Global Warming and Values

¶ … Educational Priorities of the High Sage of New Toronto The newly appointed High Sage of Education for the small city of New Toronto was conflicted. On the one hand, this was an opportunity to help this struggling community educate its young people to not only cope with their precarious situation, but to instill appropriate values that can help guide their future.

On the other hand, though, there are numerous obstacles involved in developing relevant curricular offerings for these children, including most especially determining what lessons should be learned from the collapse of human civilization and how these lessons should be taught. Drawing on the teachings of Augustine, Plato and Alfarabi, this paper provides a succinct analysis concerning the main reasons for the collapse of human civilization, followed by relevant guiding principles for the ethical education of the next generation of New Torontonians and a summary of the research in the conclusion.

Main Reasons for the Collapse of Human Civilization by 2116 Although there were clear signs that humankind was headed for disaster more than a century ago, the mounting evidence of global warming was either ignored or discounted by some politicians, a process that gained momentum following the historic election of President Donald "The Devastator" Trump in 2016 whose two terms spelled the death knell for the environmental movement (some critics even suggest that the president wanted global warming to proceed so his desert properties would become more valuable ocean-front holdings).

The handwriting was also on the wall more than a century ago that competition over increasingly scarce resources and the proliferation of nuclear weapons would inevitable bring out a nuclear holocaust instigated by rogue nations such as North Korea that had little to lose. Likewise, despite cautions from the scientific community to proceed with caution in genetic engineering experiments, the earthquakes that rocked the United States in 2036 released experimental organisms into the environment that reproduced and further mutated at astonishing rates.

Taken together, the High Sage had much to consider in determining what type of curricular offerings and values were best suited for the needs of the young people of New Toronto. Fortunately, the High Sage had one of the largest libraries in the world (eight volumes!) including writings by Augustine, Plato and Alfarabi which he applied to the problem as described below.

Guiding Principles for the Ethical Education of the Next Generation of New Torontonians Besides practical curricular offerings that provide young learners in New Toronto with the basic agricultural, industrial and scientific background they will need to survive, Augustine would advise including instruction concerning the essential values such as the importance of developing and sustaining an interest in the welfare of others and the common good (Mcpherson, 2000).

Although Plato would likely agree with these values, he would also add the need to instill more fundamental values such as the ability for young people to distinguish right from wrong as well as truth from falsehoods (Thesleff, 2009). Finally, Alfarabi would emphasize the need for young New Torontonians to pursue "proficiencies in the arts" to promote spiritual growth (Al-Talbi, 2015). Conclusion.