Unfreezing In The Face Of A Climate Emergency

Attenborough showed us our dirty plastic oceans.

Rosa Parks said no. Her feet hurt.

Greta Thurnberg asked why.

These are simple acts, catalysing moments.

These acts are an accumulation of people standing up, standing out, speaking up, caring.

A million little messages, shared over and over, soften the ground, tune our ears.

These are the ground which make the simple act, a Rosa Parks, a Greta Thurnberg, so resonant, so powerful. Our already tuned ears can’t help but hear and be moved.

Not everyone is a Greta or a Rosa. They are extraordinary people. But you can help with the ground work. You can help soften the soil which tunes our ears.

Speak up. Say what you think or feel.

You have no idea how important your little contribution might be to shifting, changing the debate.

We face an environmental, ecological, social, political and financial emergencies, which demand fundamental changes to how we live, work and play. This looks like fact to me. But its big and it’s daunting. I don’t yet do the things which I will need to do. We flew on holiday last week. I know how I live now and what I do isn’t sustainable. I know I need to change. I want to change.

Talking is important - not as an excuse, obviously, but it can help hold ourselves to account. It’s important too to help shift the consciousness, the debate, more widely. Greta, David, Rosa shift people, ideas, moments. Their voices resonate in their simplicity, clarity and selflessness. But we can all play a role in softening the ground to make their simple words speak ever more loudly.

Speaking and doing. Doing and speaking.

When faced with the enormity of the change required it’s possible to freeze. We can’t do everything, after all. But equally, as one teacher taught, we can’t do nothing either. Between these we act.