pathogens, and invasive species—all of which are costly for farmers to manage—are also expected to become harder to predict. This is bad news, given that most of the world’s farms are small and family-run. One bad drought or flood could decimate an entire season’s crop or herd. For example, in June 2022, a triple-digit heat wave in Kansas wiped out thousands of cows. While the regenerative agriculture movement is empowering rural communities to make their lands more resilient to climate change, unfortunately, not all communities can equitably access the support services that can help them embrace these more sustainable farming tactics.

Reduced soil health

Healthy soil has good moisture and mineral content and is teeming with bugs, bacteria, fungi, and microbes that in turn contribute to healthy crops. But climate change, particularly extreme heat and changes in precipitation, can degrade soil quality. These impacts are exacerbated in areas where industrial, chemical-dependent monoculture farming has made soil and crops less able to withstand environmental changes.

Food shortages

Ultimately, impacts to our agricultural systems pose a direct threat to the global food supply. And food shortages and price hikes driven by climate change will not affect everyone equally: Wealthier people will continue to have more options for accessing food, while potentially billions of others will be plummeted into food insecurity—adding to the billions that already have moderate or severe difficulty getting enough to eat.

The poison dart frog’s survival is currently threatened by habitat loss and climate change.

Chris Mattison/Minden Pictures

It’s about far more than just the polar bears: Half of all animal species in the world’s most biodiverse places, like the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos Islands, are at risk of extinction from climate change. And climate change is threatening species that are already suffering from the biodiversity crisis, which is driven primarily by changes in land and ocean use (like converting wild places to farmland) and direct exploitation of species (like overfishing and wildlife trade). With species already in rough shape—more than 500,000 species have insufficient habitat for long-term survival—unchecked climate change is poised to push millions over the edge.

Climate change rapidly and fundamentally alters (or in some cases, destroys) the habitat that wildlife have incrementally adapted to over millennia. This is especially harmful for species’ habitats that are currently under threat from other causes. Ice-dependent mammals like walruses and penguins, for example, won’t fare well as ice sheets shrink. Rapid shifts in ocean temperatures stress the algae that nourishes coral reefs, causing reefs to starve—an increasingly common phenomenon known as coral bleaching . Disappearing wetlands in the Midwest’s Prairie Pothole Region means the loss of watering holes and breeding grounds for millions of migratory birds. (Many species are now struggling to survive, as more than 85 percent of wetlands have been lost since 1700). And sea level rise will inundate or erode away many coastal habitats, where hundreds of species of birds, invertebrates, and other marine species live.

Many species’ behaviors—mating, feeding, migration—are closely tied to subtle seasonal shifts, as in temperature , precipitation level, and foliage. In some cases, changes to the environment are happening quicker than species are able to adapt. When the types and quantity of plant life change across a region, or when certain species bloom or hatch earlier or later than in the past, it impacts food and water supplies and reverberates up food chains.

Wildfire smoke–filled air in Multnomah County, Oregon, September 16, 2020

Motoya Nakamura/Multnomah County Communications, CC BY NC-ND 4.0

Ultimately, the way climate change impacts weather, the environment, animals, and agriculture affects humanity as well. But there’s more. Around the world, our ways of life—from how we get our food to the industries around which our economies are based—have all developed in the context of relatively stable climates. As global warming shakes this foundation, it promises to alter the very fabric of society. At worst, this could lead to widespread famine, disease, war, displacement , injury, and death. For many around the world, this grim forecast is already their reality. In this way, climate change poses an existential threat to all human life.

Human health

Climate change worsens air quality . It increases exposure to hazardous wildfire smoke and ozone smog triggered by warmer conditions, both of which harm our health, particularly for those with pre-existing illnesses like asthma or heart disease.

Insect-borne diseases like malaria and Zika become more prevalent in a warming world as their carriers are able to exist in more regions or thrive for longer seasons. In the past 30 years, the incidence of Lyme disease from ticks has nearly doubled in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Thousands of people face injury, illness , and death every year from more frequent or more intense extreme weather events. At a 2-degree Celsius rise in global average temperature, an estimated one billion people will face heat stress risk. In the summer of 2022 alone, thousands died in record-shattering heat waves across Europe. Weeks later, dozens were killed by record-breaking urban flooding in the United States and South Korea—and more than 1,500 people perished in the flooding in Pakistan , where resulting stagnant water and unsanitary conditions threaten even more.

The effects of climate change—and the looming threat of what’s yet to come—take a significant toll on mental health too. One 2021 study on climate anxiety, published in the journal Nature , surveyed 10,000 young people from 10 different countries. Forty-five percent of respondents said that their feelings about climate change, varying from anxiety to powerlessness to anger, impacted their daily lives.

A patient with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, in Karachi, Pakistan, where the spread of diseases worsened due to flooding, September 2022

Fareed Khan/AP Photo

Worsening inequity

The climate crisis exacerbates existing inequities. Though wealthy nations, such as the United States, have emitted the lion’s share of historical greenhouse gas emissions, it’s developing countries that may lack the resources to adapt and will now bear the brunt of the climate crisis. In some cases, low-lying island nations—like many in the Pacific —may cease to exist before developed economies make meaningful reductions to their carbon emissions.

