Cribb's most recent book Earth Detox: How and Why We Must Clean Up Our Planet, recently published by Cambridge University Press, demands to be widely read and carefully considered by policy makers everywhere.

Professor Ian Lowe of Griffith University says it better than I can.

He writes: "Future generations will see this book as the 21st century equivalent of Rachel Carson's 1960s classic, Silent Spring. It documents in frightening detail how manufactured chemicals are poisoning us and the Earth's natural systems. Every day about a kilogram of chemicals are produced for you and for every other human.

"About 25,000 people will die today from the effects of these chemicals. Read it and be empowered to help turn back the chemical tsunami which is drowning us all."

And Paul Ehrlich, who is head of the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere at Stanford University, writes: "Earth Detox by Julian Cribb shows that humanity's chemical emissions are a threat to civilisation on the scale of climate disruption - slaying more people every year now than any war in human history. On a bedrock of hard scientific evidence, he shows the way for urgent universal action to stem this colossal menace to our future. Another 'must read' by an outstanding science communicator."

Other Australian expert writers in this field, notably professors Ravi Naidu in Newcastle and Alf Poulos in Adelaide have confirmed Cribb's analysis of the seriousness of the chemical toxicity problem that is being quite inadequately addressed by societies everywhere.

Perhaps the scariest point in the book is Cribb's summary of the evidence human intelligence is declining, almost certainly a consequence of the widespread chemical impact on human brains.

As we emerge from the effects of the pandemic and confront the seriousness of climate change, it is also essential we recognise the need - actively - to confront the other threats Cribb has documented in his book Surviving the 21st Century.

Earth Detox makes it clear every human on Earth is being profoundly and systematically poisoned and our governments are largely ignoring the problem.

At the very least, governments - everywhere - should establish inquiries into the seriousness and reversibility of the damage the chemical tsunami is inflicting on every one of us and on our descendants.