...This is not negativism; this is fact. We are missing the point of these minor cataclysms. We are missing the opportunity to put into place global social structures capable of dealing with major traumatic events, tested by minor traumatic events. If our present civilization is to survive events such as a large meteor impact, it will have to learn how to deal with such an event before it happens. The more localized events should be looked at as practice runs for the much bigger events to come. Palaeomagnetism gives us solid evidence that worldwide cataclysmic events, such as pole shifts, occur from time to time. We need to start preparing ourselves.