If you're not angry, you're not paying attention

There's a lot going on in the world. The word 'hopeless' springs to mind. People are dying, animals are dying, forests, oceans, the world in general, is dying. And unfortunately, all we are capable of is writing Facebook rants, all we can do is march and mention @realDonaldTrump in angry tweets. It's inescapable now, the end is everywhere. The end of lives, countries, the world??? I'm joking, that's not going to happen for at least another ten years so we're fine.

But there are still some naive people that don't want to recognise that the world is speedily taking a nose dive into the back-end of Satan. So I've compiled a handy, but not very useful in the grand scheme of things, list of reasons to be angry. And maybe it'll convince people to get their fingers out and stop wasting 280 characters on telling us every day how much you just couldn't live without your boyfriend because of that one time he bought some toilet roll because you said there wasn't any left because he cares about you soooo much oh my god what a gem! (what is happening in 2018 honestly, pick your standards up off the floor, Jesus Christ alive.)

In short; you don't even have to leave your house to try and 'save the world'. Petitions are signed with our fingertips, people's voices (not necessarily the right ones) are heard now more than ever.

Words are all we have. Use the right ones.

1. 12 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans every year, and this number is only expected to
rise. I don't have to tell you what effect this has on plant and animal life, not after 50% of life on the Great Barrier Reef was declared dead in 2016. But that wasn't all the plastic's fault, that was also down to...

2. Global warming. Yay! There's honestly too many facts and figures to prove all the disbelievers wrong, and you probably wouldn't listen to an English student, I don't blame you tbh. So if you're not gonna listen to me, listen to NASA: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

3. The bees are dying. This one's used as a culturally appropriate joke but it's actually v serious. Have y'all not seen the Bee Movie? Seriously though, from 1947 - 2008, there's been an estimated 60% loss of honey bee hives in the Americas alone. So if you see a sick bee, help a brother out, feed it a teaspoon of sugar water and place it somewhere safe.

4. Guns. This one's a tender one, I know. But here's some stats for you: according to the Gun Violence Archive, there has been 134 mass shootings in America in 2018 (it's June), in 2017, there was 346. Let's compare that to other countries;

Also, let's compare:

5. More than 300,000 people in Britain alone (1 in 200) are officially homeless or living in inadequate housing. According to the Trussell Trust (https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/end-year-stats/) Between 1st April 2017 and 31st March this year, just their food bank network handed out 1.332, 952 three day emergency food supplies, 484, 026 of these were for children. (a 13% increase on the previous year) All the while, MP's are claiming for dog houses and holidays.

Before the last one, it's time for a quick-fire round.

• Education and the NHS are bracing for all-time-high cuts. There's also the risk of privatisation of the NHS, the closing down of beneficial education centres, and much more to look forward to!

• The average weekly wage for a professional football player is £50,000. The average UK doctor and hospital consultant is around £2,000 a week. Don't even get me started on nurses.

• Around 85,000 women and 12,000 men are raped in England and Wales alone every year - 11 rapes (of just adults) every. hour. And they're the ones that are reported. https://rapecrisis.org.uk/statistics.php. Again, don't get me started on the criminals who are let off to walk around scott-free and re-offend. 

• LGBTQ relationships are illegal in 74 countries. The vast majority of these they are punishable by prison or death.

• Brexit.

• Racism, homophobia and sexism are still things that are promoted in the mainstream media. 

• Donald Trump is president of the United States of America.

Speaking of Wiggy Stardust, that brings me to number...

6. There are literal children in literal cages that have been torn away from their families on the American borders. Donald Trump has given the thumbs up to 'housing' (if you can call it that) immigrant children like dogs and cattle, separated from their parents and siblings, in camps that hark back to the world's shameful history that we hoped would be left there, as history. It's abhorrent, but there's nothing we can do but tweet and protest, because in silence, you show support.