Five Best Ideas of the Day: August 7

1. Climate change and increased fertilizer use could mean more poisonous algae blooms and contaminated drinking water.

By Jane J. Lee in National Geographic

2. If the world community isn’t careful, the very concept of sovereignty could be finished.

By the editorial board of the Christian Science Monitor

3. From Nigeria to Gaza and beyond: what happened to our ability to feel empathy?

By Lauren Wolfe in Foreign Policy

4. What if pay reflected a job’s social worth?

By Robert Reich in Guernica

5. International development is too focused on the very poor. Transformational strategies to improve whole societies do more to help the poor – and everyone else.

By Lant Pritchett in Effective States and Inclusive Development

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C.