A Conference of Parties ... at least of those with little or no interest in Climate Change

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

D-Day … and all that followed

My first post for some time, but I felt a driving force compelled me to put it here … 

 In the light of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day (tomorrow) You might be interested in this quite brief and very readable article that puts perspective on some political and economic history that resulted from the Second World War. Admittedly, it is written by an American under her generic title “Letters from an American”, but I have been following her epistles and think, considering her natural bias, she does have an even hand in her research, observations and writing. There will always be alternative interpretations of the so called Marshall Plan, but each of us to our own.

And under the current government, we got Brexit that countered all the international economic cooperation and development that was aimed initially at avoiding in Europe at least, another 1930’s Great Depression in consequence of WW2. Later it avoided war in Europe, because countries that trade with each other are much less likely to go to war with each other. The purpose of Brexit was, of course, to divide and conquer. We now know it divided us into two camps. On the one hand those with their prejudices and anxieties; on the other, those with at least a modicum of ability to read beneath the headlines and a capability for critical thinking, and a perspective on history. The benefit to the US now, more than ever, is obviously the power of the multinational corporates that have a foothold in Europe and elsewhere (and their own and other centres of government). Nothing new there. The political motive is clearer now, 80 years on, as it is for World Leaders’ desire for economic strength and electoral votes.

The social, economic and political interdependence of all the countries and continents of our great big wonderful Earth is, perhaps, not so clear … but it should be.

QED