I just finished reading a book (highly recommended) called Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis, written by Malena Ernman, the mother of climate youth activist, Greta Thunberg. Ernman was a columnist for a chain of newspapers in Sweden and writes in the book how her editor emailed her: “The climate is a burning issue. lt’s super-important. But I want you to write about other topics. I don’t want any more pieces about the climate!”
Ernman replies “I could not agree more. I don’t want any more pieces about the climate either. I want to write about other things. Things that the newspaper and I have agreed to focus on. Culture. Thriving rural towns. Humanitarian projects…or really anything at all.”
She goes on to say that she can’t “because now things are the way they are”. She continues with a wonderful analogy:
[It’s] a bit like being cozily curled up, deep asleep in a warm corner of a big sleeping bag inside a rain-drenched tent. You don’t really want to get up and deal with the problem. You want to go on sleeping. Like everyone else.
But you can’t.
I know. I can’t either. Working together, we can help take care of our common home.
Paul Litwin
Saint Francis of Assisi at St John the Evangelist 