Procrastination

On that day Siberia was burning. And the boreal forests of Canada. Soon the heat would light up the grass in Italy, then France. On that day the rock felt warm and solid, like rocks are, somehow comforting. I looked at the waves brushing the cliffs. For a moment I thought that at least this rock will persist. For my daughter to stand here, and feel it and look at these waves like I am. But we all know that the land is disappearing. Shores are being swallowed by anthropogenic waves. What was formed in the Precambrian era is now disappearing within decades. Anxiety over the eco-catastrophe rarely makes headlines. Climate change and biodiversity loss discussion are dominated by research and politics, and rightly so. But the destruction of our natural environment is not just about facts and figures and arguments. The change touches our daily lives, and it touches our collective soul, makes us angry, sad, helpless. How little did we do all these decades to try to prevent it. What do we really lose when we lose the things we have taken for granted?