Editor:
Fire, floods, storms, pollution, COVID, isolation and, coming soon, climate refugees.
The technical solutions are all there. Scientists and innovative individuals are showing us how it can be tackled. Governments, though, continue to support only those solutions which will garner votes in the short-term.
And yet, we do not move toward the solutions.
We have become confused and apathetic.
Let us think more deeply about this crisis. The climate emergency has as its root causes greed, apathy and selfishness.
To be fully awake and ready to change behaviours, our apathy must be overcome with zeal and compassion. These can only be inspired by an abiding appreciation for and love of the beauty of nature and all her beings. The zeal to protect and restore will follow.
What we stand to lose:
• Clean, unpolluted air to breathe – a product of the oxygen-producing forests;
• Clean, unpolluted water – for drinking, hygiene and the watering of the vast array of plants that we all require to sustain life;
• Rain being drawn into the earth by our forests. This is no longer so in some deforested areas;
• Support for the oceanic wildlife that give such delight to our diets and our senses;
• The normal seasons – breezes that transform into raging winds and life-endangering storms of increasing frequency;
• Arable land – it is turning into deserts unusable for agriculture or habitable life;
• All of the gifts of nature – the sustenance and quality of life that we can enjoy on this extraordinary planet; and,
• Nature’s sensual presence in her forests, oceans, rivers, mountains, valleys, birds, animals, plants insects, skies, rain and clouds.
These losses, already severe in some parts of the globe, will result in a climate-refugee crisis.
Do we love this beautiful blue planet enough to change our own behaviours first?
It is all we have.
I salute all those who take their courage and strength to the public eye through protest, marches, climate-change art, writing and personal change. I accept the invitation to this movement and invite you to do so as well.
Dorothy Randall, Surrey