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I’ve long admired Chris Packham. His recent conversation with Amol Rajan on RADICAL (A War on Climate Change: Are Environmental Activists Losing The Fight?) stayed with me — not because it revealed something new, but because of how clearly it spoke about responsibility.
What he’s describing isn’t ignorance.
We know what’s happening.
It’s the habit of delay. Of softened language. Of choosing the short term over what’s necessary.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the light is often very seductive — sometimes deliberately so. We’re reassured, distracted, kept busy. And when the light is bright enough, it becomes easier not to look too closely at what sits beyond it.
Listening, I kept thinking about something I talk about often in another context: darkness.
Every meaningful act of creation starts there — uncertainty, not knowing, sitting with questions before rushing to answers. But increasingly, we avoid that space. We reach for speed, certainty, and reassurance instead.
That instinct shows up everywhere.
In education, depth gives way to pace. Tools replace thinking. Not because educators don’t care — most care deeply — but because the system leaves little room for doubt, silence, or exploration.
Brands mirror it too. Quick wins. Borrowed relevance. Activity mistaken for progress.
Technology accelerates all of this — friction removed, waiting eliminated, consequences deferred.
Chris makes a vital point: individual effort matters, but without structural change it isn’t enough. Responsibility has to be built into the system — otherwise the burden is endlessly shifted, diluted, postponed.
If we never slow down enough to face what’s actually happening, we drift — creatively, culturally, environmentally — toward a far deeper darkness than the one we’re trying to avoid.
Darkness isn’t the problem.
Avoiding it is.
And the work — in every sense — is having the courage to stay there long enough to change course.
JM
