How many of you have read the article posted on our website this Wednesday entitled "The Earth is about to catch a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years" by James Lovelock, the maverick British scientist who first developed the Gaia Theory? For those of you who haven't heard of the Gaia Theory, it is the proposition, now widely accepted in many, though not all scientific circles, that the Earth is a living superorganism that consciously monitors and regulates the environment, atmosphere and climate to maintain optimum conditions for life.

But Gaia is not invulnerable. Lovelock has warned in the past that the massive imbalances that industrialized, technological civilization is creating with almost total disregard for Gaia's forests, mountains, oceans, plants and animals has now eliminated much of the resources Gaia employs to regulate the biosphere and atmosphere.

Now Lovelock painfully laments that these wilfully blind forces have gone too far, that they have pushed the joystick past the point of no return, that Gaia is now sliding into a state of hyperthermia, or to put it bluntly, our gooses are cooked. Now is the time for nations to plan for the bare continuation of the human species, possibly in the arctic regions, he solemnly concludes.

Is Lovelock a crazed Cassandra? Highly unlikely. Moreover, recent scientific reports are reinforcing what he is saying, not contradicting him. The red danger alarms have been going off all around the planet.

So what do we do? Wring our hands and admit defeat, nash our teeth and pull out the Book of Revelation? Nope. We just keep on doing what we have been doing as comrades in the vanguard of this struggle to create a new earth. When things look most hopeless, that is when the intrepid among us really dig in and build and create. That is when the true work begins, when all reason rails against its completion.

So now, we must triple our efforts to transform ourselves, our communities, our countries, our planet. For those of you working on the cutting edge of renewable energy technologies, now is the time to stretch every brain cell beyond rational limits to achieve your dreams and goals. And this goes likewise for all of us working, planning and organizing to achieve humane and sustainable societies that bury, once and for all, the wretched philosophies and theologies of arrogant dominance over the ground of our Being, as we instead embrace the paradigm of harmony with Gaia, with Nature, with ourselves.

Keep on Truckin'

Mac McKinney