Our Earth, like a mere grain of sand within a desert of stars and yet, it hangs there in the vastness of space amidst of a dark void of uncertainty. It has evolved through countless millennium to become what we have made it and what it is today. A fragile and mesmerizing globe that has provided us with shelter, with resources and with inspirations of continually developing it to what has now become an extreme.

As though suddenly, like children who have been chastised continually for repeating their misdemeanours and have now decided to listen, we have been subjected to an onslaught of documentaries and media brainwashing wherein we have now become aware of our overall environmental fragility. Like a well-trained regiment of ants, the majority of us loyally deposit our plastic bottles and huge collections of flyers and newspapers into the blue bins provided for us by the municipality. This is all good and well but it does little to stop or help our real issues like global warming. It is blatantly obvious to even the more sceptical among us that weather patters are rapidly changing all over our planet. Locations where they have never had snow are now getting snow and other places are suffering from regular unprecedented storms, flooding, drought and even tsunamis that can wipe out countless homes and lives without warning.

The polar ice caps are melting and our sea levels continue to rise and still, the main course of action on this front is to decide who will have the rights to any mineral and resource deposits that are now becoming accessible because of the melting ice. Mankind seems to realize the inevitable result of increasing global warming, but continues to prefer to try cashing in on previously unobtainable resources, perhaps thinking that all the extra money will be good to have when our planet dies.

Contrary to popular belief, if global warming continues to increase with each year, it will increase by larger amounts each year like a rolling snowball effect. The end result is that we will not burn up, as many people seem to think. What it will eventually to is throw our planet into the start of another ice age and if it come to that stage, then the rapidity of an ice age taking over the world will be way beyond the average imagination. Similar to the dramatic movie called The Day After Tomorrow, our world will be plunged into darkness with very thick cloud cover obliterating any chance of sunlight. Temperatures will plummet and huge snowflakes will start to fall almost endlessly causing accumulation that we cannot keep up with by way of clearing it. In this type of situation, our average single family two story homes will be completely buried by snow in two days and then, the snow will continue on and on thereafter. Not a pleasant picture to envisage even for the avid winter sport enthusiasts among us.

All of this and more my friends has already commenced and it may well be that we, the population of our world, are already too late! This is not a prophecy that the end is nigh or anything so dramatic. It is simply a short article to point out some of the things we should maybe be concentrating on with regard to global warming issues. We actually do have the technology that could start a reversal of this global issue but unfortunately it would be very expensive to set it up all over the world, especially when that money is needed to explore for additional natural resources in areas where ice used to reign and even more money is needed to fund distant wars caused by terrorists. So basically, we march on regardless in the hope that the really genuine and concerned people like David Suzuki will find a way to save our planet. This is not going to happen and we should know that. Yes, efforts are being made and new things are being tried, but are they being tried too late to really make any noticeable difference for us all?

The clouds of time continue to gather in our skies and the sun shines more randomly that before. Rain comes more regularly and heavier than before and rivers burst their banks where they never did before. Winter temperatures now vary from one extreme to another and in places where constants were previously predictable. Our World is in the midst of climatic change and it is becoming very apparent in more and more locations across the globe. Now, to add further depressive thoughts to all of this, we have also plunged ourselves into the midst of worldwide economic recession and this too could continue to change, perhaps into worldwide depression. Historically speaking, it would appear that one of mankind's solutions in times of great depression is simply to start a war and I am sure that would be all we need to really brighten up our already dismal day.

So, where do we go from here? Well my friends, we must march onward and upward and walk in the hope that those who are empowered to make the decisions are equally aware that the sands of time are starting to run out for us. The egg timer for our World needs turned over to art again...and it need to be turned fast!

In the meantime, the Sun shall continue to rise each morning and the birds shall continue to sing. Each one of us will go about our daily routines as always, not forgetting to place our plastic bottles in that blue bin. For you and for me, for our children and for their children, something profound and dramatic has be implemented very soon and then and only then, we may just find that we still have a chance because we do have the technology to stop that inevitable day after tomorrow from coming.

The answer is there right now and it will not be found in the blue bin!

Bob Littlejohn MBA BSc