Apocalypse Now

In today's Independent, James Lovelock writes that it's already too late; that severe climate change is irrevocable; that we are entering a hundred thousand years of hot weather; that civilisation as we know it is at an end.
I'd tend to agree. Whether the climate is 5 degrees or 8 degrees hotter, whether the sea level rises 3 metres or 10 metres, the devastation is only a question of degree. The real issue is how will 'civilisation' as Lovelock calls it, react to the change. In this, he has a much different perspective than I do. His 'civilisation' is Western culture, which over the time that it's been destroying the planet through industrialisation, has also been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions in war, genocide, slavery and imperialism. The issue to me is not whether we can parachute Western civilisation to a safe landing, but how quickly we can replace it, adapt to a changing environment - a world where borders must be meaningless and resources shared - and where the challenge is not replacing power sources for consumption, but reducing consumption to conservable levels.