A ride on the eco-anxiety train and a return to hope

Since February 2022, I have been on one of the most relentless rides on the eco-anxiety train. It actually surprised me to be honest, because I thought I had already done this and it wouldn’t happen again. But the ‘news shocks’ keep happening and well, it all landed with a thud. 

I can’t hide anything, and my friends have been reaching out, concerned for my welfare. Please be assured, I know I’ll be alright. I’ve learnt over many years that I’ve got to ride it to a conclusion and then I can get back into action AND hope. 

So as I am watching many many people going through exactly this, and often more broadly, just struggling with what’s going on in the wider world, I decided to share this experience. It’s not really scripted, I stumble over my words, but I’m sharing why I feel this way and what we can all do about it. 

I can never lose my hope. I just can’t. But it is very challenging to hold onto it sometimes. I’m hoping that by sharing my journey, it will help you to know that returning to hope is possible. The truth is, we can change the future trajectory for humanity, but we need enough of us jumping in to really make this happen. We truly are the hope we are looking for. 

My mission is very clear – I am working hard to convince as many as I can to get involved. Because if enough of us don’t get involved, we will not only lose, we risk a very dark future. Besides, our kids deserve all of us in this fight. 

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

Hello, my lovelies. It's Andrea Edwards. Welcome to Uncommon courage. So my original plan with what a ride on the Eco anxiety train looks like, was originally going to be with my husband, Steve. But we just didn't manage to get it together. And he's had to leave for some work. And I just thought it was a really, really important one to do. Because I know that a lot of people are really struggling with eco anxiety. And I've been there a few times before. I'm a bit surprised I'm there again, I've got to admit, basically, since February this year, I've been in a pretty dark place, a couple of my friends have said, where's our happy Andrea gone. And when I go into or dive into the swirling mess of information around the big topics going on in the world, I can get lost there for a while. And it's something that I need to do, because I need to go into it. And at some point, I come out the other end. But I can never guarantee how long that's going to take. But let me just take a step back. So 2022 started off, hopeful. I felt like while COVID is definitely not over. And I think it's going to be with us for years to come. And the long COVID impact will be something that we will come to terms with, it did feel like a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, it was brighter than ever. Right. The other thing is, I felt like there was a huge surge in environment awareness, people were waking up to the crisis, that all of humanity and all life on Earth is facing. And I felt like we'd really passed the tipping point. And that action was finally possible because there are enough voices. And I still believe that that's the case. And then Russia invaded Ukraine. And I gotta tell you, I just couldn't make any sense of it. At this point for the world. People will say we'll look back at history, this is always the path, especially after pandemics after economic crises, all that sort of stuff. And it is, it is in the past, if you look back through history, it is a it is the way that things usually go. However, in the past, we haven't been dealing with climate change. And we need a really, really different approach for the future. And if we accept war, in the center of that approach, it's going to be really miserable for a lot of us. So we've got to make a decision. What do we want, and who do we want to lead us, and we're going to get all nationalistic and protectionist and putting up walls and keeping people out, this is going to be a really horrible miserable time ahead. But I don't think that's the path that we have to take, even though you can see a lot of people pushing us in that direction. I think the majority of us don't want that. And if we could stand up and finally say, that's not what we want, and start pushing towards what we want and speaking up for what we want, we actually have a chance of creating a beautiful future for all of humanity, it won't be easy, there will be struggles, climate change is here. How we live in harmony with Earth will change it has to. But if we can come together and get that message. That's what we need. So there's no summary. There's no point looking back in history of how things have happened in the past. We can only look forward. And what's going on in Ukraine at the moment is still beyond me, that we're here. And I've spent these months trying to get into Putin's head to understand how he thinks, and obviously I can't, I can't make sense of it. Then, of course, at the same time, the war took off what the IPCC report will the next two IPCC reports were literally released, which barely got any attention, of course, because of the war. Not long after that. The news broke in Antarctica and the Arctic, both experienced 40 and 30 degrees Celsius above normal. For the Arctic, they're emerging into their summer. And for Antarctica, they're merging into moving into the winter. But this was something that was just an unbelievable piece of news for me like it's not really getting any attention, since it kind of shook the world and then it kind of disappeared. But George Monbiot, who wrote 30 degrees C above normal in the Arctic today 40 degrees C above normal in the Antarctic today, it would be unbelievable if