5 Billion years I can cope with. If we're not away from Sol by then, we probably had exhausted all our natural resources anyway. It's the fact that scientists are fairly certain that this particular Hotspot has been like the ticker of a geological clock, and is currently approximately 20,000 years past due. Now, in geological time, that doesn't mean much... but still.

It could seriously go off now, and there would be precious little we could do about it other than hunker down and enjoy a nice ice age secure in the knowledge that it wasn't our fault.

Don't get me wrong, I still care about the environment, I just care for it slightly less after having watched that special and read those articles. It's like finding out that your house is a bomb set to go off anytime now and you can't leave. Sure, you may cope with it, but it is hard in that situation to worry too much about the squeaky board on the stairs...