A world on fire: Apathy and the cost of caring

Stephen Price

A bright and brilliant friend of mine, who left Wales and its heavy personal toll of language and community loss in his west Wales village, often talks about his need to protect his mental health by tuning out of news from back home.

Leaving behind our dire economic prospects and a stagnant career for better pay and mental health in the southern hemisphere, he describes himself as choosing to ‘dance among the embers’ rather than keep fighting the inevitable.

And he’s not alone. For many of us, our once happy scrolls on the internet are too often interspersed with apocalyptic war scenes, environmental destruction, cruelty and more.

Funny reel; celeb goss; beheaded child.

A rant about the new Nolan film; another mountain on fire; an American trying an AMAZING donut from Wales for the first time.

Then we scroll some more.

And rewind the movie we weren’t watching to then overlook that pivotal scene again.

As someone who consumes news by the bucketload for work, rest and play, one world news report amid the senseless scroll caught me off guard last weekend.

The now infamous story of Wang Wang, a stray mother dog from Jieyang, Guangdong Province, China who was being fed by the local community.

I’d glanced at a few headlines and read a few paragraphs before this particular reel, but part of me knew that I didn’t want to – couldn’t – delve too deep and see the images for myself. An animal rights Instagram account I follow gave me no choice to skim read and then look away, however.

The clip, as I will never be able to forget, discussed the activist’s feelings of sadness and hopelessness as she talked about Wang Wang and her death – with Wang Wang’s torture playing out in the background.

She had been tortured and killed by four boys under the age of 14 who recorded the event on their phones for their sick fun.

Outrage. Scroll. Forget

Reports say the puppies were beaten and stabbed to death. The video showed Wang Wang covered with a flammable liquid and set on fire – prior to that, burying her head to try to escape. But with no mercy from the boys, she was mocked and her merciless torture continued.

Videos of the abuse were later spread online, causing outrage both inside China and around the world, and the case has quickly gone on to become a symbol of a wider debate about animal protection, with animal welfare organisations urging the Chinese authorities to strengthen legal protections for companion animals.

I watched the video while sat next to my own dogs, and I cried.

The images are some of the most horrifying I’ve seen, but they line up along countless others I face daily – from the meat industry more often than not – and have, mostly, refused to look away from.

Organisations like Asia for Animals and many more are doing all they can – and not giving up on hope, but sometimes it feels like the tide will never turn.

Until, perhaps, we remember the power of playing the long game, the victory in just helping one life, the impact of a planted seed.

A world on fire

Closer to home, as I write this, my windows are closed on one of the hottest days of the year, while smoke from Llangynidr and Cwmavon fills the air.

Social media is ablaze with reels showing horses running across smouldering black moorland, snakes, frogs and small mammals burnt to a crisp, and our beloved wild spaces up in smoke.

Only a few weeks ago, I wrote a piece condemning the new ‘trend’ of catapulting wild birds, but it seems matches make for a much more exciting and impactful dose of community self harm.

This year feels so much different to any that came before. Record breaking fires and temperatures witnessed across the whole of Europe, on our doorsteps, while the people in power continue to call for more consumption at any cost.

And where has our Government been?

No Senedd recall.

A phone alert three weeks too late.

A catastrophic dropping of the ball.

This summer is set to be the hottest on record 🥵

Wales must be prepared.

This is why our Plaid Cymru Government are taking bold action to support our farmers, communities and emergency services. pic.twitter.com/8dcdeaNmCG

— Plaid Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@Plaid_Cymru) August 13, 2026

We cannot go into 2027 as unarmed as we have been this year.

And as we watch on from the sidelines, wondering if our community will be next – our beloved walks and woodlands and wildlife up in smoke, our houses too – we all face the cost of caring.

The tragic cost and exhaustion of empathy, so sadly lacking in those in power with their inaction, wordplay and deflection and their pointed inactive fingers.

A personal cost

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.

There’s a cost to caring. A personal one.

But perhaps it’s isn’t too late.

If we all just take a moment to mend, I know I need one, and face the fact that dancing amid the embers just won’t do, we have to choose between our empathy becoming our downfall or our superpower.

Perhaps we can’t save every animal, find justice for every human, but where we can, we must try.

And always, alway, always speak out against injustice.

What is clear, though, is that leaving it all to us – the millions of us in Wales, and billions of us across the world – isn’t working.

This one is on our leaders and laughable law makers now – the buck stops at them.

The people we vote in – too often lobbied out of touch millionaires – must move away from more consumption at any and every cost.

And if they don’t, we vote them out. It’s as simple as that. Our future is in their hands.

We need to find the value in less, in community, in coming together again as one.

Because when smoke gets in our eyes, we have no choice but to keep on fighting.

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