Wishful thinking

There’s a strange piece in your newspaper today about how just one slow walk a day could reduce the risk of early death. Now this article would have been normal perhaps five or 10 years ago. Back then climate change wasn’t knocking at our doors neither was the Amazon under dire threat. Five years ago, there was Daesh and of course the aftermath of the US war on Iraq but nobody gave a second thought to that — it was all happening on another planet.

Fast forward to 2019. We have drought and water problems. We have excessive environment degradation and massive deforestation. We have glaciers dying — which was unheard of. We have polar bears starving and whales washing up on the beaches. We have temps that were never experienced before as well as the subsequent heatwaves. And we want to live longer, or can we even dare nurture the thought of living longer just with a slow walk or waltz, whatever you want. With no water and food, most people will wish for death and even if they don’t, death will take them by force.

A slow walk would then mean a luxury of a bygone era.

Joyce D
By email