The end is nigh - REALLY!

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Unless you're a Republican pollster or you've been living under a rock - but I repeat myself - you've heard that, according to the Mayans, the world will be ending this coming Friday. Everyone, of course, will pooh-pooh the idea and laugh their way through the alleged apocalypse before toasting their continued existence... but here's the thing, folks, and I hate to break it to you: The world is, in fact, coming to an end.

Of us, that is. The humans. The only creatures inhabiting this planet with the unique ability to poison our mother oceans so severely that shellfish are melting due to the acidity of the water. Fishing grounds are disappearing. Plankton populations - the core of the oceanic food chain - are cratering. The clock, in point of fact, is running down to a hard deadline. "The end of the world" is certainly hyperbolic; the world will be fine, minus a few vast ecosystems here and there. We are the ones killing ourselves, as we whistle past our own graveyard while counting our money.