Last week (7/10/19 - 20/10/19) saw many thousands of people take to the streets to protest in order to raise awareness of the seriousness of the climate change problem. On Saturday alone, 30,000 people peacefully marched through central London, all calling for our government to 'Act Now'.
I was one of those people.
I can't deny my past has been a contributing factor to the problem we all now have to deal with - my fuel guzzling cars, my gas fuelled heating, my wastefulness, my materialism, eating meat and dairy with scant regard, even my drafty old house didn't matter, I just turned the thermostat up! At Midas it was the same......it wasn't that I didn't care, I'm a naturalist so of course I care, I just didn't think about it! I used my orange bin and made my own compost, I loved my garden - so surely that made me green didn't it?
Then, In April, I watched 'Climate Change - The Facts' and my world changed forever.
I read the science, I researched my own facts and I allowed my common sense tell me that if you burn the planets fossil fuels relentlessly and blanket our atmosphere with unfathomable amounts of CO2 then you have to expect the temperature to rise. Then when I think about the glaciers melting and the trees burning and the coral bleaching in the ever warming sea I don't really need to think much more, I accept the science and I realise the time for pontificating is over and the time for action is now!
So everything at home has changed and huge progress has been made at Midas. We've invested in equipment and culture, changed cars and fuel suppliers, started the 'Midas Green Initiative' and above all we are communicating what needs to be done to as many people as possible. We are trying so hard and pushing as quickly as we can towards the holy grail of carbon neutrality; naturally we have a way to go but we are doing our best and although it takes time, making rapid progress is hugely motivating
So in the pouring rain on Oxford Street, when a minority of shoppers, told me to 'get a job' or much, much worse! I remained calm because it is so important we work together to take this Climate Change message forward and seek action at all levels.
I made many wonderful new friends last week, one of them sent me this poem. It isn't perfect for sure, it's a rough diamond, but it made such an impact on me I begged her to let me have a copy and allow me to publish it here. She agreed and I am so grateful, why? Because the opportunity to make amends means the world to me!
I am not a hypocrite!
https://medium.com/@bearfacedlady/i-am-not-a-hypocrite-e3b59cce599e
I am not a hypocrite.
I recycle my tins in the council bins
and watch Newsnight, holding tight to my hard-won earnings.
You on the other hand,
With your non-vegan booze and your leather shoes
And your petrol-run car – ha! Practice what you preach
Before you presume to teach me anything about the world.
I am not a hypocrite.
I donate to good causes
for animal care and children’s welfare
I pay my tax and you, a bunch of right quacks, have the gall to launch attacks
On the upstanding people who no doubt pay, in some way,
for the clothes on your backs.
I believe what I see, so don’t think that you know better than me.
I am not a hypocrite.
My wife and I will continue to fly. Oh please, don’t you tell me that people will die!
The way you scaremonger that famine and hunger
are on the way here,
That a few degrees warmer will mean my little corner
of the world will be hurled into chaos and fear
(I’ve got savings so I will be in the clear.)
I am not a hypocrite.
I read the papers, I’ve very informed
(when I comment I don’t use my real name of course.)
You can say all you like about climate strife, but you are a fraud, you’re probably bored
Get a job, and just stop with this doom-laden rot.
The police are quite right to arrest your kind,
public menace, that’s what you are, to my mind!
I am not a hypocrite.
I’m not anti-science, don’t go thinking that.
Medical advances, mechanical engineering, the phone that I use, the aid for my hearing.
But your science though, it just can’t be true; that would mean that for decades we’ve been lied to!
I’ll keep trusting the system, keep trusting the news,
They make my feel comfortable, chime with my views.
There’s no way on earth you can possibly be right,
Or that’s what I tell myself, awake late at night.