I find myself increasingly amazed that there is anyone left on the Earth who still doubts that global warming and climate change originate with human activity. To be clear: the scientific community, the entire scientific community, all the scientists in the world, everyone who has ever actually studied the problem, agree that human activity is destroying the environment. The position that humanity is not responsible, that some other “cosmic force” is to blame, now occupies the status of “alternative science”, conspiracy theory or wild conjecture.

What I am talking about is science , meaning it has been studied for decades by sober-minded experts who have battled remorselessly against vested interests and the general human tendency to ignore the patently obvious.

The argument between governments and scientists can be summed up as thus; SCIENTISTS: “We are absolutely certain that human activity is damaging our environment, and we must do something about it now!” GOVERNMENT: “Are you sure you’re absolutely certain? You might not just “think” or “believe” that the evidence may suggest…” SCIENTISTS: “No, we are absolutely certain beyond any shadow of doubt that this is the case; we must act now to avoid catastrophe. GOVERNMENTS: “But are you sure?”

SCIENTISTS: “Yes, we are absolutely certain…” and so, ad infinitum .

The histrionics of the media do not help; the widespread coverage that the environment has lately enjoyed has been, by and large, hysterical, inaccurate and heavily weighted in favour of solutions that serve the same vested interests who resisted the very notion of human responsibility towards the environment. Who are these vested interests? Mostly they are big business, but in a more general sense they are us, society in general, who are quite happy with our lifestyles and resist any suggestion that we should stop driving, flying, bombing foreigners or eating beef.

The media has expended a great deal of effort reducing the problem to slogans and making it appear that all we need do is recycle a bit more, drive a bit less and cut down on the beef burgers, but the truth is both more complex and more alarming than we have been led to believe.

I started writing this article armed with the facts and figures about the destruction of the rainforest, over fishing, pollution, toxic waste, the greenhouse effect, but the simple truth is that all of us know this stuff; the only people who don’t know about the climate crisis are still in denial, and they cannot be helped until they wake up and actually pay attention to what the unified scientific community has been telling the world for a number of years.

The question now is not “Is climate change real?” but “How do we combat the apathy of the human race in confronting this crisis?” It is utterly useless expounding ad nauseam the facts and figures to people who are wilfully ignoring the truth. We are past the point of discussing the “reality” of climate change; it is real, it is a fact and we, the human race collectively, are responsible; the evidence is screaming at us from every direction if we only have the courage to pay attention. Somehow we have to get over the mass impulse to bury our heads in the sand and pretend its not happening; then we’ll have to confront the extremist Green counter-movement who would attempt to return to a pre-industrial subsistence culture. Finally, when the two opposing religions of Consumerist denial and Green Puritanism have been dealt with, then we’ll have to find some balance between raping our planet to death or living in mud huts.

We can’t un-invent the wheel; we have the internet and solar panels, we have cars and mobile phones. We won’t simply put these technologies aside, but we could use them better. The only way we can possibly carry on as we are is if we cull the population, either by mass starvation or nuclear war. Climate change is happening today ; the crisis is happening now and every day that we delay, the more people will die. Was Y2K a hoax, or was it a disaster averted by mass action to prepare all our computer systems for the crash? Do fire fighters get any credit for preventing fires? No, the same as Police don’t get credit for preventing crime; only disasters that happen get recorded by history. Climate change is a disaster we can avoid by acknowledging that it is real; to continue in denial is to sign the death warrant of our civilisation.