An Unpleasant Truth

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! All you earthlings of no particular significance. This is a pronouncement of great global importance. The reason being in the next 10 years, or may be sooner, the earth's climatic conditions will turn global environment and ecology as we know it now, topsy-turvey.
If your first question is: Why bother? Then perhaps now would be an appropriate time to remind you that with the drying up of rivers and hot lands becoming cold and vice versa, the world's economy will automatically go into a tail-spin.
For want of a better word: Be prepared. This is the credo of Scouts the world over. Never as the world of men is in such peril. If you are a senior member of the Cynical Club or a card-carrying member of the Sceptics Association, you may want to verify my dubious claims.
Follow your instinct, check with the latest UN report on global warming and then go on from there. I believe even as I speak, CNN today broadcast a worldwide warning, through its international correspondent Richard Quest, that alarming signs of repeat glacier melting is occurring in the Tibetan region, Himalayas and the effects on China's Yangtze River.
In fact, the famous rivers of the world, including the Thames of London, Ganges of India and the Nile are in throes of rapid changing climatic conditions. In a very short time, as earth knows it, this will lead to a irreversible chain of events that will literally floor the world.
Yes, there could be human casualties. In other words, the human toll may reach unimaginable levels. So your second question is: What can I, as an individual do? For a start, you can write to your Member of Parliament, or just about anyone who cares for this small third rock from the Sun.
Nothing drastic will probably take place in the next two years. After that, all bets are off. Perhaps you think this is another one of those alarmist goobledegook that pervades the Internet. I wish it were so, that would save my fingers from a lot of ache.
The catastrophic consequences of Earth's dramatic and perhaps even sudden changes will be felt by billions. Remember, we only have about 6.5 billion inhabitants on Earth right now.
Not that many, you say. Just think of the millions of flies crowding the carcass of a dead animal and then double that figure - you have a rough idea of how many people are milling around on this dusty, disturbed planet.
I have been staying on this planet for decades. I kinda love it after a while. Humans are generally a nice lot. I wish I was assigned to planet Pleisades, light years away but no, some wise guy handed me this earth assignment.
Frankly, I didn't ask to be here but since I have been mopping around the place for a while, I have got accustomed to a lot of unhappy and sad faces. I suspect there will be a lot more sorrowful looks before the whole biblical phenomenon is over.
But sometimes I ask myself and tell others as well: why bother. Mankind in general has a propensity to ignore the obvious, even when it hits them on their faces! Think back of World War I, World War II, Korean War, Iraq war, SARS, AIDS, Bird Flu and other potential calamities that could decimate the ranks of humankind in a blink of an eye.
Do we really care about ourselves or for ourselves. Frankly, most of us tend to shut our eyes to the earth-shaking events. We see on television everyday the dozens who are killed in suicide bombings in Iraq, killings in Gaza and West Bank and the starving millions in Sudan.
After a while, most of us become numbed and after a few months of watching the same painful event, our sensitivity becomes somewhat affected.
Woe be unto us all, I say. Actually, I have become a little sceptical of late too but the magnitude of THAT unpleasant truth can no longer ignored.
Why don't we call do something about this? Why let it overwhelm us? We should not meet it half-way, we should go all the way to encounter it at its source. That's the only way to solve the problem.