Contemplations – 15
I'm incurably curious about many aspects of this journey of ours. Here are a few noteworthy items I've stumbled across that I'm making a note of so I can revisit them from time to time.
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Appetizers:
"Many of the actions by which men have become rich are far more harmful to the community than the obscure crimes of poor men, yet they go unpunished because they do not interfere with the existing order."
– Bertrand Russell, Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism, published by George Allen & Urwin, London, 1918.
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 20th, 1937.
2026
A glimmer of climate action hope
Photo by Markus Spiske⩘ , Pexels.
Frustrated by the UN COP Climate Change Conferences that have been hijacked by fossil fuel lobbyists leaving them mostly meaningless, nearly 60 countries came together in Santa Marta, Colombia for an independent meeting and agreed to "back voluntary roadmaps to wean world off coal, oil and gas".
The approach marks a departure from the annual UN climate negotiations, which have run for more than three decades even as greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise.…
Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia's environment minister and chair of the talks, said: "We decided not to resign ourselves to an economy built on the destruction of life. We decided that the transition away from fossil fuels could no longer remain a slogan but must become a concrete, political and collective endeavour"
'Historic breakthrough': Colombia climate talks end with hopes raised for fossil fuel phaseout⩘ by Fiona Harvey and Jonathan Watts in Santa Marta, The Guardian, Apr 28, 2026.
What a gift this life is
I've seen so many versions of the recent photos of the Earth setting behind the moon taken recently by the astronauts as they were circling the moon. They were cropped in various ways, but all of the ones I saw shared one thing: they were cropped so that the Earth was the most significant element of the photo.
Then I came across a version that I think shares a more realistic perspective: A New View of the Moon⩘ .
The events of our world can feel so overwhelming, a head spinning cacophony of chaotic drama: political upheaval, hatred expressed in so many different ways, wars, the disruption of AI, climate change….
Then I look at a photo like this and I get a glimpse of a totally different perspective. Here we are on this little planet floating in the vastness of our solar system, which is rotating within our enormous galaxy with its billions of stars, which is just a tiny dot within the almost inconceivable vastness of our universe with its trillions of galaxies.
What a gift this life is. How I wish we treated it with gratitude and reverence, and with the humbleness that our position in our vast universe warrants.
A New View of the Moon⩘ , image credit: NASA, art002e009287, April 6, 2026.
See also: Perspective: Our home in this wondrous universe⩘ .
The Spanish Dancer Galaxy
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble⩘ & NASA⩘ , D. Calzetti⩘ & the LEGUS⩘ Team⩘ , R. Chandar⩘
Time to take a deep, calming breath and for a few moments look upwards away from our tiny home on this planet besieged by so many human-caused calamities, and to behold the near infinite grace of our immense home. If only we could learn to dance more in harmony with our universe.
NGC 1566: The Spanish Dancer Galaxy⩘ , Astronomy Picture of the Day, Mar 16, 2026.
Sacred bridge
Woodblock print of Sacred bridge by Yoshida Hiroshi, 1937
As our world gets crazier and crazier, I sometimes find moments of solace contemplating serene works of Japanese art like this woodblock print, Sacred bridge by Yoshida Hiroshi, 1937.
Meeting the climate challenge with collective action
Photo by Pixabay via Pexels⩘
A bit of hopeful news in our challenging current environment.
A Nobel laureate's environmentally friendly invention that provides clean water if central supplies are knocked out by a hurricane or drought, could be a life saver for vulnerable islands, its founder says.
The invention, by the chemist Prof Omar Yaghi, uses a type of science called reticular chemistry to create molecularly engineered materials, which can extract moisture from the air and harvest water even in arid and desert conditions.
Professor Yaghi was inspired by his own challenging childhood:
Yaghi, who grew up in a refugee community in Jordan, said he was inspired by the hardships he endured in a home with no running water or electricity. Giving his Nobel prize banquet speech, he recalled water arriving to his desert community from the government once every week or two.
"I remember the whisper through our neighbourhood, 'the water is coming', and the urgency as I rushed to fill every container I could find before the flow stopped."
Professor Yaghi challenges us to meet the moment with collective action:
Describing the invention as "a science capable of reimagining matter" he urged leaders to "remove barriers, protect academic freedom" and "welcome global talent".
"On climate, the hour for collective action has already arrived. The science is here. What we need now is courage – courage scaled to the enormity of the task – so we may gift the next generation not only carbon capture, but a planet worthy of their hopes," he said.
'Reimagining matter': Nobel laureate invents machine that harvests water from dry air⩘ by Natricia Duncan, Caribbean correspondent, The Guardian.
Enduring the climate of tomorrow
Photo by Blake Sharp-Wiggins, The Guardian.
Environment and climate correspondent Graham Readfearn visited the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of Sydney and shares his experience of walking in an environment that simulates extreme heat in shade and direct sun, as well as at high levels of humidity. It's frightening, it's already happening in our world, and it's going to get worse in our future, and far worse in the future of our children.
Around the world, global heating is already giving us more frequent heatwaves, and when we get them they are lasting longer and bringing more heat.
As burning fossil fuels adds more and more heat to the planet, climate scientists know these trends will get ever more deadly.
According to the medical journal the Lancet, heat extremes caused an estimated 546,000 deaths every year between 2012 and 2021 – a 63% rise on rates seen in the 1990s.
We are sleep walking our way into a devastating future. Wake up!
Extreme heat lab: Enduring the climate of tomorrow⩘ by Graham Readfearn, The Guardian, Feb 20, 2026.
Related video: The unbearable experience of walking in a heatwave of the future⩘ .
A winter moment of calm
Yuki no Kinkakuji (Kinkakuji in Snow) by Hasui Kawase, 1922
My experience of life these days is often overwhelmed by the chaos of politics, the suffering of civilians subjected to brutal wars, the pain of immigrants being rounded up and deported in a heartlessly cruel fashion, and the deterioration of our climate that so often now results in horrible storms and destruction (last night I barely slept as fierce wind gusts slammed into our home again and again).
In moments like this, I'm so grateful when I come across something like this woodblock print, Yuki no Kinkakuji (Kinkakuji in Snow) by Hasui Kawase, 1922. I can sit quietly, take slow breaths, allow myself to be drawn deeply into the calm the image exudes, and at least partially recharge my energy.
Swearing an oath to our constitution
United States Constitution with its preamble "We the People"
Government of the United States of America
Photo⩘ by Joseph Sohm⩘ ; licensed via Shutterstock
I admire the leadership of retired Maj Gen Paul Eaton who is speaking up in defense of our constitution and against the ongoing effort to politicize our armed forces.
Maj Gen Paul Eaton has sounded the alarm, saying in an interview with the Guardian that the effort to bend the higher echelons of the military to the US president's will was unparalleled in recent history and could have long-term dire consequences. He warned that both the reputation and efficiency of the world's most powerful fighting force was in the balance.
"There is an active effort to politicise the armed forces," Eaton said. "Once you infect the body, the cure may be very difficult and painful for presidents downstream."
I'm hoping that many people, both military and civilians, listen to his message.
Trump push to politicize US military 'reminiscent of Stalin', top general warns⩘ by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, Jan 5, 2025.
