Reflection: Prioritizing

I’d like to address PTJ’s question from class today about whether or not addressing climate change is something worth focusing our efforts on.  

The problem of climate change is important but addressing it doesn’t yield immediate results by any means and there are things just as important, and I will argue more important, that need immediate attention. Eradicating poverty, guaranteeing access to clean water, and providing education to all are what I believe should be top on the priority list. We cannot be concerned only with ensuring a sustainable future when we don’t even know if we’ll make it to the future.  Because we presently face numerous threats to our existence, we could potentially die off before even reaching the time when efforts addressing climate change would show results. If we don’t focus on what’s important now, like ensuring a fair distribution of resources or providing access to clean water, then our population will die of starvation and disease.  So yes, there are many issues that deserve attention, such as climate change, but since we cannot realistically or efficiently address all of them, we have to pick and choose based on which are the most pressing and which will yield most immediate results.