2 minute read
It's A Big World...But It Belongs To Us All
We turn on the news over the last few weeks and get bombarded with climate events. Wild fires in Greece, heatwaves in central Europe and Canada’s smoke being seen in New York. Meanwhile it’s been raining in Duhallow since 1992.
We’re looking at all these stories and hearing about climate change, world temperature targets and G8 summits to solve it – all to no avail. Meanwhile, in our corner of the world we are recycling our plastic, we are taking less flights in the year and we’re saving for an electric car. We try to live a sustainably as possible but we’re beginning to wonder if it’s any good, if our efforts are in vain.
Well, what we are experiencing is eco-distress. So, what is eco-distress? Sometimes called eco-anxiety, it is a way of describing what we feel when we hear bad news about the environment or the planet. Whereas the impact of this anxiety can vary for everyone, it is fair to say that all individuals can see the impact of climate change and feel some form of stress or worry about it. We are no longer in a position to ignore it, or make it a problem for the next generation. So, what can we do to make small changes? Well, we can look within our own homes first- we can save some energy by turning off a few lights, taking shorter showers or insulating the attic. If possible, we could walk or cycle a bit more. Try not to make the car the only option, maybe we could take the train occasionally. We could have a meat-free day once in a whilevegetables can be tasty too. We could cut back a bit in the flyingmaybe for the next long-weekend have a city break in Ireland. And of course there the famous phrasereduce, reuse, and recycle. Remember, we might not be able to change the world alone, but together we can make a difference for those that come after us.
