Want a fright? Read this article that appeared in Time Magazine as long ago as early 2006.

Like everyone else I had assumed that nature works in a slow and predictable manner. What I didn’t realise is that global climate systems are booby-trapped with tipping points and feedback loops, thresholds past which the slow creep of environmental decay gives way to sudden and self-perpetuating collapse.

Its all happening now. Heat waves, storms, floods, fires and massive glacial melts. It looks as though the global climate is collapsing around us.

It’s seen most acutely at the poles where the ice sheet is melting faster and faster. 53 cubic miles drained away into the sea last year alone, compared to 23 cubic miles in 1996.

Polar ice is so reflective that 90 percent of the sunlight that strikes it simply bounces back into space, taking its energy with it. Ocean water does just the opposite, absorbing 90 percent of the light and heat it receives, meaning that each mile of ice that melts vanishes faster than the mile that preceded it.

Now we know that permafrost, much of which has been frozen since the end of last ice age, at least 8,000 years ago is beginning to melt.

Sealed inside that cryonic time capsule are layers of partially decayed organic matter, rich in carbon. In high-altitude regions of Alaska, Canada and Siberia, the soil is warming and decomposing, releasing gases that will turn into methane and CO2.

The scale is frightening – the total human carbon output is 7 gigatons a year, while the permafrost has the potential to release 200 gigatons to 800 gigatons!

Polar bears are now starting to turn up drowned. They are running out of polar ice to swim to. Read the entire article here.

Can mankind do anything at all? Of course. Stop burning up so much fossil fuel to start with. Use more public transport and efficient cars and, use reusable fabric bags!

To make the plastic bags people use once and throw away, our planet burns up some colossal amount of petroleum.

What a silly use for a material whose greatest virtue is its long life. And then, because plastic is virtually indestructible except through incineration, the discarded plastic bags hang around earth forever.

Buy a reusable fabric bag instead and carry it with you. To make it easier we have numerous models that tuck into little pouches to make them easy to carry. http://www.badlani.com/bags

Stumble it!