it were not true. And it is terrifying beyond words. The war we have waged against the natural world has in climactic terms just gone nuclear. At the same time, Antarctic ice shelf, which is basically the size of Los Angeles collapsed. And this was considered a safe ice shelf. That was probably the news that really spun me around, because nobody's explained it. It doesn't make sense. I don't know what it means. And I don't think anyone And he's talking really knows what it means either. But basically, from that point, there's been a message of escalation. What is happening is accelerating now, and an alarming rate. We're expressing all sorts of strange weather patterns. And I've always known what was coming. I just didn't think it would be here so soon. And I think that's the impact it's had on me. I had to move from a future vision to a now vision, because I do believe that it is already happening now. And we are really accelerating towards climate collapse now. And every delay will make it worse. But we still have a chance. And that's where my hope always lies, right? So only came out of my really bleak place around the environment just a couple of weeks ago. I'll talk about that a bit later on. But I just want to, you know, just talk about some of the news that's been circulating this year. And if you read my weekend read, so if you look at my climate blog that I update all the time, you can see all of this stuff, right, you can see the patterns, obviously, the war. Now the first thing that happened with the war was, we knew that we were going to have a bit of trouble on the food front 30% of essential slight wheat, fertilizer, breadbasket, cooking oils, all sorts of stuff, right? So that was going to be factored in. And then just recently, a food insecurity expert predicts that there's only 10 weeks of wheat supplies left in the world, due to this invasion from Russia. When the media presents his story, it's an interesting perspective, because the media that don't really talk about climate change, talk about food insecurity and famine, within the context of the war, and the media that talk about climate change. Talk about it within the context of the war and climate change. And that is the correct way to be talking about it. Because yes, the war is impacting. But we've seen an incredible Heatwave, hammer, India, and Pakistan, minimum 30% impact on their wheat production. Now, they've said they're not going to sell their wheat to the world, they're going to keep it for themselves. But they are not typically a provider of wheat to the world. They were a country that was being looked at as one that could step in when the shortage happened because of the war. Right. So they're not going to step into that gap in Afghanistan. Climate change is making the hunger and famine so much worse. Chile is in its 13th year of drought, and have announced unprecedented plans to ration water unprecedented again. In Thailand. They were expecting a bumper year, but there was so much rain, that they lost at least 10% of their crop. Malaysia is facing extreme food security. corn crops are at risk around the world. South California is facing historic drought. And we've seen fires. The two largest reservoirs in California are already at critically low levels. So they're already facing a massive drought. We've seen the fires in Orange County, we've seen more fires over in New Mexico, and the rice area in Sacramento Valley is barely going to be able to produce any rice this year. In Canada, there's been so much heavy rain, the Earth is too wet, so they can't plant wheat, which obviously would have been an important contribution to the world at the moment. In France, they are fearing for their crop harvest after winter droughts. In the east of Germany, they are warning a wide spread crop failures due to a lack of rainfall in the region, in East Africa, in the Horn of Africa. They're already pushed into famine. Turkey's cost of living has soared nearly 70%. Sri Lanka, we've seen the riots, they're out of oil, they're out of food. In Kenya, the women have to have sex with men, so they just can get drinking water. I mean, a UN report, woman 75% of the world could face drought by 2050. And that's not a long time away, by the way, are these predictions are happening faster? You know, the there was one report, the banks collapsed in 2008. And our food system is about to do the same. Now, if we're living in a wealthy country, we're going to have a different experience to someone who's living in a poor country. But we are still going to suffer this. And the wealthy people in those countries are not going to suffer as badly as the poor. And we're seeing that in countries like the UK where children are going to bed hungry. You know? And what why can't we just come up with a system where there's three tiers of payment, and if you're living hand to mouth, you have a code when you go shopping and essential items cost a certain amount. And there's a second code for people in sort of the middle class and another For people in the, in the wealthy classes in each of those codes, the essential items, and please put baby formula in there. Because there's a lot of people who can't feed their children at the moment, not just because of shortages. But because of poverty. Got to start to address this, you know that the poorest people are constantly paying the cost of this. And I know that's how the global economy has been set up. But that's what we need to change. Right? It's just what we need to change. So we're not going to make it to 1.5. You know, a recent report said, based on what's happening in the world at the moment, which is 1.1 1.2, they do not believe any more than 1.5 is even as safe or