Reports of how the first half of 1998 have been the warmest six months ever recorded on Earth in more than a hundred years, should turn the heat on for its residents to find solutions that will save the planet from the desertification towards which it is otherwise headed. The Earth's fragile environment is witnessing cataclysmic changes, invisible to the naked eye, as a result of indiscriminate burning of fossil fuel, destruction of forests for timber and agricultural land, and heightening industrial activity which causes polluting carbon gases to enter the atmosphere. (editorial)