Mark Knight cartoon.

I won’t delve into that debate now, except to say we’ve taken our eyes of the real climate-change ball, which is less greenhouse gases and more our ageing population.

While this demographic move won’t necessarily change the temperature, it’s certainly changing the environment and atmosphere in which we live.

Recently I had the pleasure of hosting an active ageing forum and was overcome by the frustration expressed by many attending.

These were stakeholders who recognise that not enough is being done to turn what is culturally still seen by many as handicap into what is actually an exciting opportunity.

It breaks my heart when I talk to people who feel trapped in a job they hate because they know no one’s likely to choose a 50+ worker over someone younger should they decide to leave.

I hate it when I hear from those who are made to feel useless or an imposition to be worked around — instead of being valued as someone who brings real life experience to the table.

While these biases are being broken down in some areas, they are alive and kicking in so many others.

The thing that’s most frustrating is that many initiatives which would encourage active, integrated ageing are so damn simple a child would recognise the benefits. There are real business cases for looking after the older work force, but still not enough is done.

Not sure? Well here are some facts from Canadian Colin Milner, the head of the International Council on Active Aging and Professor Graeme Hugo who specialises in Australian population and migration research at Adelaide University.

One out of every two adults in the US will be 50+ by 2017 and they’re worth seven trillion dollars in annual economic activity — yes, it’s a bigger scale but you can’t deny their financial importance.

One out of three people who are 65 will fall every year and by the age of 80 nearly half of us won’t be able to lift four-and-a-half kilos.

Whereas the last generation predominantly retired with a partner, one in four baby boomers will do it alone. And while they’re supposed to be healthier than ever, this is also the first generation to have led sedentary lives.

There’s a higher incidence of chronic diseases, diabetes, asthma, sleep apnoea and arthritis. And while people may be living on average an extra nine years, the very real question is: Are we just ‘‘rescuing them from death’’ instead of enabling them to live out their lives in a healthy manner?

The fact our superannuation is based on the last year of earning, not the average of someone’s lifetime, discourages people from transitioning their employment status so we’re losing great chunks of intellectual property instead of allowing it to be transferred.

And finally a case study I thought I’d share to show how it can be done courtesy of car giant BMW.

They’ve recognised the value and experience of their older workers so in their manufacturing plants they replaced concrete floors with wooden sprung ones, developed and supplied specialised shoes and increased the size of their data screens.

How simple is that?

Oh yeah, and Australia is only 13th best when considering the treatment of its older generations.

The secret to all of this is to correct long held prejudices about ageing workers and encouraging healthy ageing over our entire life course.

We can’t just keep focusing on the kids as our ‘future’ because this issue is the present and is only going to get bigger.

We must see older adults as untapped potential that can build a silver economy for this country and provide a stable business climate, even if our weather one might by muddled.