Our Real Security Focus should not be terrorism ...

In a word: get a grip. On the day when Britain's airports have been placed under highest security because an alleged plot to blow up airliners has been uncovered in the UK, I offer this reminder of perspective.

We, especially those of us in the U.S., have been ... told constantly that not only is terrorism an immediate threat ... but that it is a danger to our very civilization. The result has been both that terrorists have been more successful in spreading terror and that authoritarian politicians have taken the opportunity to reduce government transparency and citizen oversight and erode protections for human rights and democratic process. It also hasn't made us one lick safer, ... we've essentially ignored very big, well- documented threats, from the climate crisis to the weakening of the global public health system and the rise of epidemic disease to the destruction of New Orleans. Meanwhile, what we've been taught about how to respond to real threats turns out to be not very helpful.

The impacts of climate change in terms of food security, management of refugees, potential inter and intra-state conflict all added into far from perfect systems already in place and grievances already running free are so much more than the relatively small numbers affected by terrorism [though I recognise each victim is a tragedy that could have been my tragedy]. Heck, we don't get worked up about the far higher numbers of road maimings and injuries. Indeed as the article writer says;

The health effects of sprawl, car accidents, chemical spills, environmentally-influenced cancers: all of these things are probably bigger threats...than terrorism. Certainly preventable disease, unneccessary hunger, solvable poverty and environmental degredation already cause far more death and suffering in the world than any terrorists ever could.

Worth checking out for the further references.
By getting things out of proportion we are busy handing the victory to the terrorists. It's about time people and governments grasped this elementary fact. In fact, in dealing with the bigger issues of the aftermaths of climate change, we would be building a world that would be less prone to fomenting terrorism and in which the effects of it would be lessened.

Other sites worth checking out on this: calculating your risk of dying in a terrorist attack compared with other life risks. John Rogers, the writer shared some useful personal perspectives on keeping things in proportion.
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Why Sustainability, not Terrorism, Should Be Our Real Security Focus.:
Filed in: terrorism, climate_change, risk, assessment, government, security