I WAS sitting under an elm tree yesterday feeling the quietness and beauty of the area, when I started to feel incredibly sad.

I felt like the trees, flowers and everything around me that I’ve known since childhood were slowly dying.

I think that the trigger for this was watching the scenes on TV of Australia burning up and the people losing their homes and even their lives.

On the map it showed bush fires burning trees and vegetation all over the vast continent.

Where will the people go?

With temperatures continuing to rise, is this going to happen all over the globe?

Fires, flooding or hurricanes seem to be occurring everywhere.

Do we think it’s not going to happen here? Folk in regularly flooded Yorkshire might say it already is.

It occurred to me – are we just sitting here waiting for our earth to die?

Are we waiting for politicians to save us?

Our beautiful countryside has always been there, and like the Australians – it would be hard to imagine life without it.

I’ve just read online that the U.K. had 96 major wildfires in 2019.

Like me, you don’t have to be a member of a political organisation or radical activist group to feel and see what’s going on.

Dave Ellis

Maldon