appropriate, given climate tipping point risks. And once we pass tipping points, there's no going back. So once the ice in the Arctic or the Antarctica melts, it's not going to come back, that when the Himalayas melt, when they pass a tipping point, which was already predicted a few years ago, there's no going back, right? So 1.5, we're already there, that people say it's, there's a chance we're not going to hit it, we are going to hit it, we are going to pass it. I've been reading about this for a long time. I don't know why people keep talking about 1.5. Like it's a realistic goal, we'd have to stop everything right now. But we are perilously close to irreversible climate change. And apparently, we've only got three years left to really do, do what we need to do. But there's too many new coal fired plants that have could even make 1.5 possible. And the physicists are saying there's 90% chance of human society collapsing within decades. Are they right? You look around at some of the other issues, because you know, this isn't just about emissions. It's also the methane Dragon is rising. And you know, methane is so much more potent than co2 in the short term. We're seeing thorium permafrost, right across the Arctic landscape. And of course, they're still on fire and have been for a number of years. We could be heading towards a blue ocean event. Please go and study that stuff. Find out what it means. Deforestation, record levels, ocean health, oh, my God. I mean, just from a freshwater perspective, we've we've already passed the six planetary boundary. And just recently, it was announced 91%, of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached 91%. This isn't 1.1 1.2. So between 70 and 90%, of the Great Barrier Reef was expected to be bleached, if we hit 1.5. Well, this has already happened at 1.1 1.2. So you can see, we are swimming into a stagnant ocean, if there's no life in the ocean. There's no life on Earth. Biodiversity loss, we've seen a 63% decline in insect numbers. They're essential to life on earth. 40% of our land has been degraded. Trust me some days. I think we deserve what's coming. But I don't think my children do. So. pollution, air pollution, co2, we've hit the highest record level in human history. When the Arctic melts, right? There's unknown viruses and nuclear waste up there, that's going to enter into into our environment. Of course, when we go back and thinking about pandemics none of us really enjoyed the last couple of years, did we? Well, what happens with with animals and and plants and all forms of life, is when they can no longer live where they are, including humans. They migrate. Yes. And trees migrate. This is amazing story. I think it's in Finland, or Norway with the trees have moved incredible distances, trees. Who knew? But anyway, now I do. Because there's all these new life forms that are going to come into contact for each other for the first time they're going to share with each other their viruses, right? And think of things like Ebola, right? Those animals that carry Ebola will be migrating. So what does that mean? We not only need to create a world where we stay still, and make it possible for humans to stay still. We also need to create a world where it's possible for the animals to stay where they are so that this other potential horror doesn't come out. So as you can see, there's a lot of stuff going on here. Right? There's a lot of thoughts going through my mind, there's a lot of deep reading and, and it's pretty intense. Now it's extremely intense, and it's really rocked me, it's really rocked me this this time around. I think I said it earlier. I can't remember but I've had to move my timeframe, right that I've been working towards, because I've been paying attention to this for a long time. And, you know, I read the IPCC reports always through the lens that they are always softened. They're never as extreme as what they truly should be because of the way governments manage the whole process, right? And then I read wide across all of these different topics because I need to understand it. That's just something I've always needed to do. If I can't understand the big picture, I can't understand the pieces within the big picture. and sometimes it knocks me around, you know, sometimes it really does not me around. And the worst it's ever knocked me around has been this year. And I've been a bit of a miserable cow, and I can't help it. But it's also been interesting because for the first time, Steve, my husband has had eco anxiety. And what our deal is, is, I'm the one that goes and does all the research because he knows I'm going to do it anyway, right? I'm the one that goes and does it all and understands it all, and I share stuff with him, I don't share everything with him. And then that leaves him free to go and focus on doing his job and making sure the family is okay. So that's our deal. So if you're in a couple, and you're want, you're like me, and you need to understand what's going on, my advice is maybe try and protect your spouse from it as much as possible. But the deal also has to be that the spouse has to trust you and how you acquire knowledge, and how you come to your opinions and how you make decisions. I'm trying to make the right decisions within the timeframe that I'm understanding. Because that's, that's not always easy to do. The challenge is, at home, it's good. It's good, because we talk to each other, we trust each other. And when I tell him it's time to, to make a decision for our family, he is ready to act in accordance with what I'm suggesting. And I might be a bit early, but I don't think I'll be too out of alignment with unnecessary decisions, the lucky thing is, I can make a