Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 1 July 2012

There is a best-selling little book titled Everything Men Know About Women. Written by Cindy Cashman (under the pseudonym of Dr Alan Francis), it has been in print for over two decades and contains a ‘profound message in its simplest form’: every page is completely blank.

My women friends claim this is the bare truth, but let’s not argue that here. I think of this book — I was once gifted a copy! – whenever I listen to environmental scientists say how little we still know about our home planet.

At the recent Rio+20 summit and in the weeks leading to it, many experts reminded us of the limits of our scientific understanding of the intricate and inter-linked natural systems on Earth. We know even less about how 7 billion of us…