You are a clinician. A dear friend who lives back in your home town calls you. They have just been told they have fourth-stage colo-rectal cancer. But, they insist, they feel fine, just some low back pain. You explain how this could be possible, but you urge your friend to get a second opinion. That evening you take several hours and search out the best person in their area, and the next day you call your friend and give them this specialist’s name. Two weeks later not having heard anything, you call your friend. What happened you ask? He also said I had fourth-stage colo-rectal cancer, your friend responds, but I still feel OK. A little tired, but I think that’s just the anxiety. So what did you do, you ask? I went to a third person, and he told me it is just bowel impaction. So I’m going to start with that. Four months later, your friend is dead.

Keep this little thought experiment in mind as you read this.

In early June 2012, a group of scientists who had each spent years studying the earth’s biosphere from many different aspects felt compelled to come forward with a very clear warning: […]