Crying Won’t Help You …
The hottest day ever in the UK was July 19, 2022. I was in Lewes in the south of England, photographing an Extinction Rebellion action to try to persuade East Sussex County Council to divest their pension fund from fossil fuel shares. When I walked to a nearby bakery to buy some lunch, the heat was overwhelming, not what we are used to in England.
But, increasingly, it is what we should expect. Climate change is a truly global phenomenon because the climate is global. All the destructive things we do as human beings all over the planet make a difference. We also see the results all over the world. Deforestation, burning coal, dumping plastic into the sea, mega-farms that leak animal waste into rivers, and draining swamps all contribute to the degradation of Earth’s ecosystems and make life here more perilous.
There are so many bad things going on, that people have started to talk about a polycrisis. It’s a term that describes a complex situation where multiple, overlapping and interconnected crises converge and amplify each other. This creates a predicament that is unstable and extremely difficult to manage or resolve.
I wanted to create a photobook about the polycrisis as I wanted to express my outrage at what is going on and let people see through my eyes. So I travelled around South East England creating the pictures for this book. I deliberately travelled no more than two hours from my home in West Sussex. There is no need to travel to the Amazon or Florida to address the polycrisis, it’s all around us.
I have created and edited the pictures, written the accompanying text and laid out the contents into a 172 page book. It has a name; Crying Won’t Help You, Praying Won’t Do You No Good. That’s a line lifted from an old blues song, written about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The writer could see a disaster coming and so can I. Now I am seeking crowdfunding to print and publish the book.
Would you like to help publish a book that contributes to the discussion about this key issue? The discussion is really important, because that’s how people start to realise what’s going on. I’m saying, look around you, this is happening everywhere and it affects you.
Please visit my crowdfunding page, link below. You can make a donation (thank you) or place an order for the book by selecting a reward (thank you, thank you).
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/photobook-about-the-environmental-polycrisis
Donations or pledges will only be collected if the target sum is reached.
If you can help bring this project to fruition, I am truly grateful to you.
