The climate crisis calls for individual accountability
Readers respond to Ben Okris poem Earth Cries and reflect on what needs to be done to avert catastrophe I love the realness of Ben Okris poem ( Earth cries! We are the gods that must step up to the biggest crisis in history, 5 August ). As a green living coach, I frequently encounter a defeatist attitude that there is nothing we can do about the climate crisis that it is the fault of big corporations who pollute our planet for profit. While this is true, I want more of us working on the crisis frontlines to point out we give those corporations our money to do what they do. We choose to participate in the disposable lifestyles they push on us. We were manipulated by those corporate polluters to live a wasteful life, and if were going to have a liveable planet we must recognise this and fight against it at an individual level. We need to stop paying corporate polluters to do the damage they are doing. I would like to see more poems like this, which open peoples eyes to their individual impact and get real about where the money comes from that causes the damage. Jen Thilman Huron, California, US Ben Okri says: We are the gods that must do it. Hes right, we now have to do all we can to avert a global catastrophe, but the reason were in this mess is because we thought we were gods. And we still think we have a god-given right to take whatever we want from this already ravaged planet. We must recognise we are not gods, just one of the myriad forms of life on this earth, albeit the one with the greatest intelligence, but with little thought for the responsibility that entails. We need to recognise we must surrender some of the privileges, which have done such harm to our fellow creatures and now to ourselves. Yes, as Ben says, well need intelligence, passion and sacrifice, and I would add to that, generosity and, above all, humility. James Pertwee Malvern, Worcestershire Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.