Global Goals: Fifteen years to a better world

Yes, I'm asking you to watch 3 different videos. But they're worth it! And they're only 2-4 minutes each.

Last weekend, more than 150 world leaders convened in New York and crafted an ambitious list of 17 goals for humanity to achieve over the next 15 years. Specifically, these are the U.N.'s Global Goals for Sustainable Development - the next phase to follow the 8 Millennium Development Goals that were laid out in 2000.

You may need a little refresher on what exactly these 8 Millennium Development Goals were. And, of course, you're curious to know how well we did with actually accomplishing those goals. So...

This time around, the U.N. stepped it up a little, setting goals that are even more ambitious (and more numerous) than the previous 8. For example, Goal #1 = END ALL POVERTY EVERYWHERE. Many of the subsequent goals are, in fact, hand-in-hand with this goal: quality education, zero hunger, and economic growth are all necessary ingredients in eradicating poverty for good. (And quality education is a huge tipping point in creating gender equality...and so on.) Anyway, here's the full list.

Find a more detailed version of the list in this NPR article.

If you want a more visually dynamic version of the list, here's the explanatory (celeb-full) video from the Global Goals official website:

Now that you know the situation, we get to the main point of this post.

The U.N. took the first bold step in outlining these goals. Achieving them will take a whole lot more of us. The more people there are around the world who are calling for the accomplishment of these goals, the more likely it is that we'll succeed. If you need inspiration - just pause for a moment and imagine a world without poverty. Without hunger or dirty fuel or collapsing economies or infected water. 

If you need more inspiration, help yourself to some of Hank's emphatic opinions in this video (a response to the first one from John looking back at the MDG), which I love. He calls it "Pissed off for a better world":

I haven't yet chosen which one of the 17 goals to loudly champion, because it's hard! I want to live a life that supports the achievement of all 17. But I'm working on it.

A direct quote from the Global Goals website: "If the Goals are going to work, everyone needs to know about them. TELL EVERYONE."

So let's get started, friends. Take your newfound knowledge and go do something about it.