In the preceding chapter, I argued that landcover is important. Landcover is significant to the functioning of the Climate System, the biogeochemical cycles of the major elements and in the process of biotic impoverishment. Landcover is important to Life at all scales; locally, regionally, and globally. Having established these ideas I now want to introduce you to the phenomenon of landcover change.

Let's think about landcover change as thoughtful individuals who really haven't thought much about landcover as such but who are, nonetheless, concerned about the environment.

I want you to think about this topic - landcover change - as though you are participating in a game. The rules of this game are simple.

The first rule is that you have to make important decisions about something that will probably influence your own life and definitely influence the lives of your children. You know little about this something other than that you have been advised that it is important. You accept this advice even though it is difficult to think about this unfamiliar and unexciting something.

The second rule is that time is a limiting resource. The name of the game is Change. Even though you, as a player, have just joined in, the game seems to have been running for a while. Change has already started and is accelerating.

The third rule is that it is a compulsory family game. The object of the game is to ensure that the change is not to your disadvantage, either to you in the short term or to your descendants in the long term. However, your children have to play in your place after your turn is over. There is no choice. It is obligatory. There is no other place to go and no other game to play. In addition, the stakes seem high. If you win, you or your descendants stay in the game and continue to have a say over what change can occur. If you lose? Well, nobody seems very sure about exactly what the prize is, but almost everybody is certain it isn't a pleasant reward.

The last rule is that before you decide what to do - how to play your turn - you are allowed to ask just three questions. Just three questions to find out all you need to know about this important something. While you think about your three questions, all you can hear is the ticking of a clock that keeps getting louder and louder.

I can tell you now that the subject of the game, the important something, is landcover. The game is running, and the rules and the prizes apply. Unhappily, the game of Change is no game.

I have used my wit to recast the problem that faces all humankind as a game. But I do not want to detract from the seriousness of the topic.

That is how I, and many other concerned scientists, see the world. The game of Change is running and you and I, and all our descendants, are compulsory players in this game. There is definitely no indication that the rules will become more favourable. It is much more likely that they will become even more unforgiving.