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Originally Posted by Willravel
Education always trumps everything. It's the key to every single other issue. With proper education, we wouldn't have people thinking the second coming of Christ should factor in to long term energy and environmental policy and we wouldn't have obtuse economists suggesting that the market will fix any and every problem before the consequences reach the public.
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I agree that education is the most important, however, I think more than a tad naive to think that simple giving everyone the tools to develop an informed opinion is going to magic them all into agreeing on how to solve problems, or whether or not (in the case of 'climate change' for one example) there even is a problem. Also, I don't see how simply giving someone an education will make them forget about their religious beliefs. There are plenty of religious folks who are educated.
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Originally Posted by Strange Famous
but I would consider climate change presently to be more important than national sovereignty.
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Really? '...' Really? I think treating the 'global climate crisis' as though it's import was above that of national or personal sovereignty as jumping the gun. I'll use another crisis that we know a bit more certainly is coming in the future.
The sun isn't going to last forever. When it goes, so does the habitability of this rock we're riding on, if it doesn't go sooner (
Desert Earth). Why isn't anyone raising a ruckus about this? It is coming, and there are finite resources to deal with the problem. We have a lot more learning to do down here before we could possibly undertake interstellar travel. Yet, nothing is done-no one really seems to care. It's our children that are going to be affected and yet we do nothing. Think of all the resources we piss away on 'entertainment' when we have this huge looming crisis that may not be avertable without our absolute maximal effort.
Which brings me to my real point - sooner or later, we (humanity) are space dust, the same space dust we're made out of only more spread out. Forfeiting principles or sovereignty because of 'future generations' well being seems a bit silly - we can't do it. We will never be able to indefinitely support humanity, or life really. We may be able to prolong it, which may be a worthy goal. But a real examination of how we want to live life in the meantime needs to take place first.
For my money? I'm on the side of personal liberty. It's about quality of life vs. quantity of life, no different that personal end of life issues. The only difference is it's the end of our life as a species rather than a person. What right have I to make that decision for all potential life out there? None whatsoever- but it is a decision I have to make thanks to fate. (Note the parallels between this and contraception/abortion right to life issue). Personal liberty and equality are goals we can obtain, and we should work towards them, to sacrifice these for some temporary extension on presence, doesn't seem worthwhile to me.