Slowly but surely, our lives have become all stick and no carrot – thanks, boomers

We are exhausted and wrung out after making countless sacrifices over the past year and a half, and now more sacrifices await, writes Marie Le Conte

No one wants to get rained on, and no one wants the planet to burn to a crisp (Getty/iStock)

The trouble with being a writer is that people expect you – not unreasonably – to put what they are thinking and feeling into words. It is, supposedly, our job, and an important one at that. Well, at least we like to pretend that it is.

I have tried to put my feelings about the climate emergency into words for several hours now, and I have failed. There is a new report out, as I’m sure you have seen, and I have no idea how to approach it. I am not quite seething but not quite sad either; I am too passionate to be nihilistic but too jaded to feel truly panicked.

Should I change my behaviour some more to do my bit? Should I decide that my refusal to ever drive and the £10 I spend on carbon offsetting every month is enough? Should I campaign against fossil fuel companies? For better laws to protect the environment?