How nigh is the end, really?

With the newspapers full of stories of global warming, it seems that - to coin a phrase - we're all doomed. If the overwhelming majority of climate scientists are right, a global rise in temperature of 1-4 centigrade is already in the post, with consequences of rising sea levels, rapidly changing ecosystems and mad weather. If their worst fears are realised, the change could be as much as 11 degrees, which would be apocalyptic on a geological scale.

But doesn't part of every generation believe itself to be living at the end of days? When I was a kid, it was nuclear war, or the return of the ice age (or both). St Paul believed the day of judgement was upon us, and that torch has been handed down for1900 years. Every civilisation has its prophets of doom. The irony is that sooner or later, the stormcrows are right.

So are we the final generation? The final desperate flowering on the ailing tree of humanity? Are we wasting our time educating our kids for the information economy, when they'd be better served learning the survival skills and bushcraft needed to start from scratch in a Wyndhamesque new Eden? Or should we all just stop worrying and learn to love the smog?