“We certainly aren’t going to stop that 18-wheeler that’s rolling down the hill. In the short-term, I’m not sure that anyone can stop it,” said John Walsh, director of the Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

There are limits to how much individuals can do to prevent it. The big disasters are believed to be just decades away. Nearly two dozen computer models now agree that by 2100, the average yearly global temperature will be 3 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit higher than now, according to Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. A British conference on “avoiding dangerous climate change” last year concluded that a rise of just 3 degrees would likely lead to some catastrophic events, especially the melting of the Greenland’s polar ice. A study in the journal Science last month said the melting, which is happening faster than originally thought, could trigger a 1- to 3-foot rise in global ocean levels.

The Green challange (”Green” meaning something beyond just environmentalist) seems more and more how to survive coming catastrophes or near catastrophes and still maintain some sort of egalitarian community structure. It is a problem that will take serious thought, and will probably involve more community action than political action–even though the political is still an indispenable way to get your message out.