Public enemy number one is, was, and ever shall be germs, that is virus and bacterial pathogens; this is no joke because we may be heading back into a world without antibiotics.

Public enemy number two is ocean acidification - the current unremitting trend of decrease in pH of the world's oceans due to the oceans absorbing about 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide that humans have been putting into the atmosphere. It is possible that the decreasing pH of the ocean will kill off all corals by the year 2050 - less than 40 years from now. It is also possible that the change from the ocean's normal slightly alkaline state to slightly acidic may kill off all significant surviving stocks of wild sea fish by 2100. That would mean no more fish and chips .... ever!

Public enemy number three is global warming. By now a very well publicised change in average mid day temperature and also possibly an increased maximum temperature, which is probably due at least in significant part to the additional CO2 we have been putting into the atmosphere.

Public enemy number four is bureaucracy. You may be tempted to laugh at this idea but, after 25 years working at an Australian Government agency, I have no doubt that bureaucratic method is not adequate to the task of steering us humans out of the environmental disaster we have aimed ourselves toward. Big business also, I believe, is not up to the task either due once again to the bureaucratic nature of large corporate entities, and also to their propensity to assess the world and human values in terms of money profit only.

What we need to change the world is to organise ourselves in local area cooperative capitalist entities which

• are guided by recognition of the truth, about everything, as absolutely essential;
• incorporate methods and facilities for real communication; and
• use "triple bottom line" accounting so as to keep track of all significant consequences of our actions.