COVID lockdown came as such a relief. Suddenly the traffic ceased, and the airports closed. In some ways it was a climate activist’s dream come true, but the irony of the situation was an even more powerful perception. People were willing to change their behaviour massively overnight because they had been told of dangers. Since then mankind has tied itself in knots trying to protect the vulnerable from COVID.
We are all vulnerable from escalating climate and ecological collapse. All the marvellous health and social welfare arrangements that we have in the UK come with a huge ecological cost. Many climate activists mistakenly believe that a small number of very wealthy people are the problem. However every citizen in the UK enjoys the luxury of our ecologically damaging health and social care system. Experts estimate that if we all enjoyed the public services that are available in the UK, the Earth, even as it used to be before ecological collapse commenced, would only cope with about 1.5 billion. We are nearly 8 billion at the moment. Climate and ecological collapse are already well under way.
We are in such grave danger, of our own making, yet nearly everyone you ask will rate the COVID emergency as the more pressing problem. These were the type of thoughts that inspired the poem ‘Country Lanes In Lockdown’.