Just not during my lifetime, and I don't have any kids. But I'm glad I don't own any waterfront property.

I'll be honest with you, Frank. I don't think there's really all that much we can do about climate change. We seem to have lost the ability we used to have of dealing with long term problems with really long term projects, enterprises which would show no profit to our own generation. I'm not talking about the technical capability, but the political and organizational capability. The Egyptians built temples and pyramids to last for eternity, the Chinese built the Wall, even the medieval Dutch could do it, with their canals and dykes and windmills. Hell, we could have sent human explorers and set up permanent colonies throughout the solar system by now, we could be on our way to the stars, we just haven't gotten around to it. We're too busy doing...what?

Exactly forty years ago I made a conscious decision on how I was going to organize and live out my career. I wanted to earn a good living, and do interesting work, of course, but I also wanted to do something worthwhile, something that would help my fellow man, the world, the future. I could see even then where the planet was headed and what was needed, and I had a good idea of my professional strengths and weaknesses. I was going to get involved in the environment, specifically, using my technical skills to help monitor and manage earth resources. I might not be able to save the world, but I might be able to buy it some time.

Well to sum up, things didn't get quite as bad as I thought they would or at least, not as quickly as I feared, but in general, things are working out pretty much the way I expected they would. Maybe that means we bought ourselves a little more time after all.