History reminds us (and some of us even remember) two major conflagrations within the past 100 years. These have at least been understandable, the desire for world domination. The enemy was identifiable and in fact its source was well known.

There are many trying to determine who our next enemy is and his origin. Terrorists tend to be out of sight, some being suicide bombers who plan not only on getting killed for a perceived noble cause but even intending to ensure his/her own destruction in the process. We can't even classify the combatants fighting on either side. It would be logical to oppose foreigners occupying one's homeland but to be mortally infuriated with folk, men, women and children, of one's own race and religion makes little sense.

Having identified potential opponents one must look deeper to see the much more serious enemy. To misquote Pogo, "We have seen the enemy and it is us". The frightening wars of the future may even result in failure of survival of our very way of life let alone our lives and those of our families.

Canada's environment in the future could very well be completely different from what we have come to know.

More importantly the global environment is drastically changing.

A recent book, Climate Wars, (Gwynne Dyer, 2008) puts a new wrinkle on global warming. Much of what has been published has emphasized impending hardships such as coastal flooding due to rising ocean levels and desertification of currently marginal agricultural lands.

What is not so apparent is the fact that millions of people will be forced from their homes and more millions will be seeking productive land to relieve their hunger. Without adequate food and a place to live the alternative is migration.

To where? The world is already overcrowded with many more millions still to come. A review of countries with space to spare leads us inevitably to one vast area with a relatively low population, Canada.

Could we be facing invasion by vast hordes of refugees forced to migrate to areas with unoccupied land in order to survive? Are we going to face a war in order to maintain our luxurious inheritance?

The only logical answer is ensuring that our land is not the hope of last resort for millions of refugees. Though we are only a tiny portion of a rapidly industrializing world we could become a model, a valuable example of what the world must become.

From a national perspective it is imperative that Canada enact legislation to ensure that industrial processes eliminate the consumption of fossil fuels and their accompanying pollution of the atmosphere.

If that means taxing the use of carbon that is one part of the equation. The other part of the 'carrot and the stick' is policies encouraging the development of alternatives, i.e. non-polluting sources of energy. It is already obvious that we sadly lack support for research and development.

Just as important is the personal perspective. Vast amounts of fossil fuels are used first in home heating and secondly in transportation. In the field of land use there is much we can do to alleviate the situation on our private land and especially at a municipal level.

However, we are our own worst enemies. What makes it all so ridiculous is that solutions are well within reach. We as a society must lead in changing many aspects of our lifestyle and help forestall the looming WW III. Society must avoid rising temperatures, i.e. global warming.

All prognoses are for us to continue increasing the CO2 in the atmosphere within my lifetime. That means an increase of at least 1 and probably 2 degrees Celsius in mean global temperature. At the recent meeting of the G8 finance ministers there was at least a pledge of holding the world to an additional 2 degrees by 2050.

We must do better that that or else face the inevitability of fighting for a place to live. The bottom line is attaining a level of 350 parts per million, down from even the current 368 ppm. As things are progressing now we are on track to reach 450 ppm before 2020.