What about educating the whole population to the point that the average joe can think logically, critically, and independently so that the society as a whole can adapt change better?
And it's not like we haven't seen that the average person can make better decisions because of education, than medieval age lets say. Maybe we just need faster ways to improve the population.
Of course that is the solution. The question is how? To be specific, what actually should we educate the population?
We should differentiate knowledge from intelligence or wisdom. Knowledge can be fake, misleading, or contradictory. We have more knowledge and access of information than medieval age typical Joe, but do we have more intelligence or wisdom?
To make the comparison easier, do we have more intelligence and wisdom than Plato (whom I am certain that we possess more knowledge)?
This is a large topic and I've been thinking for a while. In essence, there are 2 major things we need to educate more.
1. Science. To the point that average joe understands that the prediction of climate change is concluded from the same scientific methods that helped us finding cures for diseases, inventing computers, and sending people to the moon. Science is not always perfect the same as we dont always have perfect cure for some diseases at the moment. But that is the best we can do for now, and it's the work of many experts over many years. So it is logical to either believe it or contribute to it scientifically, financially, auditing-wise, or something else. After all we believe in scientists not because that they have the title, but because we believe in scientific methods, in scientific approach.
2. Social science. Pure science is about causality. Social science can teach us value, what is good, what is bad, and happiness. Then we can discuss whether not acting upon climate change will make you more happy or less happy.
Not with Betsy Blackwater at the helm; if she does anything other than weaken public education at the benefit of the various charter systems, I will be deeply surprised.
You could start by 'educating' scientists like Richard Lindzen, William Happer, Judith Curry and Ivar Giaever. Would the population act differently if they rose to these folks' intellectual level?
Well, if you always stop actually listen to these scientists at the first sentence, then you are not educated (IMHO, sorry, no offense).
To be educated IMHO, we should care about reasons of what they say more than the title of what they say. It is not unusual for scientists to draw wrong conclusions from the the right reasons, and those right reasons can help you draw your own right conclusions.
When each of us can maintain our own set of knowledge/conclusions under a set of consistent reasons, then the society will be much more resistant to any kind of appeal to authority/popularity logic fallacy.
And it's not like we haven't seen that the average person can make better decisions because of education, than medieval age lets say. Maybe we just need faster ways to improve the population.