As I write this blog post I’m watching out of the window of a cafe in Palangka Raya, a city on the island of Indonesian Borneo. Outside, a carnival with people in costumes has built up around the roundabout. The colours, throngs of people and bright sunshine are making me feel happy.

Indonesia is one of the countries predicted to be worst hit by the negative consequences of climate change, according to recent research.

In his landmark climate change film, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore tells a story that I vaguely remember, about a relative. The story goes roughly that his uncle used to be saddened that people so rarely realised or vocalised when they were actually happy. They never paused to recognise it. When he sat in the back yard drinking a glass of lemonade under the shade of the apple tree, his uncle would say “if this isn’t happiness, I don’t know what is”.

More than any of the climate change messages in the film, that story stayed with me. Let’s take time to realise what makes us most happy, and then let’s cherish it. And, if climate change might endanger it, in a direct or indirect way, then let’s work together to do something about climate change.