'Dad, if you keep talking about it, I'm going to leave' I say. I feel myself getting hot. For some reason, he's talking about it alot, and it's the last thing I *want* to talk about. He's not the only one. There's people at work that are so worried about it, it's all they *can* talk about. It's causing them a lot of stress and anxiety. 


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/riverflows/AKWvSCtHE2hZ3qu3fizAS5XzJprowEvsJhxhVQmAUYsJeNWKDuyxc4Bk9cNoPYu.png)
<sup>Image by me and Midjourney.</sup>


That's probably why Dad's brought the topic up three times in the hour I've been having a cuppa there. I usually love visiting my parents. We are good friends and they're great company. But in between talking about installing new air conditioning this summer and a heat pump, Dad *won't shut up about climate change*. 

This is *not* a post about whether or not I believe in climate change, or the arguments for an against. It's a post about where we put our focus, and how the mainstream media sells us bad news because that's what our brains are hard wired for. We focus on bad news because it's a protective mechanism, just as in the whole forest our eyes will focus on that *one* vine that looks like a snake - or the garden hose.

That's my father's argument. If he is well informed, this will somehow protect him. 

He's quite annoyed at the fact I don't read the papers. I should be informed, he says. 

'Why?' I argue. 'What will it change?'. I have this fatalist approach, and it's largely because I'm pissed off the media feeds us this steady drip drip about the planet burning or freezing *when there is nothing that can be done about it* on a personal level. I'm pissed off the responsibility is put in the hands of the every day consumer to reduce, re-use, recycle, *where at the same time* we are being asked to consume, and companies use green washing to sell us things we don't need. I'm pissed off that big companies get tax breaks and free rein to pillage the environment yet it's suggested *we* buy electric cars and greeen products like it'll help anything at all. 

I read the headlines, I argue. There's nothing new, and nothing I can change. All it does is raise my anxiety levels when my energy could be directed elsewhere, like service to others, being a good person, living a good life. I care for the environment and that has never changed. I don't *want* to talk about climate change, and I don't want it shoved down my throat just because *you* are anxious about it. If there's something I need to know, I'll research the science, and not swallow propaganda from either the left or the right, thanks very much. 

Replace 'climate change' with any other fear inducing topic of conversation. Their modus operandi is based off *if it bleeds, it leads*. Create a hook, and suggest they have the solution - and you're clicking on that article fast as you can say the icecaps are melting. It's well *known* that news media increases anxiety and depression, and their methods of capturing people's attention are negative emotion based.  

Someone said to me on Threads it's not balanced to hide from the negative. I'm not hiding - I know it's there, and will inform myself when it's needed. But I am not wasting my life focussing on it. I know people like that. There are a mess. 

I remind Dad of all of this, *again*. He does change the conversation, until we get to something about going to Iceland next year. I joke that I hope there's not another pandemic. 

'Oh,' he says. 'Did you hear about the ice melting and old viruses being exposed?'

Fuck. Another thing to be frightened of. I give up. Maybe I shoul just lean in to fear. Seems like it's a thing. 

#### What worries you the most? What do you focus on when you know it's not doing you any good? Do you think it's hiding from "reality" or perhaps choosing to focus on what good can be done? 




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# `With Love,` 


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