“Global warming.”

Does that sound cozy and comforting? The 10,000 people who lived on Lohachara island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, don’t feel cozy or comforted. They fled their island home when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and scientists started coming true. The Lohachara island disappeared beneath the sea. Dozens more islands are threatened in the Indian delta, along with 400 tigers who live on those islands.

As we learned from Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” islands will continue to disappear, along with huge areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and scores of coastal cities will be submerged.

Can we imagine the city of Portland submerged? Not only will the piers, bars and tourist shops be underwater, but much of the business district could be uninhabitable. What about Bar Harbor? Eastport? Bath? Think of the state tax base lost! Predictions are that global “warming” will cause an economic collapse similar to that of the Great Depression. It makes me want to go into deep denial!

Research has revealed that the folks on Easter Island did just that. I wonder what the man thought as he chopped down that last tree to use to roll the huge stones into place to glorify their gods?

Denial is not the answer. The status quo is not the answer. This is a time for action on our part as individuals, and as communities. We each need to write our legislators to demand they write legislation that will protect our environment as we act with environmental responsibility in our own homes. This is a time for innovation to provide funds to create new sustainable, environmentally friendly sources of energy and replacements for chemicals, toxins and plastics. This is a time for commitment to change our behavior towards the Earth to one of deep respect.

We need some good news quickly, or we will indeed need to begin calling this Earth time “a global crisis.”

Environmental activist Sally Breen is a Windham resident.