Nicole's Editorials

Ignorance is bliss

A disturbing report was recently released at an international conference on global warming. Although global warming is considered to be "pesky" at this point, the report claims that poor countries, especially, will be hit with death, destruction and extinction of entire species. Only 23 pages of the 1,572-page document have been released at this point, but one can only imagine that there's more bad news to come.

"Poor countries argue that they will suffer due to global warming caused by greenhouse gasses produced in the rich industrial world. At the same time, they're being told not to produce more greenhouse gasses of their own as they try to industrialize their way out of poverty, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips."

It seems to be a lose-lose situation for the third-world countries. But how, you ask, is the reporting of such news an ethical issue? Thank goodness fewer and fewer care about what's happening in the world and don't read the news, because I know that my mouth dropped as I read what was to come.

Although this may sound far-fetched, the report that the scientists came up with may not be truth as to what is to come, and the catastrophic predictions could cause a massive scare--circa Y2K anyone?

"'Don't be poor in a hot country, don't live in hurricane alley, watch out about being on the coasts or in the Arctic, and it's a bad idea to be on high mountains with glaciers melting,' said Stanford University scientist Stephen Schneider, an author of the study. Africa by 2020 is looking at an additional 75 to 250 million people going thirsty because of climate change, and deadly diarrhea diseases 'primarily associated with floods and droughts are expected to rise' in Asia because of global warming, the report said."

What a life to look forward to! Rather than living oblivious to the truth, I do believe that the media is doing in its job informing the public, even if it as report based on predictions for the future. According to Aristotle's pursuit of eudaimonia, one may not necessarily want to know such predicitions, but Mill would argue there could be an element of truth within such predictions. Personally, I would rather know than live a life full of blissful ignorance.

posted by clevergirl @ 7:46 PM