A FEW months ago I wrote in this column, that if we keep on this climate change path that the rise in Co2 and Methane would heat the planet up so much that in 58 years’ time, civilization as we know it, would not be able to continue.

Last week the Secretary general to the United Nations came on television and stated that, ‘the world is heading for catastrophe if we don’t change, and time has run out.’

This completely agrees with my own calculations and analysis. The only difference is they did not state a date for political reasons and the fact that no one actually knows the actual year. Wearing my science hat, it is pretty obvious that at 1.15 C of heating now, and at the predicted heating over pre-industrial times of 2.2 to 3.5 C around 2080 it won’t be liveable!

Just look at all the fires around the world, the highest temperatures ever recorded, a third of Pakistan covered in water, and failing spring rains and crops in many countries, including our own. To confirm what the UN has stated, the ongoing research around the Arctic circle has already taken pictures (which I have seen) that in Alaska and Siberia where the permafrost is melting at pace, large amounts of Methane are being released.

This comes from the gas that got trapped and the organic matter which was frozen in the ice when the pole froze over. This organic material is now continuing to rot as it’s no longer frozen along with the gas. The latest figures show Methane is also rising fast like carbon. The problem is Methane is over 30 times more powerful than carbon as a planet heater. These two gases plus the extra water vaper in the atmosphere, due to the heat, makes a powerful cocktail of greenhouse gases.

The four biggest countries, China, Russia, India and Brazil, are in denial of all the facts; probably for political reasons. But I am sorry to say that will not save them or us, as we only have one planet.

No wonder protesters are so frustrated. How can we all be sleep walking into this? “it’s a very human question.” In the area of faith, which I do get, it states, ‘if you really believe – you change and act.’ The book of James is full of such words. Therefore, one can only conclude they do not believe the science, just like in the days of old, when the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes 276 BC, and more modern day Galileo and Isaac Newton, said, ‘the world is round.’

The unbelievers hung on to their ignorance and persecuted anyone for saying it was not as they think, but they were all proved wrong in the end! The problem now is we don’t have over 2,000 years left for enlightenment to dawn. With the discovery this year of the huge methane escape from the melting ice, I am now recalculating if we even have up to 58 years left; it could be just around the corner!

The UN is right, we could be heading for a catastrophe soon and in our lifetime, not our children’s. Remember, climate change is not starting tomorrow, but started in 1850. We are deep into it!