It seems clear that the advantages that set us apart from much of the rest of the world mean little any more.

A good standard of living, access to good quality food, clean air and open spaces were all believed to give us a big head start on every other nation.

Being a pre-eminent sporting nation didn't just mean that our very best were sporting champions - it meant that Australians of all ages and levels of ability engaged in sport and physical activity.

A half-a-century on from the boom times in physical literacy levels for all Australians we are now in serious trouble.

The respected journal The Lancet this week published a worldwide comparison of how adolescent school students are faring against the World Health Organisation's physical activity recommendations.

It drew almost no mainstream media attention in Australia, but there are a mountain of reasons why it should.

So we should all be indebted to Charles Sturt University's Brendon Hyndman and The Conversation AU for letting us in on what is simply unacceptable news.

For it tells us the stark reality. Australian teenagers rank 140th out of 146 nations studied.

While there is no available comparison with mid-last century, all the anecdotal evidence would suggest Australia would have then been top ten rather than bottom seven.

Domestic survey after domestic survey has indicated for some time now that our adolescent physical activity rates were heading south - but seventh-worst in the world? Surely not?

But it should come as no surprise. The WHO minimum marker is one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.

Head off to any school house cross country carnival and you will see a third of the field walking after two or three minutes.

Climate Change is real. Many governmental bodies and other organisations have reached the point where they proclaim it an emergency.

It may well be that bad but as others point out there is only so much that a single nation can do to address a global problem.

The unacceptable decline in physical activity levels among our younger generations - those who will call on our health and social services budgets for the next 80 years - is also real.

But the big difference is that in this case it's a national problem which we can address - and must start to do so immediately.

One Tasmanian politician this week described the report's findings as "horrific".

He's right to reach that conclusion. He and his colleagues on all sides must act - and begin to act now.

There is no breakdown by state in the global report but there is little doubt if there were, Tasmania would not fare well.

Tasmanian schools, particularly at secondary level, have made an artform out of compiling reasons why it's no longer possible to have the physical education classes, sporting carnivals or interschool rosters to which we became accustomed here during the last half and more of the 1900s.

Overcrowded curriculums, competitions for budget allocations, cost of accessing buses, occupational health and safety requirements, a reduced willingness of teachers to take after-school activities or coach sports teams - the list goes on.

Have we convinced ourselves that an acceptable level of physical literacy is expendable to balance all of our other demands?

A fair proportion of kids depart our primary schools with a reasonable state of fitness. Thereafter it's now clearly downhill.

The most recent generation of politicians, bureaucrats and school leaders must accept the blame.

Those of the next generation will be beside themselves unless the current crop is prepared to act - and to act fast and in a big way.

Not just tinkering around the edges on the second-last page of a campaign speech.

This week after the AFL draft, the media observed that a high proportion of draftees are now coming from the mainland private school system.

It was also noted that there were no Tasmanians in the main draft.

The reason for both is the same.

There are pockets of our school system in which physical literacy is valued and there are others in which the concept is no longer even comprehended.