The new manifestation of the flat-earther mentality seems to be the global warming denier.

I’m not sure how much evidence is needed before something drastic is done about carbon emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that action needs to be taken now to reduce emissions by 40 to 70% by 2050 if the world is to avoid irreversible damage to our ecosystems. By 2100, we are told, global temperatures are likely to rise by between 2 degrees and 5 degrees centigrade. Whilst the effect on the UK might be less catastrophic than on other areas of the world, the whole world will suffer the effects of reduced crop yields and the acidification of the oceans. Food insecurity on such a scale would undoubtedly lead to mass migration and new wars to gain control of water and food supplies.

The IPCC have added however that investment now in energy from renewable sources would have a huge impact still on halting the otherwise inevitable slide into economic and social chaos. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said ‘Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in the message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.’ If ever there was a challenge to politicians to find a way of circumventing the ritual party political dance this is it. Voters generally tend to vote for the party that will, in their opinion, cost them less in the short term. Politicians want to get elected and know this. Telling it how it really is doesn’t often work to the advantage of those who tell it.

And 2100 impacts on neither us nor our children and only a few of those alive now will be affected. But we have to somehow tap into the same mentality that deems it worthwhile to secure the existence of the human race thousands of years from now by investing in space exploration today, despite the legion of nay-sayers.

The worldwide melt down of life as we know it is much more imminent and we must act now to instruct our politicians of all parties to cooperate as they have never done before in taking action.

Wind farms, river bore barrages, solar power all have their champions and detractors but better to have the horizon dominated by windmills, the rivers and countryside invaded in some places by new technology than have our descendants curse this generation for our selfish folly in doing too little too late.