Suddenly the environment is everywhere. Of course, it always was but we seem to have noticed it only recently. Not so long ago we were happily ignorant of the trail of destruction in our wake. We polluted with gay abandon. We wasted gleefully. We mined, chopped and plundered enthusiastically. Then, from our plastic-wrapped bubble of carbon emissions, we looked proudly into the future. The future looked back at us. It didn't look happy.
We are rightly dismayed at our selfishness but we should also be ashamed that we chose to ignore the alarm bells that rang loud and clear. We were unmindful of the soothsayers of our collective consciousness. Tolkien wrote The Lord Of The Rings as, among other themes, an eco-parable of a once green and good Middle-Earth ravaged by an anti-environment Dark Lord. We read the book but missed the point.
Joni Mitchell sang "...you don't know what you've got till it's gone, They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot". We heard the music but didn't get the message. Douglas Adams destroyed the earth in the most ironic manner possible - an alien construction fleet demolished it to make way for a hyperspace expressway. We chuckled in amusement and turned the page.
Teetering on the brink of the black hole that has opened up in our path we raise our voices now in indignant condemnation of our past foolishness. Al Gore assures us it's an inconvenient truth. It's the eleventh hour, despairs Leo DiCaprio.
The world over, citizens less illustrious than them are jumping up for the e-cause. Green is the colour that's in and if you aren't part of the scene yet, you must be so last season. But there are beacons, too, among the flashbulbs. Jack Johnson records his music in a solar-powered studio. Radiohead cancelled any number of rock tours because tours damage the environment. Cameron Diaz drives a hybrid car. Stella MacCartney makes eco-friendly clothes and shoes. Sting raises millions each year for the Rainforest Foundation. These eco-heroes are blazing a trail through the shrinking wilderness - all we have to do is follow.
Sadly we cannot reverse the damage now. We cannot close the hole in the ozone layer and we cannot reanimate the dodos. But there is some light, admittedly dim and probably running on solar energy, at the end of this long, dark tunnel. We cannot renew, but we can recycle. We can reduce pollution and conserve energy. We can go where a generation of tree-hugging flower-children have already gone, appalled at the distorted world they saw through their marijuana induced haze.
So turn off that tap, save water. Switch off your appliances and electronics when not in use. Say no to plastic bags. Reuse paper. Do not buy food and products packaged in plastic. Switch off the lights when you leave the room, better still replace your incandescent bulbs with CFL ones. Encourage your friends and family to earn their green stripes too.
Speak up, get involved, educate yourself and others around you. Make Oscar winning documentaries even. Stand up, don't stand by. Join the fight for our home. Blessed are the eco-warriors for they shall inherit the earth.