Looking the Polycrises in the Eye

I watched the news yesterday, it's not that I do that often but something compelled me. I found myself watching scenes of the world on fire. There was a special report by Channel 4 on the systemic racism in the Met Police, and the world is also on fire. I noticed today that there were articles on news websites that were still debating the reality of climate change; these wildfires and heat waves "may" be caused by climate change. Not a day goes by when I don't wonder when people are going to notice that the rate of change of this dying civilisation is picking up like the wildfires themselves. Chatting to a friend yesterday he was talking about pensions and how he wants to still be in his London home in 30 years time. Does he really think we have 30 years left?! I suggested that he could downsize into a sustainable and manageable cottage now, work out his food network and start to learn to purify rainwater but he looked right through me and moved the conversation on. We are like workaholics with terminal cancer unable to stop right until the last gasp. Wars, food supply chain shortages, pharmaceutical supply chain shortages, systemic collapse of health and social care, law and order, education, soaring inflation, impossible to navigate rental market, increasing homelessness, exhaustion and burn out rife in all sectors, wildfires, droughts, floods, river and sea pollution, loss of faith in democracy, staycations ruining our national parks, systemic racism, misogyny and widespread oppression, billionaires avoiding tax, politicians making money off pandemic... I am only listing these so I alone am looking reality in the eye. If you are reading this and you are similarly baffled by the complete denial business as usual attitudes you see around you, may you take some solace in the fact that you and I may be few, but we are not actually alone.