decision, I have options, which makes me one of the very, very, very, very, very lucky people in the world, we can live in four different countries, based on our passports and our residency status. The majority of people do not have that. And part of the reason I'm sharing my knowledge now to get action happening in the world is because all of those amazing people that I've met traveling around the world who do not have the same options that I have, I want to protect them, I want to help them, I want to make sure that they're not going to be sitting there suffering the worst of the climate crisis, because the rest of us didn't have the guts to act. So that's why I share what I share. The I also believe that after cop 26 and listening to what went on there, and a lot of the conversation that's happened since I came to the conclusion or I suppose I had an epiphany, the government's will never do what they need to do until we the people who vote for them, demand that they do it. And right now, I don't see a lot of countries, making those moves. I think in Australia, in its recent election, it was definitely a climate change election, which gave me a lot of confidence that maybe we're at the beginning of that. But the young people need to vote, because I now have the voting majority for the first time in history, young people need to vote. But when we voting leaders that are willing to make the hard decisions, when it comes to climate change, we need to support them, even when it gets hard for us. And until we're willing to back them and cooperate and partner and trust. And I know trust is low today. But until we're willing to do that, it's going to be very, very difficult for us to move forward. So we can't expect the politicians to do it until we're willing to do until we accept the crisis that we are facing. And then we elect the leaders who are capable of doing everything possible to minimize the future impact. So number one, we the people have all the power. So the voting booth is very, very important. The other side is business. And we're seeing some stuff from business. But really like I'm paying attention to this too. We are not hearing conversations across industry across supply chains. Talking about radical transformation we're not talking about we're not hearing them talking about degrowth we're not hearing universal basic income being discussed on a bigger level, we're not looking at how the stock market is going to have to transform, you know, the the amount of pensions that are at risk. If the fossil fuel industry, you said it gets dumped is just mind blowing. What are we doing? How are we preparing for it? I mean, the the transformation that needs to happen from that perspective is huge. And one of my areas of despair, is that conversation still is not taking place. So when you think about what's needs to change, and I've been thinking about this stuff for a long time, right? So and I don't even remotely think I have all the answers and I don't think I'm I'm 100% correct in any area. So it's not even about that. We need to look at the big issues in the world. Right? So number one for me is water mismanagement and corruption. Right across the world. There are countries who have enough water, but the countries are suffering drought because it's not being managed correctly. We should have a Global Water Management Council that goes and gets it all sorted out so people can stay where they are. I mean if we want to see Warren destruction in the future. It's the climate refugees that are going to be pushing us towards that. Especially when people get nationalistic and put start putting the walls up, even though the people who were putting the walls up are the people who created the problem in the first place, those of us who come from and live in wealthy countries, so the world's poorest are gonna suffer these because of us. And, and they're going to keep suffering it because we're not going to let them in. So why don't we do all we can first to keep them where they are. Because the reality is, they don't want to come to our countries, they don't want to move. And if they have to move, how are we going to set up for that? We should be building refugee cities around the world. So people have a place to go where they can live in dignity. And then from there, we work out how to settle everyone, if we're going to let it continue, we're going to have less space on Earth for us to live on, which means we can farm less, but we're going to have people to feed. So how do we do that? How do we design our homes, I mean, you know, we look at the sprawl of humanity physically across our Earth. And if we could do if we had the courage to do it, say triple our cities in half, move everybody to the center and rebuild our cities, and then make the rest of the the area where our homes where the sprawl was to turn that into farmland and, and regenerate. But I'm getting ahead of myself, when you think about, you know, what needs to change, and it's obviously everything. So the first thing is, obviously, fossil fuels. So fossil fuel subsidies need to go renewable energy needs to have all all of the focus. But it's so much wider than that conversation. And that's something that I am concerned about. So the aviation in the aerospace industry, it's one of the areas that I'm, I feel quite passionate about, I worked in the aerospace industry, and the aerospace engineers are the smartest people I've ever met. And yet, in the last 20 years, what have they done, they built planes and made a lot of money. They have not designed planes that are sustainable. And we're not expecting to see one until 2030. To me, it's just it's inexcusable, that these great minds that work for these companies haven't been working towards a solution to the climate crisis in China, and in this last decade, they were building an airport a week, the industry, if you go and look at the growth chart, it's just unbelievable. But it also travel and tourism, you know, in everywhere you go, I mean, traveling used to be fun. But now everywhere you go, there's so many people, the planes are always full, you know, people are trumping over nature, they're in the boats, destroying, they're just destroying everywhere they go, everywhere we go, right, we all do it, we all contribute to it, we have to shrink that too. I live in the developing world. And I go to the movies, and I watch the ads for the cars that are being promoted to people. And a lot of people lost everything in the last few years because of the economic fallout from the pandemic. But this marketing to them, is consumer marketing. And for me, the automotive industry is at the center of that, you know, if you just go and look at a photo from the 1980s, in China, where everyone was on bikes to now where everyone's in cars, the way we eat has to change. And of course, there's going to be people in our communities in our lives just going to not want to do that right. But we need to reduce our meat intake by 75%. Across the board, fashion, fast fashion, the Microsoft plastics and the environmental destruction have created off the back of the of the fashion industry has always been something that has disturbed me, but thing that disturbs me even more is the supply chain is the human suffering in the supply chain. And this is typically women, women are the ones who are buying this into this fast fashion. And seriously, these industries have boomed in the last few years, women buy this fashion. So therefore, we are endorsing women's suffering. And these women have been so badly abandoned by the world by the brands dumped, whether at risk of domestic abuse, sexual slavery, human slavery, and we just keep hurting other women and we turned a blind eye to it. And that's always something that's really, really bothered me, fast moving consumer goods, the waste crisis, I mean, Coca Cola, Pepsi, all of those huge companies are not doing enough. What they announced it's so weak. And they're not taking responsibility for the waste that's already been created. They're putting it on the shoulders of local councils who can't possibly afford to do it. So what happens in wealthy countries is it gets shipped to poor countries and it goes into the into the water, it goes into the ocean, and it's just revolting. The monsoon has arrived here at the beginning of this waste, just getting dumped on the beaches day after day after day. It's disgusting. And I can't believe that we ever allowed our world to get into this place. Our children have never seen a clean beach. They've never swam in a clean ocean or a clean river. They have only ever grown up in a world where trash is everywhere. And it's not good enough. So we've got to change it all. And we need to come together and we need to work together. And we need to bring our communities together and make your street in your town or city, make it an oasis of vegetable gardens make sure that the grass on the on the side is flowering. So the pollinators have a chance. If you've got poor neighborhoods in your community go in there, plant trees, so that they have a chance when the when the temperature in the heat bulb gets gets so high, if they have trees, like even in India, people in wealthier communities suffered less than those in the poor communities, because they had more trees, not more air conditioning, because everyone experienced the same power cuts, but they had more trees. So let's get out into our communities and help people. No one should be living in a concrete jungle in this time, because that's going to be a really hard thing to do. So there you go. Look, you know, a critical thing for me is always understanding the big picture, working out, you know what it means and when it will happen. That's what I've always been trying to do. But most importantly, the thing that I really want to encourage you, especially if you're a parent, is to stop thinking in the terms of your children's future. Not in the terms of your own future, you got to be looking 1020 years out now and saying, what's the world going to be like for my kids? And What decisions do I need to make today to make sure that they're in the best position possible, so that they have a chance to survive and even flourish? And obviously, everything that we do now, every change that we make now, every step that we take now matters, so that that future is possible for our children. But even if the people just aren't getting the message, how can we help our children be in the right position, because that's all we can control in the end, our own families. And for the first time, Steve and I have talked about it a lot. We talk about it a lot. But like I said, I try not to burden him with him. And we are so lucky that we have the privilege to do that. Like I said, we have four places that we could put our family in for our boys future for countries. But this time, we decided we needed to bring the boys into the conversation. But we needed to do it in a way that didn't freak them out. Because I don't want to freak them out. I don't want to destroy their childhood. This is their future, not my future, not Steve's future. So what's the right decision for them. So we're gonna get into Europe, mainly in the UK, so that they can look at the UK through the eyes of is this a place that they could live in. And then we're going to go to Australia where they can do the same thing. And I am aware of the climate risks in both of these