Geography interview- Is terrorise or climate change a larger threat? (Real question I got asked)

It really depends on scale and who is being asked this question.On a global scale, climate change is a larger issue when considered from a utilitarian perspective as the number of people that will suffer from rising sea levels, increased bush fire intensities and sporadic rainfall patterns, far outweighs the suffering of the few that are killed/ have personal relations to someone linked to a terrorise attack. However terrorism can be a more emotive issue and for those who have been directly affected by attacks, it will affect their psychological wellbeing much more severely. This is partly because of the direct intention of the suffering. Climate change cannot be attributed to a single individual whereas terrorism feels much more personal. This personal, human aspect of the threat makes can make it feel more dangerous and severe. The threat of terriousm also feels much more life threatening whereas although climate change can endanger life (eg. The deaths seen in Australia’s bush fire), generally climate change only affects the quality of life for individuals. Therefore climate change is a threat to a larger number of people, but the severity of the threat is higher for those directly associated with terrorism.