What we are losing and what we will gain

I watched

Attenborough’s programme last night.

 

Climate Change – the facts.

 

My daughter called me in

As

This was the second time

She had seen the bats dying

And the rescued babies.

 

What could be more pathetic?

 

The four of us sat,

Listening to the words of the scientists,

Patagonia jumpers and old jackets

Guarding against the cold.

 

And reflected on our lives now and tomorrow.

 

Climate change;

Catastrophe

And chaos.

 

How easy it would have been

Had the world begun

The adaptation

30 years ago

Before

We reached the state of now.

 

And,

Greta,

Magical girl

As if conjured from

the Moomins (a separate Scandinavian species),

mixed-up with Pippi-Longstocking.

Leading the way.

 

All this made me think of what we must sacrifice in order to create or allow a tomorrow, not necessarily for me, but for my children and their offspring if they have the privilege of parenthood; we are currently in the process of transitioning from meat to not even  a dairy diet – we’ve switched to non-cow milk and no more beef or chicken or sausage; no burger no precariously sources salmon or prawns; it is an effort. And with this, the desire to buy local. For whatever reason I hadn’t realised that onions were from New Zealand; for sale beside those grown in the UK and what else had travelled half-way around the planet for a few seconds of frying? The containers, they say, ‘not currently recyclable,’ when they are open and honest; most are just silent, hoping you won’t notice and within this my original frustration back, when was it, that M&S moved to charging for plastic bags. I’ve never had a problem with this, indeed, back in the 90’s I used to walk to the supermarket with rucksack and load-up, it is the hypocrisy – pretending to care, yet sourcing your goods from everywhere; yes, it’s all a balance – although what would the Maldives farmer prefer? I buy his coconut, or we stop his home from vanishing? What must we lose in order to gain longevity of our species? Burgers, driving to work, inefficiency, waste, inadequacy, new clothes when old will do, holidays to Spain or the Costa del whatever; most of these things I can accept. I don’t know the environmental impact of reading a book; perhaps better to buy second-hand, I haven’t a problem with that. It might make life more interesting. And, healthcare, where does that fit-in; for, you see, anything is possible if we are aware of the issues, if we consider the waste and our rate of consumption. We have gained the internet and my being able to pull-up an image of my family across the country or the world on computer screen or warm water and soap or comfortable clothes and shoes, and what would I give to see a hedgehog in my garden again?