Olaf Taylor's Letter

Descendents or Descendents of Siblings,

Dear Offspring / Offspring of siblings,

Whilst I was around in the 2010s and 20s I did what I could to change the environment for the better. Let me explain.

I realise I was consumptious of resources and contributed to greenhouse gas emissions perhaps the most by flying long haul once a year at most, for not good enough reason. Perhaps going to USA for just 10 days or Kazakhstan for likewise was excessive but eventually I got my act together and just stuck to travelling to Scotland or Europe overland or in a very efficient plane occassionally for holidays.

All the time I minimized car usage, and got rid of using my car in 2022 just after the Ukraine War started. I have cycled everywhere for years and do a train+bike combo at worst.

I also made an effort to eat fish more than meat and be careful to not waste food. The cost of living crisis even helped with this. I started picking my own fruit and making apple crumbles with cooking apples found in Cambridgeshire at the right time of year.

When the cost of energy rose due to Putin's war it was a great opportunity for the world to get off carbon fuels and develop solar, wind and tidal even more. And hydrogen and nuclear at worst but as a citizen I could not change much. I just wanted leaders to not be so thick to see that Oil producing countries in general are not much our friends and that much of it comes from bad governments. It was like knocking my head against a brick wall, except for a few charities and organizations that were interested and would listen. I wish they could rise to the fore, but amidst a political system that was just bent on the status quo it just was not possible, even when long term that status quo would inevitably go.

A few other things I did was fund a few trees, do gardening well. Keep the community free of litter and recycle plastics. Try to lead by example. It was dreadfully hard. Even relatives in my own family had huge carbon footprints, flying at the drop of a hat, being hardened to the reality of how destructive certain activities are. It was terrible to in general experience the way in which your efforts felt to count for nothing due to the choices of others. If you skip flying, then someone else just would take twice as many flights. The business world just trashed the worth and fruit of my efforts. Business exec's flying to china from London for a cup of tea, Denver to London for a brainstorming session to Zurich from Stansted for a meeting every month, all the while boasting Corporate Social Responsibility. We lived in terrible times back then. Even after Covid taught us we really actually didn't need those habits we just went back to wallowing in the mud of it. Even Christian organizations professing to listen to God's voice sent people yoyoing back and forth between the USA and UK for conferences, failing to listen to Him speak through Creation.

Let me expand on that, even when London hit 40 degrees and had fires all around it, even when Pakistan got 30% flooded out with rather rubble flows lubricated by water than water flows with a bit of rock taken away happened - not much short of Noah and the flood - : when the Philippines and East Asia had 180mph tornados, the USA had hurricanes that trashed billions and fires that burnt their richest state to ashes so that you could not breath cleanly several times the leaders would not listen, and just instead critize "radical environmental groups". Living through that was tough. You couldn't really do anything. It was just torturous being in a loosing battle. Additionally the plante suffered from wicked leaders like Putin, who were in a loosing battle, were burning a Europe's worth of Gas Production into the air, with no regard whatsoever for the world's population, let alone his neighbouring country.

In the UK we had a Queen and then a King, they both cared so much for the environment, and the Son of the King too. THe problem is as my history teacher used to say, EiiR had all the power in the world, but wasn't allowed to use any of it. Sadly the actual leaders in power, the PM, the Cabinet, the politicians in other parts just didn't bring to bare the influence needed to bring in the changes warranted by the situation.

I am so sad things have got to where they are today. If only leaders had had more wisdom. We are where we are now. The human population is diminished by an exponentially increasing number of disasters, and we can no longer move about in the freedom we once had because the Earth is so inhospitible. Anything can happen out there. I am so sorry this is the legacy we have left you, and I am indeed part of it. I just didn't do enough.

Kiryae Elaison. Lord Have Mercy on Us. We don't deserve it but Kriyae Elaison on the basis of who you are and your goodness to us.

Your sincere family ancestor,
Olaf