My Dearest friend,

I should have listened. I should have listened to your words of warning all that time ago, for all that has happened in the last 100 years has been too hard to bear.

You told me the hotter weather was the first warning, but I shrugged it off, enjoying the Spanish heat here in England. You warned me again when there were floods across Europe, places where floods had never happened before. I wasn’t afraid, it was still far away, causing no harm to my life.

By the time you left, it was too late. You begged me to come with you, but I never listened. Once you were gone I told myself everything would be fine, but then came the hurricanes, freak weather hitting the UK. Forest fires were next, burning crops, farms, animals in its wake. Not just here but everywhere across the globe, there was no help coming. The help had already left, years ago now.

Once food started to be rationed, people turned savage, as though they turned off their humanity. There was no such thing as women and children first. It was every man for himself. And still, the floods, the fires, they kept coming, year after year, never letting up and showing us mercy just once so we could start to rebuild.

Now I sit alone, missing those who escaped to safety and those who weren’t so lucky. Every day worries are no longer about how many likes my latest post got, but instead where my next meal is coming from. Ironic how I was so against veganism and now there is no longer any meat to eat or if there is, it’s not worth the fight. There are many who are stronger than me.

I write this letter to you now, not because I think it will ever reach you, wherever you are, but because I am alone. I have so much time to think and I just keep thinking I should have listened to you.

I should have listened when you told me it wasn’t too late to start changing my ways, that millions of us fighting imperfectly against the climate crisis was better than one fighting perfectly. But I felt too small and insignificant. I can see now how wrong I was. How I wish I could turn back time and make small changes and see how those small changes added up globally to make a difference.

I should have listened to you, my wise friend.