The Greatest Threat We Face

Dear Friends,

In the second Democratic Presidential debate, Bernie Sanders said that climate change was the biggest threat that we face.  President Obama has made similar statements.  In light of the terrorist attacks in Paris, many politicians particularly those on the right are pushing the narrative that ISIS is the biggest threat and that there is a real threat that ISIS will destroy the world as we know it.  While stoking fear and hatred of others is a constant political strategy for Republicans, it is important to point out that there is absolutely no way that ISIS can destroy the world as we know it and that ISIS, while a threat that must be eliminated, is in no way a major threat to the world as know it.  For more on that point, I commend to you Paul Krugman's Op-ed piece, entitled "Fearing Fear Itself" published in The New York Times (here).

After 9/11 our Congress passed the Patriot Act to take away our freedoms in order to prevent another terrorist attack.  Then through a series of leaks, particularly by Edward Snowden, we learned that our government was exceeding its authority and that there was no proof that all the invasions of our privacy were of any help.  Now after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, John Brennan is claiming that the disclosures have made it more difficult to track terrorists, so we need to sacrifice more of our privacy rights.  In addition, Republicans are calling for legislation to stop all Syrian refugees from entering the country.

We can pass more and more legislation that goes against our Constitutional rights and our values to pretend to guard against terrorism, but we cannot pass any legislation to help reduce the gun violence that is rampant in this country.  CNN did this analysis recently (here).

Using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that from 2001 to 2013, 406,496 people died by firearms on U.S. soil. (2013 is the most recent year CDC data for deaths by firearms is available.) This data covered all manners of death, including homicide, accident and suicide.
According to the U.S. State Department, the number of U.S. citizens killed overseas as a result of incidents of terrorism from 2001 to 2013 was 350.
In addition, we compiled all terrorism incidents inside the U.S. and found that between 2001 and 2013, there were 3,030 people killed in domestic acts of terrorism.* This brings the total to 3,380.

The numbers used by CNN include the deaths from the 9/11 attacks.  It should be obvious from this analysis that gun violence is a much greater threat to us than terrorism, yet the Republicans are unwilling to consider any action to reduce gun violence.

The threat from climate change is in the short term immense and in the long term existential.  The World Health Organization estimates that there are 150,000 deaths worldwide annually caused by climate change and estimates that between 2030 and 2050 that number will rise to 250,000 additional deaths annually just from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.  For comparison, the worldwide death toll from terrorism in 2014, the latest data available was just under 33,000 people.  That toll was the highest on record, but it is unclear if it represents a trend.  These incredible numbers are only the direct impact.  They do not reflect the deaths and other impacts of the conflicts that will result from the shortage of natural resources and the movement of displaced populations.

Obviously, terrorism is a problem that must be dealt with, but the threat from climate change is much more serious and if left unchecked will actually destroy the world as we know it.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal