… In an historic edict, Pope Francis warned that failing to act would have “grave consequences”, the brunt of which would fall on the world’s poorest people. His words came as a stark reminder that global climate change is among the most pressing moral dilemmas of the 21st century.
It joins a long list. He could have added spiralling inequality, persistent poverty, death from preventable diseases and nuclear proliferation to the ethical challenges that define our times. Some are newer than others, but all could plausibly be fixed. The fact we’re struggling with all of them raises a troubling question: does our moral compass equip us to deal with the threats we face … One must apparently pay for more from New Scientist, not recommended here.
As an older person, I simply do not know what to think when I hear this crap. My grandparents raised huge families through the Great Depression and my parents and their sibs later served honourably in WWII.
Spiralling inequality? I suggest looking at longevity rates as the best indicator of actual human welfare. They’ve been rising, rising.
What difference does it make if Bill Gates made a trillion as long as – across North America – if an old woman fell on the ice, EMS would haul her to a hospital?
Hey! Can we market that health care model worldwide? [Give Gates another trillion; who cares!]
Persistent poverty? But can we have a reasonable discussion about key causes, like fatherless homes? Or is that too un-PC?
Preventable diseases? What about people shooting down polio workers or their police guards? Yes, in some places, they do.
I don’t care what those people’s local explanation is. I remember my mom grabbing all of us by the ears and fingers and feet, and dragging us down to the makeshift clinic at the schoolhouse, when the Salk vaccine arrived in 1956.
Maybe the intellectual elite think Francis is other-worldly. But I would say the New Scientist editors are just living in another universe, which is a different sort of problem.
And we sure don’t need them remaking our morality. – O’Leary for News