I read about the new report about the climate change. Not pleasant reading. Worst of all was that it still isn’t possible to get the big, rich countries to join the efforts to stop the change before it’s too late to save our world.

They still only care about making more and more money. Like a wise old Indian chief once said: you can’t eat money. Besides, do those big shots think they can take their riches with them when they die?

Even now, it’s pretty bad in the poorer countries. Take Jakarta for instance. That’s just one example. In the summers, there are forest fires – thick layers of smoke covering most of Asia and South America. It can even lead to an acceleration of the global warming.

Floods, landslides, droughts… When you hardly have anything even from the start, how will you manage when something like that happens?

This reminds of an image I’ve seen in one of my history books (I’ve studied history at the university and I’m really interested in the subject). The image is from the great depression – the late 1920’s or the early 1930’s.

Three men are standing on a ladder in a flooded basement – at least that’s the way it looks. On top of the ladder an upper class man is standing, a bit further down, there’s a middle class man and at the bottom a working class man. You notice they’re all men. In those days, women didn’t even count.

The upper class man says: Let’s all take a step down. Presumably he feels they can overcome the economic crisis that way. But – the working class man only has his head just above the water. What will happen if all three of them take a step down?

Let’s say that the upper class man is the richest countries of the world, and the working class man is the poor countries. If so, it’s exactly the way things are today. The upper class man thinks it will be great to get a little more sun. The working class man is already dying of heatstroke, drowning or is about to be crushed by a landslide.

Besides, if we – the middle class man – the medium rich countries – end up a step down on the ladder, won’t we be in the working class man’s situation? Head just above the water?

We do not want things to end up that way!!! It might be too late to stop the changes, but we can at least slow it down. If we’re going to make it in time, now is the time to start. Today. Think about that as you’re parking your second car in the garage.