The news media's silence, particularly television news, is reprehensible. If we knew as much about Darfur as we do about Michael Jackson, we might be able to stop these things from continuing.

One of the great failings of the American education system (in our view) is that young people can graduate from university without any understanding of poverty at home or abroad.

It's easy to keep issuing blame to Republicans or the president

Once you've created a connection of empathy, rational arguments can play a supportive role.

Sandy was particularly destructive because it was prevented from moving back out to sea by a "blocking pattern" associated with the jet stream. There's debate about this, but one recent study suggested that melting sea ice in the Arctic may lead to such blocking.

Write letters to your editors, write to your members of Congress, and write to your news stations.

In general, talking about human rights tends to be very persuasive for people who care about human rights.