Does the biggest world peace problem lie in global warming or is it in human greed?

Does the biggest world peace problem lie in global warming or is it in human greed?
Will we ever give a Nobel Prize to someone who will find a solution for THAT problem? Is Al Gore just a pompous multi-millionaire dickhead who lives in a big Nashville mansion and is using global warming to boost his ego and his political chances, or is he a real fighter of us and our planet?

A writer once said that as we approach the Earth from space we see the blue globe turn into a dirty, grey, dusty, and polluted ball, crisscrossed with wounds inflicted by the civilization. He asked, rhetorically, “Is humanity a form of planetary disease?”

As you go about the business of doing business, do you have at the back of your mind a thought that even if someone came up TODAY with a practically limitless supply of relatively cheap, clean, and efficient energy, humanity would, in not too many years, push against the limits of the Earth and its resources of livable and enjoyable space for humans and other animals to co-habit peacefully? Or do you believe that scientists and politicians will come up with answers in due course and we should just go about our lives as if everything is normal?

I worked a few times on assignments for the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation and wondered “What will we do with the lives, in Africa and elsewhere, that we so magnanimously save? Could we provide the children that we save from the ravages of malaria, TB and AIDS, with decent education and jobs? Or do we have to hold a Live Aid concert every minute of every hour just to keep the human tide of need (and greed) at bay?

As I am packing, ready to go to another global talkfest, I would love your thoughts on this.
Clarification added 12 hours ago:

I have been working in the past in the field of conflict resolution and worked as a trainer in Russia, Lebanon and Israel. In 1994, just after I finished running a CR seminar in Holland (for young people from Chechnya and other Caucasus republics), a Chechen war was started by Yeltsin and his military cronies. Having met the same trainees after many seminars that they underwent the only effect that I knew of was the personal bonds that were formed and the knowledge in these people’s mind that someone cared. I finally refused to go to Chechnya because too many people working in humanitarian field got kidnapped and I just had a young child born then.

I had some doubts about being used by “the big boys” who start wars and then want us to “pacify the natives” so that big business would spread its wings further afield.

I agree on the “good works start at home” policy. My only proviso is that education (things like writing, and practical, in-depth seminars, etc.) can influence people’s attitudes and thinking, sometimes in profound ways. But even then, the work must be heart-based and take the people beyond some new “feelgood cause” that does not address the core of the problem – which is us and our history.

I see some young people adopt the “global warming” ideology without thinking through the causes of destruction of the environment, of which they are a part. Or even think about our insignificance in the big scheme of things, with “normal” cosmic and planetary changes overriding our puny mammalian dreams and plans. We got a long way to go before we can implement a truly rational and intelligent custodianship strategy for the Earth and its inhabitants. That must involve bouts of modesty and feats of atonement that even the Al Gores of this world are not ready for -- yet.

Jeff Putnam
Senior Analyst at Certica Solutions
see all my answers
Best Answers in: Ethics (5)... see more
Your point is a good one. We spend billions on the poor, but poor still happens. We talk about peace, but there is more war now than there has ever been. We keep trying to solve the problem, without acknowledging that the problem is us.

Man is not getting better; we're getting worse. The answer does not lie in science or politics. Big, global visions really never pan out. The best we can do to pursue personal change, love and help those around us, and do it convincingly enough that the people whose lives we touch want to pass it on. It won't work 100 percent of the time - frankly, I'd say 10 percent would be fantastic. But even 1 percent makes it worthwhile.

Have fun at your talkfest, but ask yourself this: would that time be better spent at a soup kitchen? watching someone's kid so they can look for a job? writing a letter to a prisoner to let him know that someone in the world knows he's alive?
Messages from Jeff Putnam (1):
• RE: Does the biggest world peace problem lie in global warming or is it in human greed?
posted 18 hours ago | Reply to Jeff Putnam | Flag answer as...

Sheilah Etheridge
Owner, SME Management: Management and Accounting Consultant
see all my answers
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (349)... see more
I agree with Jeff, we need to do more for people rather than causes. Unless and until we put our energy into helping real live people nothing will change. It seems that no matter what cause somene is collecting for nothing in that area changes, the poor are still poor. The hungry are still hungry and the children are still forgotten.

I no longer donate to cancer societies after finding out all of the donations go to research, studies, and event planning. They never help individuals who need help. I called 30 different agencies all over the US looking for someone who could help a friend of mine who lost her insurance after her doctor called her job and said she could no longer work.

Not one of these agencies would help with her 6 week stay in another city for treatment. We have done so many fund raisers and also given straight from our pocket to the point we can no longer give. Each of these organizations said no we don't help people, we just do research.

The same is true for many of these charities we give to whether it is for the poor or an illness. Our money is not helping to buy some clothes so someone can get a job, it isn't getting a child to a doctor or ensuring they have dinner at night.

The problem is people take the easy way out. They donate to causes to make themselves feel better, but never give a thought to helping people. We need to look at where the donations are being used and what they are being used for.

Ultimately we are the problem, not global warming, aids, cancer, or anything else. People need to help people.

Sheilah
Messages from Sheilah Etheridge (1):
• RE: Does the biggest world peace problem lie in global warming or is it in human greed?
posted 16 hours ago | Reply to Sheilah Etheridge | Flag answer as...

Alice de Sturler
Human Rights Instructor
see all my answers
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (9)... see more
I'd just like to add indifference to the obstacles that both Jeff and Sheilah describe below. The indifference in managing the charity, the oversight, the networking, finding true ways to help. It has become routine and streamlined and is not tailored anymore to individual needs.
Messages from Alice de Sturler (1):
• RE: Does the biggest world peace problem lie in global warming or is it in human greed?
posted 13 hours ago | Reply to Alice de Sturler | Flag answer as...

Eileen Bonfiglio
IT Professional, CQM, CQE, SCM & Owner of Web Development Firm
see all my answers
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (16)... see more
Hello Pyotr,

Excellent point! I am in agreement with you and the larger the organization, the most likely I will not contribute. I am a firm believer in local charity, I want to know and see where the money goes. I have found two that I work with. One, actually came to the aid of my family when we needed them, I just finished a fund raiser last night for them. They are large but have a local division, all the local money stays here. I like that :) I saw and met the faces of those I was helping last night, I live with one of them. It is very gratifying to see the results of your effort. I wish the bigger ones would do the same.

Eileen
Messages from Eileen Bonfiglio (1):
• RE: Does the biggest world peace problem lie in global warming or is it in human greed?
posted 9 hours ago | Reply to Eileen Bonfiglio | Flag answer as...

DLR Prasad
Director at The Singareni Collieries Company Limited
see all my answers
To me both are equal and interrelated issues but solution doesnot lie there. Goverments must invest huge amounts for total switch over to renewble resources and the renewals shall be atleast equal to depleting. We shall go into a world where we don't use any depleting resource, what ever it is. The world shall invest and focus towards this. Though what I said is at a vision level, it has be detailed out. It is the and the priority for the world.