The Real Terror

All the analysis and commentary about safety and security on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 ignored by far the biggest ongoing threat to global security: climate change.

Just days before Sunday's commemoration of the attacks, German scientists pointed to yet another smoking gun of climate change: the Arctic sea ice reached a new historic minimum ice extent.

The rapidity with which the planet is losing its northern ice cap continues to astonish experts. The defrosting northern pole is one of the prime drivers of Earth's climate system and is changing global weather patterns in unpredictable ways.
~ from Record Arctic Ice Melt Threatens Global Security by Stephen Leahy ~

I don't mean to minimize what we like to call "terrorist attacks," but these few instances that come along every now and then will pale in comparison to the coming ecological crisis. When the environment starts to morph big time -- we are just now seeing glimpses of it -- there will be little, if anything, we can do to stop it. Humanity will be transformed into sitting ducks!

So, why do we focus so much attention, time and resources on the few terrorist attacks that occur and almost no attention, time and resources on the impending terror we are creating ourselves? For me the answer is twofold.

First and foremost, it's about money. The specter of present day human terrorism can be manipulated to increase short-term profits and short-term profits are what capitalists focus on. Climate change/global warming means a decrease in short-term profit as industries need to change the way they routinely operate. While these changes may well increase long-term profitability, capitalists generally can't see beyond the end of their noses!!

The second reason is that human terrorism is focused on the short-term future, while human-caused ecological terror is [erroneously] thought to be in the distant future. For too many of us, if we think our behavior won't alter our current lifestyles significantly, we truly don't give a damn about what future generations will encounter. Our attitude is like, "Deal with it. It's YOUR problem, not mine."

We like to talk about leaving a better world for subsequent generations, but, if you look at our actions today, it is more than evident that we really don't care one iota. We write a lot about Supreme Virtue on this blog; in this case, however, the more apt term is Supreme Selfishness!