Hello again,

In my last blog post I wrote about what I hope will come from this Corona Virus. I hoped that it would enable us to slow down a little. The blog is here, if you chose to read it.

Another thing which I have thought about in this past week is the human impact on our planet. We as humans have a massive impact on our planet, good and bad. However these recent events have really shown us just how much of a negative impact we have on our planet. We see our air being polluted, our oceans filling up with plastic, yet we do very little to try combat the issue.

We organise marches and campaigns to block our capital cities from running, but how are those people choosing to get there? We say no to plastic straws which are getting stuck in a little turtles nose. But we don’t consider this blanket ban and the effect it has on certain disabled people? We buy tote bags and still go to the supermarket for a few bits and don’t take them with us….why?

Yet after the lock down in China the air pollution dramatically decreased. The lock down in Venice allowed people to see the fish return to view in the rivers…. As the UK goes into a ‘only go out for the essentials’ phase, I dread to think what the images are like over our air space from NASA.

I hope that from these events we can also learn to reduce our reliance on cars and stay at home a little more, maybe walk to the shop if you can. I would hope our government can look at the impact we are having and invest in our public transport to enable those of us who already use it to feel more comfortable on our journeys. So that we stop using social media to complain about our commutes and then maybe people will be more inclined to want to use public transport. We need investment and we need it now.

I realise these past two posts have not been around disabilities and raising awareness. However, this past few months have showed us how important it really is to come together as one planet. To work together to find a solution. From the people working in hospitals and emergency services to you on your street checking in with a neighbour to make sure they are OK. We have all done our bit to help one another. It has truly shown, how when we work together we can achieve so much. We need to let this continue.

We cannot go back to being selfish and me me me. We need to help that elderly person who is stuck in on their own and needs you to get them some bits from the shop. We need to stop barging past one another and being rush rush rush. People have to think abut the choices they are making and their impact on the planet. A while ago I wrote about what changes I have made. Here’s a link.

I suppose this blog is about being mindful. Mindful of our own choices, mindful of our nations choices, mindful of our Planets choices. We share this Earth and we need that to continue.

Enjoy your day.

Twitter: @PhilippaB

Instagram: @VisuallyImpairedPip