countries, if we don't get it under control. And I will be communicating this to the boys in the gentlest way possible. But I just want to encourage people, we are at the point now where we need to start thinking about the future from the perspective of our children. And I know that all parents do that. But it's actually a different thought, it's a different conversation that you need to be having. Now, if you're in the wrong place, that's going to be a very challenging future for your children. And like I said, many people don't have this choice. So in those communities, they've got to look at getting the infrastructure set up so that in those times the year when the wet bulb temperature is too high to survive, that the infrastructure is in place, the way the homes are designed, the way air is circulated. And of course, you've also got then the crops, you know, that may or may not be able to grow anymore, that needs to be factored into that. And we need to get the world set up for that, you know, where the world's crops grow right now may not be where they can grow in the future. So are we having that conversation at the global level, have we worked out where the crops will be best placed to grow so that we can keep feeding humanity? And please don't talk to me ever about population numbers, because we are where we are with the population of the planet. And we can feed everyone on this planet, but we need to be better planned for that. And we need to be looking at these big things like where can we grow rice? Where can we grow wheat in the future? Now if Canada if it's too wet, and Canada to grow wheat, where is another place? We can be grown? So these are these are big changes ahead? Right? Anyway, so the so the worst of it is over for me. But I just want to finish with a couple of things. I'm sorry if this has gone too long. But there's a rise of Doom or ism, which is something that I was expecting, because at the beginning of 2022, when I saw all of these people stepping into their voice and realizing the crisis that we were facing. It also meant that a lot of new people were facing this information for the first time fully. There is no soft landing when you face up to the climate crisis when you start reading about it. And all you have to do is look at my weekend reads and read the environment content every week. And you'll be pretty much covering the majority of what's going on. Obviously, not everything. I don't have time for that. But like I said, there's no soft landing and you do have to face this in all its ugliness because it is ugly. The important thing is you've got to work To get to the conclusion and acceptance of an outcome. And recently, I just heard that that apparently is a psychological thing as well, you can't sit in the gray zone, you've got to move into a black or white zone. So that may be accepting the the apocalypse, or societal collapse, or many other variations. But you've got to get to a conclusion of what you believe that at all means. I don't believe that we will face human extinction. But I do think that societal collapse, war, famine, all those sorts of things are definitely on the cards, if we don't get it right. As soon as you can, once you're in the place of acceptance of the outcome, try and step out of fear. Because we can't do anything in fear, you can't make decisions in fear, you can't be rational in a place of fear, you can't do anything fear, right? So try and get out of the fear space, to move into the acceptance space. And then that's the time to get to work. And this is how you move forward. And so I've been in a whirlwind of a place for a few months now, and I'm still doing my work. But my work had a different energy to it than it normally does. Because I was trying to come to terms with some pretty big stuff. And so that was obviously, there's no way that that can't come through in your words, but I'll never stop trying to get the message out there. Because I do believe that we can do this, I really believe that we can do this. So get involved in your own way, whatever makes sense to you. So locally, nationally, regionally, globally, go and join a climate organization or a community or whatever get involved. If you're struggling with the climate anxiety, I'm about to publish a blog with a whole bunch of resources that won't have everything. But there's a lot of people who are offering up sort of Facebook community groups where you can go and talk about your ego anxiety, and, you know, go and do what you need to do to get out of that, right. And then if you work for a company, be an advocate in your business. So you've got to understand where your company is getting a wrong, and fight to get it fixed. And if even if you're facing a lot of resistance, like we saw some big names in like companies like Shell stepping up and saying, I don't accept what shells doing, they're doing bad things in the environment, we need those sorts of people. Right. So it's, it's not even whistleblowing. It's just getting out there. And speaking out whatever business you work for, the bigger part for business is sorting out the scope three emissions, which is the supply chain. And that's where all the problems are happening for most of the companies, right. So if you work for a business, do not accept any greenwashing be that person that's keeping an eye on it, yet, so do whatever you can in your business, and that's going to make a big change. And the more employees that step up, and the bigger companies, especially, the more change we're going to see. So we're seeing it with companies like Amazon, they might not be winning yet, but they will. So please get involved. Community is one of the biggest things that are gonna get us through