Turn the Tap Off

WE ARE LIVING with crises. Poverty in the Third World is, to use the words of Michael Rowbotham, the greatest economic, cultural and humanitarian disaster, outstripping the two great wars for the sheer scale and depth of unrelenting tragedy. We now face runaway global warming which, if it reaches a tipping point, will be unstoppable. There are other crises such as population growth, inequality, antibiotics losing their effectiveness, and the huge decline in the bees that pollinate a third of our food.

Scientists are now warning, unequivocally, that we face environmental catastrophe, possibly even extinction of our species, if we continue with present policies. We can either respond with horror and depression or we can see this as the most exciting period of history in which to be alive. Radical change to many of those things we thought could not be changed is the only option.


There is an imaginary incident recounted by Karl-Hendrik Robert in which a sink is overflowing: