We need to wake up to the reality that climate change is forcing the cost of living to increase. Mainly via rising food prices, as crops fail in various regions, and rising insurance costs, as housing and infrastructure is demolished in multiple locations worldwide. ‘Climate change’ is a placid, cosy phrase designed by a PR company to disguise the unvarnished reality. Similarly ‘carbon footprint’ is a PR phrase to put responsibility on individuals’ choices, and distract from fossil fuel corporations’ own responsibility.
What is happening already is climate crisis and collapse, manifesting in extreme weather of all sorts and in all regions, and typically ‘unprecedented’. We’ve had it here, and seen it all over the globe on social media and platforms. And there will be more and worse as unrestricted greenhouse gases continue to be poured into the atmosphere. Our mainstream politicians have been bought by fossil-fuel donations, which they return in gobsmacking subsidies while the company profits are largely tax-free. We have to do better. Time is running out.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
