Immediate concerns vs long term concerns

 Before Covid I would meet every weekend for coffee with a group of friends and we would talk sports, politics, and yup - gossip.

That was on hold for a while, now we are back to getting together on the weekends at our favorite coffee shop (which is observing limited seating) to hash out this and that.

I expressed an opinion recently to Germaine, that U.S. politics and the worry about the rise of rightwing fanaticism is not THE biggest worry I have, it is the environment, because it IS more of a "existential" threat not only to Americans, but the world.

Now new flags are being raised about what will happen in Afghanistan, and will terrorism grow again there so at some point we will AGAIN have to deal with another ISIS or Al Qaeda situation.

Maybe, because it is too far away for my feeble mind to contemplate, but I just can't get overly concerned about what will happen next in Afghanistan, neither (as I have expressed multiple times) am I AS concerned about rightwing politics. For me it is the environment.

So, back to my having coffee with my friends. We raised this subject of what is most worrisome to us right now - and to those who I have coffee with two things were MORE worrisome to them than even the environment.

They stated first worry is Covid variants and the rapid spread of the Delta variant, and the 2nd worry was inflation - they are convinced inflation is going to get a lot worse, and they see the spread of Delta and the rising costs of goods going hand in hand.

When I tried to argue that as long as you are vaccinated and keep masking your risks are low, and inflation is something that can be absorbed, but you can't stop worrying about the environment because of the existential risk, they balked and said that YES while the environment is a concern the immediate concern should be fighting misinformation and getting everyone vaccinated and finding ways to combat inflation.

Not to be critical (though no doubt I am sounding critical) but clearly their views on what is the most worrisome is what is most close to home and immediate. MAYBE that is why so many people worry about what the Republicans are up to, it is close to home and immediate.

So, are people like myself, who are less worried about the immediate crisis and worry more about future dangers off base? Or is it just human nature to view future dangers as less important than those dangers we perceive as immediate? 

Weigh in.