It’s still “if it bleeds, it leads.”

Even Secretary of State John Kerry has declared terrorism to be a more urgent threat than climate change. It is more abjectly terrifying and immediate, sure. Maybe it’s just about the choice of word: “urgent.” Urgent is now, climate change is still and ever tomorrow (until it’s not).

But why are we even comparing the two? Because we haven’t the will to take on more than one global challenge at a time?

Why do we humans persist in pitting one crisis against another? Is it just sibling rivalry writ large? The zero sum model?

As Jack Kerouac said: “comparisons are odious.” Let’s just take them both on.

There is plenty of trouble to go around. And plenty of cash. If we could dole out a few trillion dollars when the banks held us all hostage, we can deal with these two threats, one immediate and bloody, one inexorably grinding on towards us like a slow-moving avalanche, as we go about our destructive lifestyles, making it all worse because we just can’t see our way clear to giving up any slight convenience. Let alone the corporate strategy of squeezing every last drop of profit out of every last drop of resource.

As for the other threat, can we just stop pretending it’s got anything to do with religious belief? It’s all about taking advantage of disenfranchised young males whose easiest and most favored outlet is violence.