Even within wealthier nations, disparities will continue to grow between those rich enough to shield themselves from the realities of climate change and those who cannot. Those with ample resources will not be displaced from their homes by wars over food or water—at least not right away. They will have homes with cool air during heat waves and be able to easily evacuate when a hurricane is headed their way. They will be able to buy increasingly expensive food and access treatment for respiratory illness caused by wildfire smoke. Billions of others can’t—and are paying the highest price for climate pollution they did not produce.

Hurricane Katrina, for example, displaced more than one million people around the Gulf Coast. But in New Orleans , where redlining practices promoted racial and economic segregation, the city’s more affluent areas tended to be located on higher ground—and those residents were able to return and rebuild much faster than others.

Displacement

Climate change will drive displacement due to impacts like food and water scarcities, sea level rise, and economic instability. It’s already happening. The United Nations Global Compact on Refugees recognizes that “climate, environmental degradation and disasters increasingly interact with the drivers of refugee movements.” Again, communities with the fewest resources—including those facing political instability and poverty—will feel the effects first and most devastatingly.

A flood-damaged home in Queens, New York, December 1, 2021

K.C. Wilsey/FEMA

Economic impacts

According to the 2018 National Climate Assessment, unless action is taken, climate change will cost the U.S. economy as much as $500 billion per year by the end of the century. And that doesn’t even include its enormous impacts on human health . Entire local industries—from commercial fishing to tourism to husbandry—are at risk of collapsing, along with the economic support they provide.

Recovering from the destruction wrought by extreme weather like hurricanes, flash floods, and wildfires is also getting more expensive every year. In 2021, the price tag of weather disasters in the United States totaled $145 billion —the third-costliest year on record, including a number of billion-dollar weather events.

The first wave of impacts can already be felt in our communities and seen on the nightly news. The World Health Organization says that in the near future, between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year from things like malnutrition, insect-borne diseases, and heat stress. And the World Bank estimates that climate change could displace more than 140 million people within their home countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America by 2050.

But the degree to which the climate crisis upends our lives depends on whether global leaders decide to chart a different course. If we fail to curb greenhouse gas emissions, scientists predict a catastrophic 4.3 degrees Celsius , (or around 8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming by the end of the century. What would a world that warm look like? Wars over water. Crowded hospitals to contend with spreading disease. Collapsed fisheries. Dead coral reefs. Even more lethal heat waves. These are just some of the impacts predicted by climate scientists .

Solar panel installation at a floating photovoltaic plant on a lake in Haltern am See, Germany, April 2022

Martin Meissner/AP Photo

Climate mitigation, or our ability to reverse climate change and undo its widespread effects, hinges on the successful enactment of policies that yield deep cuts to carbon pollution, end our dependence on dangerous fossil fuels and the deadly air pollution they generate, and prioritize the people and ecosystems on the frontlines. And these actions must be taken quickly in order to ensure a healthier present day and future. In one of its latest reports, the IPCC presented its most optimistic emissions scenario, in which the world only briefly surpasses 1.5 degrees of warming but sequestration measures cause it to dip back below by 2100. Climate adaptation , a term that refers to coping with climate impacts, is no longer optional ; it’s necessary, particularly for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

By following the urgent warnings of the IPCC and limiting warming, we may be able to avoid passing some of the critical thresholds that, once crossed, can lead to potentially irreversible, catastrophic impacts for the planet, including more warming. These thresholds are known as climate tipping points and refer to when a natural system "tips" into an entirely different state. One example would be Arctic permafrost, which stores carbon like a freezer: As the permafrost melts from warming temperatures, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Importantly, climate action is not a binary pass-fail test. Every fraction of a degree of warming that we prevent will reduce human suffering and death, and keep more of the planet’s natural systems intact. The good news is that a wide range of solutions exist to sharply reduce emissions, slow the pace of warming, and protect communities on the frontlines of climate impacts. Climate leaders the world over—those on major political stages as well as grassroots community activists—are offering up alternative models to systems that prioritize polluters over people. Many of these solutions are rooted in ancestral and Indigenous understandings of the natural world and have existed for millennia. Some solutions require major investments into clean, renewable energy and sustainable technologies. To be successful, climate solutions must also address intersecting crises—like poverty, racism, and gender inequality —that compound and drive the causes and impacts of the climate crisis. A combination of human ingenuity and immense political will can help us get there.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as grammar); you can’t resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can’t republish our material wholesale or automatically—you need to select stories individually; you can’t republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when you’ve used one of our stories.

We need climate action to be a top priority in Washington.

Tell President Biden and Congress to slash climate pollution and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. 

Urge President Biden and Congress to make equitable climate action a top priority in 2024

Related stories.

COP27: The Issues, the Tensions, and the Urgent Need for Unity on Climate

Mutual Aid and Disaster Justice: “We Keep Us Safe”

Climate Change at the Doctor’s Office

When you sign up, you’ll become a member of NRDC’s Activist Network. We will keep you informed with the latest alerts and progress reports.