I don’t know if you’re into the science. You might be thinking of temperature rises, ocean acidification and feedback loops. Or perhaps you follow the politics. The Climate Change Act 2008, Paris, Kyoto. Or perhaps you’re just looking at the weather forecast, horrified. You used to look forward to summer, but now you dread it. Everywhere is on fire. Or underwater. This year was bad but next year, you know, will be worse.

Climate change is real. It’s scary. But that’s not the impression you’d get from the outside world. Stories about heatwaves are covered with a photo of people at the beach. Politicians are licensing new oil. Everyone seems to fly now. You are petrified. But no one else seems worried. And underneath that, perhaps you think that your problems are trivial. In the face of collapsing climate, what right do you have to be upset or hurt? What right do you have to pursue a career? Have kids? Be happy?

The world’s suffering is real. But yours is too. We can make space for that. We have to.

I cannot, however much I want to, take carbon out of the atmosphere. I cannot drag Shell and BP through the gates of hell although, my god, do I want to do that. But I can be with you. I can listen. You don’t have to be alone.

I am here to hold your grief, to sit with you and help you make sense of the world. It doesn’t sound like much, but it helps. I know that it does. And underneath that, we can map out what your life could look like. Because, however much the world burns, there can still be community, friends, kinship. We will always be human. There will always be love.