![]() Being so close to the water? Sensing the power the paddle lent me? I grasped the principles immediately and found myself racing ahead and having to stop and wait for the others, as they splashed and veered about. But when I sat in that kayak, it was as if my physical life suddenly began. When it came to the selection of positions on the pitch, mine was always left behind. I loved the idea of rugby, but I could scarcely see the ball, let alone handle it. I could have been a professional footballer, had it not been for a career-ending condition: two left feet. I had, until that point, never found a sport I enjoyed. It was a school trip, paddling the tame and stagnant waters of the Kennet and Avon Canal. ![]() ![]() I think people expect a universal law, a profound insight into the human condition whose applications they can immediately deploy. The answer I give invariably disappoints the questioner. But as time goes by, the wall begins to crumble. ![]() I have an unhealthy habit of disassociation, seeking to park my environmental awareness in one part of my mind while the rest of my life occupies another. Yet with every year of inaction and denial by our governments, with every extension of economic power over political life, the grounds for hope seem fainter. Somehow I have to start work in the morning with the expectation that there is some bloody point to it. Somehow I have to reconcile this knowledge with bringing up children. Every day, I must think about the terrible things we’re doing to the living planet and our own prospects of survival. How do you cope? Like other environmental journalists, I spend my life rolling in the excrement of humanity. There’s one question I’m asked more than any other. ![]() By George Monbiot, published in the New Statesman, 26 th July 2023 ![]()
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