HAPPILY, there are occasional glimpses of light amid the growing gloom about the worsening environmental situation.

Let’s face it, the situation isn’t a happy one however you look at it.
Except, of course, for those people who refuse to accept the science and the evidence of steadily increasing global temperatures, and instead prefer to tune in to the siren voices seeking to reassure us that everything is going to be fine and there’s plenty of time before we need to take action.
The fact is that despite all the annual international environmental conferences to date – 27 and counting – and politicians’ promises, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise relentlessly, and the consequent climate impacts are increasingly being felt around the world.

So, what about those glimpses of light that have helped to stop me from throwing in the towel?
One is the ever-increasing number of citizens who have decide enough is enough and are taking to the streets. Small, isolated protests are all too easily ignored, so what’s needed are much larger public protests that are impossible to ignore and that will force the media, which to date has been largely hostile, to reassess its response and focus on the message rather than attack the messengers.
Another bright spot was the recent news about the trial of the seven women who in April 2021 broke windows at the offices of Barclays in the heart of London’s financial district.
Protesting about the staggering sums of money that Barclays continues to invest in fossil fuel projects, they wore signs with the Suffragette slogan ‘Better broken windows than broken promises’.

After breaking the windows they quietly sat and waited to be arrested. At their subsequent trail they were found guilty, but instead of being jailed they received suspended sentences.
And Barclays wasn’t awarded any damages for the window repairs costed at more than £90,000.
I’m well aware that some people reading this will respond by calling the women criminals, and will be outraged they weren’t sent to prison.
I can only invite them to consider who are the bigger criminals, these women willing to risk their freedom to get the climate crisis taken seriously, or the political and corporate decision makers who continue to allow our planet to be diminished to the point of destruction?
Finally, a friend recently posted a picture on social media of a group of people stood looking out at a sunrise, with the words: “We are not here to fear the future. We are here to shape it”.
A simple message, but it helped me to reframe the day’s news which up until that point had been pretty bleak.