Letter: ‘Business as usual’ won’t help us now

Just what advice can grandparents like Roy and Trudy Ashton, (The Star October 15), give to younger people as they watch sea levels rise, wildfires rage and the world become unstable due to accelerating climate change and habitat loss?

I am 64. I have done my best to warn people of the problems ahead since seeing in the 1960s how short sighted it was for governments to close local railway networks; relentlessly promote the fairy-tale of eternal economic growth, and ignore the impact of those first photographs of our fragile living planet taken from the Apollo spacecrafts.

More violent storms, social and economic collapse and the catastrophic rate of species extinction means that discussions between generations about the future can be very difficult. After all most of the damage to our life support system has been done over the last 50 years. So-called “Responsible Adults” have elected politicians that have got away with lying to us.

I was arrested on October 8, in London for doing my bit to protect life on our unique and wonderful but dying planet. This threat has been known about since the 1950s but has been ignored by decades of politicians. The truth is that people alive today may well be the last generation to live on the Earth.

On joining much younger arrestees on my release from the police cell they told me of the enormous pressure they were under from their relatives to start a career, have children and put money aside for a pension in their 70s? It is very clear that certainties they took for granted no longer apply.

The advice I would give: Keep informed. Listen and support young people. If they’re encourage them join the monthly climate strikes. Become active in Extinction Rebellion. Keep asking authority figures, the difficult questions raised by climate activist Greta Thunberg and strive to act like a responsible adult. Do what you can to reduce your impact on the environment. Finally support and get active in a political party that is serious about the environment and climate justice.

Remember “business as usual” led us to the edge of extinction, it will not help us now.