"The role of a few morally committed private individuals"

One of my classes discussed the origins of the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions, and one aspect of the articles we read and of the discussion was how the actions of the few could impact the many. The founder of the Red Cross and the instigator of the first Geneva Convention, Henry Dunant, was a man of wealth but no political authority, who acted out of a sense of moral obligation after witnessing the suffering of wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Now the world faces a new challenge of existential scale, climate change. The photo, one of the United Nations headquarters, is an example…