Who is the true hero in saving our world from ourselves?

[Loren Booda]

A person who, more than any other living human, transcends political boundaries and will help to save our world from ourselves. Who that might be?

 

[Pengwuino]

Count me out

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

the anti-christ...or me

 

[honestrosewater]

Nader! Nader!

 

[rachmaninoff]

Most religious leaders would claim to be this person.

 

[wolram]

A person who, more than any other living human, transcends political boundaries and will help to save our world from ourselves. Who that might be?

In the history of humanity there has never been such a, "person", political
alliances may last a year, ten or one hundred, but they all end.
It is always the need of the one that overcomes unity, greed in other words,
I remember this, "if you divide all the wealth in the world equally among
the population within X time it will be back in the same hands as before", or
something like that.
Now if you are thinking of some kind of god that can take away our greed
and control us, then we would not have free will, and that is what makes us
human.
If you are thinking of some star trek world where there is no need for money
and no one is rich or poor, there is always power, rank, authority, envy, hate
that keeps humanity from utopia.

 

[loseyourname]

Our best bet is another Andrew Carnegie. A hugely successful and benevolent businessman willing to give a great deal of time and money to causes that transcend politics and benefit everyone. Unfortunately, most businessmen seem to be interested in using the money they make only to make more money. That, in and of itself, will help, as more wealth in the world can only mean good things.

Barring this, some huge advance in science and technology is probably the closest we'll get to what you seem to want. Perhaps a few that have some outside chance of actually happening in the next 100 years:

-Successful gene therapy virtually ends cancer as a health threat
-Fusion technology is developed that yields a positive net energy
-The use of paper is eliminated
-Vehicles that burn fossil fuels become obsolete
-Freed from the restraints of communism, China becomes a major positive contributor to the world stage, if not politically, certainly in the business world


Less likely but not completely impossible developments:

-The genetic basis of human violence is isolated and can begin to be engineered out of the gene pool
-Permanent colonies are established on the moon and Mars, and the terraforming process begun on the red planet
-Some way is found to clean the world's water supplies

Probably impossible but would do the trick:

-The spirit of capitalism infects the world; ethnic/religious/territorial disputes are put aside for the sake of entering into mutually beneficial business agreements. Political boundaries become virtually irrelevant.
-Extraterrestrial visitors reveal themselves to the human race, imparting their vast knowledge to us
-Jesus returns

The least likely option:

-Increasing globalism and interracial mixing results in a single worldwide culture/race. We all become humans first and foremost. Differences of opinion continue to exist, but gone is the ingroup/outgroup mentality.

 

[Astronuc]

Dalai Lama comes pretty close.

However, each of us needs to do our own individual part to 'save' the world.

Each of us needs to recognize the "inherent worth and dignity" in everyone else.

Religious leaders must live by example, and clearly there are a lot of bad examples in the world at the moment.

 

[arildno]

Either of the two great Alberts.
<<Einstein or Schweitzer>>

 

[BicycleTree]

"Making" money is only a synonym for obtaining a greater fraction of the total money that is out there. Nothing real is necessarily produced when one man obtains a big share of cash--stock traders, for example, do nothing but shift money around among people. Well, alright, they also fund startups, and that can be useful, but when you're talking about big established stocks the traders mostly just shuffle money around among themselves. The only things industrialists can really make, are useful, beneficial products. Except, they can also make harmful products, and when they do that their endeavors are actively harmful no matter how much cash they draw in.