Vaclav Havel: Moral order is most important issue of new millennium

"We live in a world ringed by a single global civilization comprising various areas of civilization," writes former Czechoslovakian president Vaclav Havel in the International Herald Tribune. He believes climate change has brought civilization to a crossroads, one for which materialist technocracy may not have answers:

Technological measures and regulations are important, but equally important is support for education, ecological training and ethics—a consciousness of the commonality of all living beings and an emphasis on shared responsibility.

He offers this further reflection:

Whenever I reflect on the problems of today's world, whether they concern the economy, society, culture, security, ecology or civilization in general, I always end up confronting the moral question: what action is responsible or acceptable? The moral order, our conscience and human rights—these are the most important issues at the beginning of the third millennium.