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Forget about the bizarre twists and turns of the political shenanigans in Thailand, which make conspiracy movies and cheap soap operas pale by comparison.

Forget about the outrageous and evil comment by Sarah Palin relating to President Obama's healthcare proposal that elevated lies, ignorance and hateful prejudice to the status of the honourable.

Forget about the pictures of the grim-faced Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-il sitting side-by-side, stiff as boards - because a smile or even a smirk could mean surrender - during North Korea's release of two imprisoned American reporters

Forget about the act of callous defiance by the Burmese court that sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to more jail time despite the protests and pleas of people around the world for impartial justice to be served, for once.

Forget about the most recent humanoid robots created by Toyota, which can walk and run just like a human being, representing undeniable proof that it's only a matter of time before we see a man-made species whose whole is much greater than the sum of its parts, and one that possesses a mind of its own.

Forget about the "Engawa" or the porch or verandah, built by the Japanese that was delivered by the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station (ISS) in July, and is now successfully attached to the ever-expanding station itself - which, together with the robotic arm, also built by the Japanese, will allow astronauts to conduct scientific experiments without doing the space walk (which, in effect, will quicken new discoveries).

Forget about the strange quantum world in which mass and energy are connected just like time and speed. The faster you move, the slower the clock ticks, and the heavier you become.

Forget about the mind-boggling question of light, pressure and waves that has not been shot down by scientific theories: Do particles behave differently when you watch them than when you don't?

Instead, it's time for us to ponder the subject that up to now has been left largely to scientists: the melting of the permafrost and the effects on our world that we have done our darndest to destroy.

Simply put, permafrost is a layer of frozen soil, sediment or rock that remains at or below the freezing point of water (0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least two years. Permafrost occurs both on land and beneath offshore Arctic continental shelves, and its thickness ranges from one metre to 1,000 metres. A zone of permanent permafrost (comprising most of the world's permafrost) exists at the highest latitudes, while a zone of semi-permanent permafrost exists further south (like alpine permafrost).

Permafrost regions occupy approximately 22.79 million square kilometres (or about 24 per cent of the exposed land surface) of the northern hemisphere, and they are spread around regions in Alaska, Russia, Siberia, Scandinavia, northern Canada, Tibet, etc. Permafrost is estimated to contain twice as much carbon as the world's atmosphere, and therefore plays a most significant role in our ecological system, both in the here and now, and in the future.

Global warming, which many still erroneously believe is caused by trees and animals, not by men, has been causing permafrost to thaw at an alarming speed over the past few decades. Climate models predict that over half the area now covered by permafrost could melt by the year 2050, and as much as 90 per cent could liquefy by 2100, if not before.

Why should we care about the disappearing permafrost?

Increased thawing of permafrost will send a large amount of water into the oceans, eroding coastlines, destabilising foundations of buildings, roads, and pipelines, degrading the frozen barrier underlying lakes and allowing water to drain into the soil below and resulting in the disappearance of the lakes - which is already happening in parts of Alaska.

The leakage of nitrates and phosphates into the tundra as a result of the loss of permafrost means that deeper-rooted vegetation would take hold, altering the overall plant density and ecological balance. New and different microbes, as well as insects, will emerge as they are released from frozen entrapment. That could alter species' populations, which would affect the food chain all the way up to humans. New diseases will appear faster than we can find cures.

More threatening is the fact that the melting of permafrost will mean a vast amount of gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, now locked underneath it, will be released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming and its catastrophic results.

Methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Vast stores of methane exist beneath the permafrost in the form of crystalline methane hydrate deposits. Today, scientific researchers are alarmed to find that bubbles of methane gas can be found in the shallow surfaces of thawing permafrost. Once these bubbles are ignited, they burn spectacularly amidst the surrounding ice. Watch it on YouTube and you will find it as surreal as the original, first generation James Bond movies. Except for the fact that it is real and it is here and now.

Many people, judging from the way they live their lives, have forgotten that everybody, including them, will die. But to think that our planet and its ecological systems could also die should give some redeemable souls a rude awakening, and a new perspective.

Or we could choose to kill all the cows and cut down all the trees. Then the problems will be solved.

"Boom Boom Wow" - as goes the title of a song by the Black Eyed Peas.

Game over.