The Writing Hour, 26/07/2022

Climate letter challenge

Prompt 1: At the top of my mind about climate and ecological change is...

deep anxiety that collectively we're not doing enough. There's too much pressure on individuals. We do all have a role to play, but what's within our power is so small compared to the huge corporate polluters and other huge corporations that prop them up and benefit from their polluting. So there's me mithering about getting refills from an inconvenient location that I can't really afford rather than buying things in more plastic bottles that are unlikely to get recycled, or be recycled more than once if they are, but which are fine and affordable. Or being freezing all the time because of the guilt of both polluting the atmostphere with gas or fire smoke, plus the expense. And don't even start me on the green-washing companies are doing. They pander to what's popular and desired and don't actually address the problem. I'm cross about those Boody bras I bought. Total waste of money. They make out they're all natural materials shipped in and made in the UK, but then it turns out they're mostly virgin nylon with a wee bit of bamboo and made and shipped from China. Plus they're shite. How are we meant to do any good as consumers when the 'good guys' are not good? 

I thought - briefly - about contributing to the climate letter challenge, but as I read it I though, this is more free labour, which I'm dead against these days. 2021 was tough financially and I wasn't good about setting and keeping within necessary boundaries when it came to my work for others. Maybe I take it too thick, but collective efforts where there's no real return, only give, is not how I want to operate. Especially if there's a good chance my contribution wouldn't be used anyway. It's selfish, but I need to focus on what serves me, and on what doesn't drain my creative energies. My concern for the environment is not new, and it will emerge in my current project. 

Prompt 2: The person I'd like to hear my thoughts might be...

an arsehole. Is that bad of me? Pessimistic? Cynical? Realistic? The people with the power to wield actual meaningful change don't seem to want to listen to people like me. And who do I mean by that? Someone concerned with justice and the future beyond my time. Lefty weirdo. They might be someone willing to listen, willing to use what they can to do something. But I doubt they are. We keep trying, though, with all that clicktivism, signing petitions, sharing on socials, writing to my MP who passes it on to the relevant minister (who can't keep their jobs in order lately) who eventually sends an infuriating and rambling non-response telling me how much they already do, which let's face it is worse - actively worse - than fuck all.

The person I'd like to hear my thoughts is someone who'd also heed my thoughts. Someone who'd answer my questions: what kind of world will your progeny inherit? What if it begins to affect privileged people like you too? Because it will, you know, there's no escape; it's coming for us all. What if someone like you has no choice but to become a climate migrant? Will you frown less upon people fleeing wars and persecution or who get duped into being trafficked? Will your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., thank you?

Prompt 3: Three main points I'd want to make...

are: 

1. stop ruining everything (nicked from Array Collective)
2. this is real, serious and already happening
3. please start giving a damn about something other than your own finances, because when we're all burning and/or dead, it won't matter a damn.

The problem is, we'd be saying it to ones who don't accept any of that, that it's really happening or that urgent or will affect them. If we keep trying and keep showing them evidence that it will affect them will it eventually go in? I mean, those heatwaves, the droughts, wildfires, extreme weather, noticeable changes - how can they ignore it? Do they have protective air-conditioned bubbles or something? Really, how does it work because I don't know how it isn't blindingly obvious that what we're experiencing even in the UK isn't normal?

Prompt 4: A good way of getting my message across...

is probably something way out of my comfort zone. For me, writing things and hopefully someone reading them is a start. I've tried different things: been a member of the Green Party and wrote for newsletters, joined online rallies, attended climate strikes, and the sofa activism mentioned above. Gently talking to friends and family seems to work. There's no need to beat people round the head with things, and it can be counter-productive to make people feel bad about what they do and feel able to do or not do. This time eight years ago I was a full-on meat-eater. Over a year I started having at least one meat-free day a week. I had said for ages that I thought I could go pescatarian but wasn't sure about leaving meat behind altogether. I began a relationship with a vegetarian and took that leap. I learned more about veg and better ways to cook and prepare it for me, and started to not want seafood anymore. I 'came out' as veggie to my family. I learned more about the dairy industry and started cutting that out too. I was fully vegan for nearly two years, but struggled. A vegan friend gave me a hard time about that. I pointed out how much plastic his food was in and where in the world it was being produced in and shipped from. I really don't know if quinoa from Peru is any environmentally less harmful than cheese from Lancashire. And then there's the worker and human rights aspect. Bloody minefield. So no, it's not on the individual. We can each only do so much in this neoliberal, neocolonial capitalist system.

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