I climb Mt Everest and eat kale so you can be a couch potato.

It's okay. You can all relax. Because some worthy souls work in animal rescue homes, the rest of us don't have to worry about anyone else pulling the legs off kittens or flushing goldfish down the loo. We're not stupid - we know those things still go on. But we also know that good things are being done on the other side of the bad-things-in-life scale, so it's kind of like turning the volume down so the nasty noise isn't as disturbing.

That is like wheeling your baby's pushchair ahead of you out into the heavy traffic.

We get this all the time (not the pushchair analogy - bear with me here). Example: I feel better about climate change because I know you are fighting the battle. You can't stop your work on saving the planet - the world needs people like you.

Meanwhile, the people who say this carry on with their jobs, their every day lives, changing nothing (sure, maybe going flexitarian or saying 'no' to plastic bags - well done), feeling better about their planetary lethargy because 'people like us' are in the front line. Push that baby out into the traffic. The delivery truck barrelling down the street won't harm you: you've got a nice little buffer there to take the blow.

Here's an uncomfortable truth: people like us are getting scarred, crippled, and broken, while everyone else sits watching David Attenborough box-sets. Depression, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies are all familiar friends to climate activists - and yet you feel better knowing we're in the front line? Aww, thanks.

So here's some advice: if you give a shit about the planet, get out there and join us in the front line. Don't stand behind us waving banners. That's no good to us. Stand alongside and be prepared to sacrifice your physical and mental health. Feel better about the world that way.