One year ago I posted my personal and very brief review of COP28 over on My Poetry Library (https://poetjanstie.com/2023/12/22/a-conference-of-sparrows/). In this I was, for a moment inspired and enchanted by a flock of sparrows in their usual struggle for life in a hedge in our garden. The recording, at its ending, goes silent, leaving me with a moment of melancholy. The ending of this years COP29, provided me with another moment of disappointment of perhaps even greater magnitude. Whilst the conclusion of COP28 at least made a reference to the most important purpose of this annual meeting of the world's nations, COP29 made no mention of 'the transition away from fossil fuels'. Of course COP29 was, for the second year running held in and hosted by so-called Petro-States. What better endorsement of the commitment by world leaders to the transition away from the largest contributor to their imminently irreversible destruction of the environment that supports human life worldwide.
Then I discovered an inspired answer to the problem, at least the problem of being constantly battered by news of death and destruction of humanity (by humanity), of wildlife and of the natural world (by humanity's constant quest for supremacy), leaving us in a continual state of pessimism. Rather than bury your heads in the challenges and travails of your everyday life, try to find a moment to read this book. It is titled "Future Vision'. Written by Dr Cathy Rogers, and illustrated by Madeleine Rogers, it is clearly aimed at all those things that represent the vision and ambitions of both these women.
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Authors' biographies ...
Dr. Cathy Rogers is a science writer and researcher. Her career began in TVcreating and producing science programmes, including the Emmy-nominated Junkyard Wars(US) / Scrapheap Challenge(UK). Following a PhD in Educational Neuroscience, exploring how creativity works in the brain, she has written a book for teachers about how brains work. She speaks and writes on a range of subjects.
Madeleine Rogers' background is in illustration, graphic and product design. Recently graduated with an MA in Sustainable Design, her practice is focussed on communicating wonder for the natural world to young audiences. She has authored and illustrated a series of books celebrating wildlife, which have been translated into several languages.
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I thoroughly recommend this book to you all, which is a vision of life viewed through young eyes in the year 2070. Whatever your age will be (or not be) by then, just imagine the possibilities for your children, grandchildren and beyond that could be brought about by the immensely powerful creative imagination that is inherent in the human condition, that brought us to the point in time where we can carry a computer in our hand, travelling to the moon and enabled our immunity to diseases that killed swathes of our ancestors and the application of science and engineering, most if not all of which is already deemed possible by science and harnessing the will of all of us to solving the World's greatest challenges.
Happy reading.
☺2024 John Anstie
