Vast climatic changes are ‘suddenly’ something that won’t simply be passed on to future generations to deal with. The future of those generations living now is utterly unstable and unpredictable. Current projections of a global temperature rise of 3-6 degrees Celsius (sounds less than the Fahrenheit equivalent, doesn’t it?) will create massive disruptions to such basic supplies as food, water and energy. It’s not a matter of turning on air conditioning (which makes the global problem worse through greenhouse gas leakage - and makes local city air even hotter).

            Think rather of a global desert with islands of fertility. Think of a world with no glaciers to feed the great temperate rivers – until glaciation, an ice age ensues, as it generally does after atmospheric CO2 levels reach a certain point and soils become demineralised at the end of warm interglacial times like our own.

            As we lurch through the sideshows of political and celebrity melodramas and personal sagas we hominids are all too easily distracted from the main game played by those with more long-term and dynastic ambitions. Separated from the real world and kept off the streets, we often fail to notice their economic madness, their woeful, mindless injustices and futile wars. Like mice on a treadmill we are unaware of anything outside the universal social tunnel vision that is the default setting created by our biology – unless we change it by engaging in deep self-examination.

            Is it any surprise that partying like there’s no tomorrow can mean there’s actually no tomorrow? The future may be so bright we have to wear shades – but live through it we must, to survive and flourish in a new paradigm. All the tools for re-imagining and recreating our world and social systems are ready for our use now.

            You know what they say – all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to stand by and do nothing. What can you do as the world teeters into chaos? For a start, we can all stop making things worse. We can stop buying and using poisons and useless gadgets. We can all realise that almost everything on the corporate supermarket shelves is toxic and unfit to have in our homes – or on our bodies. We can all realise that money poisons every transaction and every minute of working time. We must all decide what we really want – and as ourselves, why?

This is the first step on the path to dissolving the gut-churning guilt that claws at all those wage slaves trapped on the treadmill, from deep within their consciences.

            We can all realise that at the moment of our death we are not thinking of any of these things, but are thrust into the reality of our relationships with other people in our lives – and with life itself.

            It’s easy for me to expound this stuff. After all, my life is radically unlike that of 99.9% of people in developed countries; living on the edge of a rainforest and replanting forests, not merely trees. Today was giant goannas and yellow-tailed black cockatoos, tortoises and silver perch flashing around me in crystal-clear velvet water. Yesterday was Wompoo pigeons, Emerald Catbirds, strange black blue-tongued lizards and an eagle three paces away at eye level, diving for catfish. The day before was kangaroos, bats, possums, large pythons and Glossy Black cockatoos. Not many humans lately. Everywhere, everything is aware of change on the horizon. The storm is coming, and probably coming to your door. Expect more ‘freak’ tornadoes, cyclone, and hurricanes until freaks become the norm.

            It’s all a matter of treading lightly on the Earth; this can be a matter of reducing your ecological footprint, but becomes something else if you customarily walk barefoot – then every step is a prayer.

            To ally yourself with life you have to come outside the box and experience the cycles of the world in which you live, light and dark. It’s easy to learn to enjoy life – a simpler life, with time to do the things you really want to. You just have to really want to – and actually do it. For a while, it will be possible to live a happy, easy, simple life even in a great city. Not for much longer.

            Build your new home with storms, flood and droughts in mind. Move to clement climes, with clean abundant fresh water, away from the sea – and not on top of mountains. You’ll have a better time that way.

- R.A.

            - R.A.

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