WHEN former United States Vice President Al Gore has shifted his focus from protesting the 2000 election results to environmental causes, he has won accolades and standing ovations all over the globe including the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. His An Inconvenient Truth in fact has eclipsed the popularity of State of Fear, Michael Crichton’s fictionalized version of his ideas on global warming. Touted to be President Bush’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head, Dr. Crichton’s non-climatology background ultimately made his downfall and his subsequent university lectures on persistent denials about global warming with half-facts were ultimately booed and shunned. It was indeed a pity on what happened to Dr. Crichton. He was a pathologist with a hobby in computer software stuff and with a knack of imagining things. His creations – Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Rising Sun, Congo and Airframe – were glories of the past and were considered priceless intellectual properties. That’s what happens when a person goes beyond his realm – pathology in Dr. Crichton’s case – and is mis-educated in other fields – climatology in this case.

That’s why education is definitely important in today’s world. Without education, even a well-learned person like Dr. Phil or Stephen Hawkings may stutter if one doesn’t know his stuff. Consider yourself a sonar operator in a nuclear submarine owned by the US Navy. Even if you are a well-learned person like Bill Gates or Barack Obama, you do not know anything about sonar so better not speak about the stuff unless you get a degree in sonar technology.

But that is really not the educational challenge in today’s world. According to one Australian futurist, the world will experience another Ice Age in the next 40 years or so. That’s barely four decades from now and our generation will still surely see light by that time. But no one is panicking and no one is taking the doomed tone of the futurist seriously whom I myself never know his name because I just stumbled upon him while watching a television show beamed from Australia. It’s such a pity that no one takes seriousness about these things. According to the futurist, the Ice Age cycle comes every 100 million years or so. The next 100 millionth year is supposed to take place 40 years from now but no one heeds his warning. The futurist says current global warming is a testament to that and the melting of the glaciers in Greenland and Norway means our future Earth communities is geared there while China and the rest of Southeast Asia will be submerged in water. That’s real panicky, is it? It’s just like the scene from that Japanese doomsday film I saw last year when the whole Japanese archipelago sank in a matter of months.

But within us, there are snippets of change already. And education plays a very key role in shaping that change. So be informed properly and do not be like Michael Crichton.