A friend who I’ve been pals with since I was about 12 (which is a good few new moons ago – perhaps even before the moon existed…) visited me recently for our annual “catch-up”. This normally involves us reminiscing about our school days, him telling me stories of what’s going on in the NHS and me plying him with some cold beers, staying up late, putting the world to rights and then sloping off to sleep.
He’s the type of guy that has very little control on the barrier in his head between thinking and speaking. What he’s thinking normally comes barreling out of his mouth. Which can put some people off. But for me, I like his openness, you get what you see, and the fact that if I ask for his opinion, I know I’m going to get exactly what he thinks rather what he thinks I want to hear. Normally we have really fun and engaging conversations, disagreeing, counter-arguing, playing Devils advocate for each other.
This conversation was a wee bit different, as he talked about him twice coming close to death during lockdown – he was twice in ICU (I think it’s now ITU) and things didn’t look good. But thankfully he’s recovered enough to travel and he’s making good progress. The downbeat conversation continued as he unloaded about the death of his younger brother and the health of his parents, both in their late eighties. As my grandpa would say “Everyin is carrying a load. You dinnae ken whit until ye look in their barra.”
I know my mate well enough to realise that once he’s unloaded all his stories, he normally changes tack and asks about my family and my work. And true to form he did.
After giving him the lowdown on clan Dunn, I started to chat to him about climate change and the links to health. With a leading NHS practitioner in the room with thirty years of experience it was an opportunity I wasn’t going to miss.
We debated various things. But I was amazed at how mainstream his views had become. It seems that living in London for thirty years had dented his ability to think outside the bubble of mainstream media. But only recently had his views become those of climate denial conspiracy theory. As is my way, I asked him what the source of his information was and also what evidence he had to back up his views (we have a really easy going non-confrontational debating style between us that lets us disagree and remain friends). Almost all the sources of information were online MSM based news outlets.
The conversation then took a right angled turn and I asked him about his own resilience. At first he misinterpreted the question and thought I was talking about his health recovery, but I guided him towards the things that he relies on most everyday and his resilience to change of circumstances in those. I pointed out the measures some countries are telling their residents to put in place – already.
We chatted about food, water, transport, energy, housing etc. And for each and every one of them he had no backup plan. Finally towards the end of the list he paused and admitted that his resilience and adaptability were extremely low.
“Why does it matter anyway?” he questioned. That led to me explaining that change is already happening and many well educated experts, who have studied such things the majority of their professional lives, believe various tipping points are about to – or may already have been – breached. Which will cause an acceleration of not only climate, but social, breakdown.
“What’s it all got to do with health?” he reverted back to his comfort zone topic.
“It’s all connected. It’s all interlinked.” I put forwards.
“How?” – Now this is the question to end all questions when it comes to climate change and how it will affect everything we do and how our current system is creating the conditions for catastrophic breakdown in society. So I took a deep breath.
I’m sure what followed was a magnificent explanation, interspersed with real world examples. A verbal tapestry of inspiration and warning that both motivated and tempered at the same time. I’m certain that after I finished my monstrous monologue he got out his notepad, not his phone (He’s that type of guy) and made copious notes, paraphrasing my lyrical linguistics as I wove potential scenes that were both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
Sadly, I fear I verbally fumbled over the issues and probably did a generally poor job of explaining all the connections between hoarding of wealth, fossil fuel misinformation, climate and social injustice, corrupt politics, cataclysmic biodiversity destruction and health.
But whatever I said, guarantee I did it with enthusiasm. Cue lots of arm waving, stomping and miming.
I finished with a rather hopeful “Do you see?”
My buddy paused for a second or two and them gave a resounding “Hmmmmmm…” Which knowing him, means he was at least thinking and processing it.
I questioned myself. Had I got through to him? Will he evaluate his reslience? It’s a question I keep asking myself whenever I speak to friends and family. It’s hard knowing that catastrophe is happening as we speak and that they need to assess their resilience and watching them continue on as if nothing bad is going to happen. But I don’t want to know and not let them know. I don’t want “Why didn’t you tell us!?” to come up. I want the people I love to know and to act now.
We could have a fantastic world by putting into place everything that needs to be in place in order to save our planet. They’re all linked and they all help our health.
Localised Food – less chemicals in nature, healthier lifestyles and more nutritious food, more connections
End of fossil fuel use – Cleaner air, healthier lifestyles, new roles, more connections
Comfortable Homes – Less need for energy use, healthier lifestyles, more connections
Integrated Clean Transport – Less pollution, more connections, healthier lifestyles
Restored Biodiversity – Less pollution, increased health, more connections with the land.
New political system – Increased focus on saving our world, healthier lifestyles, more connections
It’s hard to know which one comes first. But they’re all connected. But what I’m certain about is that without the correct political will, everything is harder. For example, without political will to increase localised food production, we’re stuck with chemical based big-agri, lack of biodiversity as huge monocultures dominate the landscape and chemicals enter and poison our food chain. And that’s just one example. Gladly on that front, there appears to be movement in the right direction.
As a collective we are left to connect the dots together. It’s up to us to interact and make progress in our respective areas. The amount of progress that is made, despite limited resources, despite the over-arching knowledge of catastrophe playing out, despite having to fight tooth and nail for pittance, is quite remarkable. Imagine what could be achieved if the political will was there, if billionaires were taxed appropriately and that money was invested in our organisations. Imagine that future.
Next morning, after a bit of local sight-seeing, I dropped him off at the train station. We hugged and said our good bye’s – until next year.
I hope he made his connection.