Great comments Anastasia. I was really struck by Julian Hupert's recent webinar where he talked about polarisation and how our insistance on having speakers on news programmes from each extreme in the name of 'balance' has caused us to lose the middle ground on some of these issues.

There are also so many changes we could and should make to be more sustainable. Some may be more palatable to me than they are to you because of how easy it is to make that change. I have no trouble giving up driving and taking my bike more, but my colleagues that love driving struggle with that. I think that we all have a tendancy to champion the changes that we make as the only right thing to do and demonise the people that don't do likewise, which leads to these 'stop doing/buying/eating...' diktats.

And we have to be mindful that whatever changes we make that we will make mistakes and need to keep trying or our efforts to be sustainable in one area might be contradicted by actions elsewhere, which opens us up for criticism. My father in law doesn't see the point of reducing meat consumption unless you are going to stop buying anything, flying anywhere...

So you are right taking time to pause, listen and reflect is the only answer.