susie laan's Letter

To my granddaughter, Lizzie,

I cycled into Lyndhurst in the New Forest yesterday from here, Ashurst, and as the choking traffic filled the air very close to me, zooming past me every ten seconds, I had a vision. There were no cars! But some electric small vehicles travelling along a narrow lane, and the rest of the road were cyclist. Many were on e-bikes, and many had children being pulled along in carts or in the front using cargoes to carry goods or children, with so many different types of bicycles going both ways quietly and safely. Could this be your world now when I've gone? I hope so.

Most of the time there is a war going on in my head, when I am not playing with my sweet little one, now 3 years old. I dread opening my computer and reading to keep up with what is constantly being told to me about the dangers of ignoring the climate crisis. Yet at the same time I don't see much changing around me by the way people live.

A rush for new oil and gas all over the world, more trees being felled, ice melting faster then ever, elephants dying from draughts, birds from bird flu, floods, people starving to death.
How will the world be when you grow up? Will you see any elephants or birds? I fear not.

If all ends well, and the temperatures stay low enough not to runaway as tipping points are reached and if life in the world doesn't unravel, what world will your grow up into ? Will days of transitioning from our addiction to building the economy no matter what be just a memory?

Will the Governments stop being persuaded by greenwashing for example by carbon capture and grey and blue hydrogen ? And Drax burning wood pellets that is worse than burning coal, because my little one, that is what is happening right now! It is cheaper to fly than go by train. There is no extra tax for owning a larger guzzling car. There is no carbon tax! Sewage and slurry empty into our rivers. Micro plastics fill the sea and land. Fish are being illegally trawled in marine protected seas and sharks fins are cruelly cut off while they are alive in their millions for soup and medicines, now endangered as a species like the elephants being poached to extinction.

I will leave you in this troubled world but I will not leave you without trying to do everything I can, even it is way more than my comfort level, to make a difference and cling onto hope that just maybe something will happen and everything will be like my vision cycling to Lyndhurst.

All my love from a very proud granny Susu

Susie Laan