this. So bringing your community together, whatever that looks like for you, you know, grow feud, banned cars on your street, redesign how you live, but also make sure you're sharing it with the world, set up community composting, have chickens, like whatever it takes right to work together, be a voice for change in the world. And I know that some people really struggle with the confidence to step out there into their voice, I get it. I've been doing this for a long time. Look, there's trolls, there's haters, there's always going to be those sort of people don't worry about them. There are more of us than them. And we've just got to have the confidence in the message that we've got to put it out there into the world. And we've just got to go for it. Because this isn't about us. This is about our children's future in our grandchildren's future. And if you get a bit trolled by someone who cares, I don't care about those people. They're sitting in their mom's basement in their underpants, as far as I'm concerned, or they're a bot, or they're sitting in a data center paid by somebody, I don't care. I don't care. Because I've seen the truth. And I've been invested in it for a really long time. And I'm gonna get out there and I'm gonna talk and but I can't do it by myself, I need you to come with me. If you can't do it, support people who are I mean, that's, that's another big thing that you can do. But do something, show your kids that you're fighting for the future. One of the reasons I know my kids aren't too worried, is they believe that their mums going to make a difference. And at some point, obviously, they're probably going to realize maybe not. But right now, while they're still young enough, and still naive enough, they believe that they're mums out there fighting for their future. And I'll take that. Yeah, it's a gift you can give for your kids. You know, it's a it's love, loving action, right? This is a huge challenge that we are all facing together. But we can't allow ourselves to be led towards a terrible future of war, famine, migration, and worse, separated, hating, nationalistic. We've got to stop allowing those leaders to rise. And we've got to stop being a bigger voice in the world because we are the bigger voice in the world. The people who want that future, the nicer future. And it's not going to be utopia, we know that. But one where we come together and take care of each other, we are the bigger voice in the world. And we've got to start screaming from the rooftops. Because the people who are dividing us who are sowing fear, marketing fear to us, they've got an outsized presence in our world, through the media, through social media. And I've had enough of them, and I hope you have to. So let's face up to it, the challenges that we face, no more silence. It's time to fight. We need to get to work. We've got to think big things like, how do we take care of our neighbors who are suffering because of the actions of our countries? How can they live? How can they get access to food? How can we better manage things like water? How can we stop the fossil fuel industry now? How can we move to sustainable energy? How can we redesign our world, we can do this, we have to do this. So I've gone through a bit of a roller coaster. I've been on my ride on the Eco anxiety train. It's been my bumpy astride yet. I didn't enjoy it. But I'm not scared to face it. As hard as it can be. And I know a lot of people don't want to, because they know it's too ugly to face. But this isn't about us. It's about our kids. And to get ready for this future. We have to understand what we're facing today. So please, I really encourage you start digging into the real crisis, we've got to get our heads out of the sand. And then we've got to rise up, and we've got to speak up. And we've got to fight for a better future for all life on Earth. It's hard, it's despairing. You're gonna have days when you just basically don't even know why you're bothering to go on. He has suicidal suicidal thoughts do come into it. Because it feels so pointless. There'll be days where you won't be able to get out of bed. There'll be days when you open your eyes. And it just all hits you. And it's like your brain can never escape what you're facing. I had one point where just a couple of people reached out to me and said that they found what I was sharing was boring and depressing. And they were friends of mine. And they had no idea the impact it had on me. Because I know it's boring and depressing. And I don't even want to share it. I'd like to share jokes. I'd like to be funny, you know, but I can't be because my children's future is on the line. And so is there's so sorry if I'm boring and depressing. I'm not here to share something entertaining. Sorry if it's boring and depressing, but it is boring and depressing. And it's not going away. So let's fix it. That's all I'm asking. Please. Let's fix it. We need to come together, and we need to do it. It's time. And if you're suffering from eco anxiety, I'm here for you. I am here for you. There are some tough times ahead, my friends. Let's come together to get through them. Let's leave no one behind. Let's do what we need to do to make sure that we're not facing the worst possible outcome. Every minute matters. Every minute. We have to make drastic changes. Right now. It's accelerating. It's terrifying. We have to pull back. We have to pull it back. And we have to do what is necessary to achieve that. And we have to make the people who can make the decisions. Listen, we heard Al Gore, who cares, right? Okay. I know you care. Let's go. We're gonna do this. I felt the need to share my experience and I hope it helps at least one person. Thanks. Bye