What’s so funny about climate change?

Laughter is the best medicine—

that should help as all the antibiotics run out,

and the economy slowly spirals

down

as the impending doom of climate catastrophe looms 

overhead

like the planes flying—though not as much anymore— 

but still probably too much.

I wonder how many people’s first reaction is to laugh

when they realise how fucked we are. 

Is it just me

that lets out a little chuckle, 

a little hiss of air flying out my nostrils when someone mentions the Great Barrier Reef

or Greenland

or 2°C warming by the year 2100?

To be quite honest, I’ve got enough anxiety as it stands—

do I really need to add the climate? 

Between boys,

pandemics,

and employment—

my brain’s pretty full. 

Gears grinding, cogs turning, machine whirring;

it gets so hot I often wonder if it’s actually just a shitty metaphor for capitalism and the climate crisis.

It’s not that I don’t care; 

I probably care a lot more than most people. 

but it’s hard. 

Really hard. 

it’s really fucking hard to care about it all. 

It’s hard to care about the animals we slaughter for food;

it’s hard to care about the flooding in far-off countries that destroys millions of lives;

it’s hard to care about the slow, sure, suffocation of the planet. 

But we should.  We should care. 

But what does that even look like? What does caring about climate change even mean?

Does it mean being vegan? 

Boycotting fast fashion?

Joining XR?

All of the above? 

That’s a lot of changes

for a lot of people, 

when most of us are just trying to keep our heads above water. 

When a whole chicken is cheaper than a bag of pine nuts, who’s really to blame? 

Writing this I thought I’d have an answer for you all—that I’d be able to tell you all how to care. 

But I don’t…

and I can’t…

maybe laughter is the best medicine. 

Everything’s so bloody bleak you need a good chuckle now and again. 

It helps us keep plodding along; it helps us stay above the water.

No one can care about animals when they can’t save themselves

or care about others’ drowning, when they themselves are thrashing around violently. 

Climate change is funny because it has to be—

otherwise it’s just fucking depressing. 

Illustration by Rosalie Minnitt