It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the climate crisis.
We must allow ourselves to surrender to the reality of the crisis to begin the massive task of saving the planet.
We are already losing hundreds of species a year, people are losing their homnes, their lives and whole communities are being destroyed.
The time to act is now. The climate crisis is not just some inconvenience, it is a major threat and it will get worse the longer we leave it.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that it is possible for governments to act relatively quickly in response to a crisis – with various degrees of success, consistency and ethics.
What we do see, however, is that change, when faced with a huge threat to life, is possible on a huge scale.
Climate change is much more existentially threatening than COVID-19 alone.
In fact, an increasing occurrence of global pandemics is one of the many consequences of a less robust climate system.
People struggle to take an empathic leap, yet they cannot ignore what is happening in their immediate environment.
We have a great deal of difficulty feeling the way we need to feel in order to respond to climate change with immediacy.
Our care has to extend beyond ourselves and our loved ones. It has to extend to people in other parts of the world and to the people who will live even in the furthest future.
We need to be moved and motivated every day to act in ways that help us to fix the multiple and embroiled problems or racism, injustice, inequality, lack of equity and increased conflict that are part of climate change.
Our failure to deal with climate change is as much to do with what happens within and between us as what is happening to the planet.
A society of extreme inequality WILL NOT.SAVE.THE.PLANET!
Neoliberalism, austerity and free market capitalism WILL NOT.SAVE.THE.PLANET!
Billionaires WILL NOT.SAVE.THE.PLANET!
We need a new post-capitalist system that allows us to imagine and implement an economic system that benefits ecosystems and benefits EVERYONE, and the planet we share.
Jennifer Crouch is the author of:
How to F**king Save the Planet: The Brighter Side of the Fight Against Climate Change
Published by Welbeck
Main photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
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