As you walk down the street and decide to give a dollar to a homeless woman around the curve, you don’t expect this little amount to be able to buy her a new life, but you still decide to help her because you know that any amount will be better than nothing and will make a small contribution to one of her needs in one way or another. It is not about how big or small the outcome will really be, but rather the intention behind the action.
This ideal is emphasized in Kant’s Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals as it is stated, “an action from duty has its moral worth not in the purpose to be attained by it, but in the maxim in accordance with which it is decided on.”
Some of the major issues that our society faces, such as climate change, have many people who contribute towards the manner because they voluntarily want to help and are motivated to help the cause. For example Leonardo Dicaprio has made use of his resources to be involved in and even create his own charity, the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation, in which he seeks after the wellbeing of our planet Earth. Though his team continuously works hard to protect the planet, the repercussions of climate change are too strong to be fully controlled. One could say that there would really be no reason for Dicaprio and everyone else in the world to put an effort into stopping/controlling climate change because at the pace that it’s going, it will not be sufficient. However, Kant would argue that their actions are valued and have moral worth because of the good intentions behind them regardless of the immediate effects.