It is tough to care, and it can lead to despair.

As an environmentally conscious teen in the ’80s I cut my political teeth on animal welfare awareness, and I began by joining anti fur and anti animal testing campaigns, by becoming vegetarian by the age of 14, and by making a stand personally and protesting the cut-up lab rats experiments in school Biology lessons, by refusing to take part – my Biology teacher never quite forgave me for the disruption I caused, but once you lead others follow and four other students joined me in protest. It was a start.

The more I learnt about the cruel and unnecessary pain we inflicted on animals – so clearly demonstrated by taken for granted industry practises such as routine animal testing for cosmetics. The fur industry, hiding its cruelty behind the glamour of wearing fur, so vilely contradicted by the appalling conditions of animals bred in cages something now banned in Britain but that continues in other European countries, as COVID outbreaks have revealed and then there is the unspeakable cruelty of trapping wild animals. All this and the appalling imprisoned life of animals farmed for our food was a horror show I had blindly participated in, but refused to once I knew what lay behind the packaging. Once I knew it was there the more disgusted I became.

Some of these insights were personal, such as the life of battery hens, this I learnt from my aunt who was so appalled when she took a job in a battery egg farm that she walked out on her job on her first day. She had walked in to the warehouse on a day when a few bedraggled hens had ‘escaped’ their tiny cages, the birds were unable to walk or fly. Their desperate state was enough for her to never buy another caged hen egg.

A window of awareness reveals a truly sick industry, in this case very cynically hidden by images of happy healthy hens on their packaging, so in balance with your perception of your wholesome boiled egg for breakfast.

Once your eyes are open to such an obvious lie, though, you start to question what else you have missed. and this rabbit hole can quickly leads to horror and disgust. For anyone empathetic enough to see this daily cruelty the recognition of the extent of the problem quickly becomes overwhelming, this awareness can easily lead to despair. This is when people can choose to close their eyes again. Or choose to act. It is a natural and healthy response to protect our own sanity, but is it healthy to ignore the problems around us?

The current generation of aware teenagers are probably most concerned with climate change, and this too is a huge and overwhelming issue, perhaps even more so, as unlike the issues of animal welfare, which I could opt out of completely by changing my diet, this needs far more extensive and political will to change. This is an issue which not only directly threatens us all, but it is one where we are very much reliant on others to act.

Those that criticise Greta Thunberg for creating climate anxiety are both right and wrong, she has opened her eyes to the crisis, and opened others eyes to the crisis. Like opening the doors to the appalling cruelty of caged hens though, she has not created the problem or the feelings that go with the awareness of such a problem. She has created awareness and the painful emotions that go with that awareness, in her personal strike, she has taken action that has gone way further than she could ever have imagined it would.

She did not close her eyes and despair, she kept them open and commanded political leaders to be leaders and to act, the worldwide movement she has inspired may as individuals, may despair behind closed doors, but in our government chambers, and on our streets these young people speak and are listened too. This huge crisis of our times, coupled with the extinction crisis is one we cannot ignore, and whilst we fight for change, we must protect ourselves from these feelings of despair. Taking action especially within our communities can build resolve, but there is no weakness in taking time out for ourselves to notice and nurture the beauty around us is important.

From my backgarden to yours. For ideas see links below.

Local farms, local gardens, community supported farms using pro animal welfare and wildlife friendly methods, these are all attainable, healthy choices. And of course we can start in our backgardens to day. Planting wildflower seeds for pollinators, leaving part of our gardens wild, creating habitat such as ponds, and removing barriers by opening up our fences to allow slug munching hedghogs freedom to roam, leaving out water and food in hot weather, there are so many ways we can help, and help ourselves, and I’m sure you will find as I do, that by nurturing our gardens for wildlife and for growing food, you will nuture a part of yourself, and that nurtured self will be stronger to fight the rest.

RSPB wildlife corridors

Wildlife Trust – how to make a pond, hedgehog hole, birdbox and many other ideas

Naturehood – a new initiative from Earthwatch, filled with ideas and the chance to connect with others in your neighbourhood

For hens there is good news, the mass market that is the egg industry has improved, and importantly consumers demonstrated they would pay extra for animal welfare, European wide legislation banned the worst practises, in the smallest cages. Is this enough? I don’t think so. I would like to see community farms in every village green, an expansion of allotments, a direct connection between people and the food we eat, with community supported agriculture, farmers markets and much more. And I am working towards these things. But for now, I’m taking a break in my garden.