I'VE been writing about each decade of my life for my family. In the 1940s my family lived in a way very different to today. There were housing and fuel shortages and of food staples such as sugar, tea, butter, meat and eggs, all of which could only be purchased with government-issued coupons allowing so many ounces of this and that per person per week. My parents were resourceful, so we grew vegetables and kept chooks for eggs (and sometimes a lovely Sunday roast). Clothing required coupons too. Of course, we grumbled, but we knew we had to work together to survive. We were, after all, at war.
Now, in the 2020s, the eighth decade of my life, the world faces a new fight for survival. In the face of worldwide unprecedented weather events - earthquakes, fire storms, extended droughts, polluted water sources, environmental disasters affecting people all over the world, we can see that our planet's climate has changed. We may again face housing, food and fuel shortages. We may need to learn to live in a more careful way than we're used to here in the developed nations. In our own homes we may have to grow some food and let the flowers die, to ration the use of our technology and limit the use of cars to save precious resources.
