Category Archives: environment

Return of the wild

While the Victorians have a lot to answer for in terms of their endless pushing for progress (among other things), at least they began to smell the extinction coffee long before their present ecological emergency and climate change-denying ‘Luddite’ descendants”

Questions for my readers: I need your help!

As this post-new year time of coming out of winter and heading into spring is usually a process of reflection and refining, I’d love some feedback from you on which topic(s) interest you most.

‘Blessed are they that mourn’: A very real calling in a time of climate crisis

Surely, at this time of climate and ecological emergency, the first place we as Christians should be is on our knees.

Porto-ohohoh!: Reflections on my recent salsa travels #2

Something about this arty, intriguing and deeply romantic city, with its air of failed colonial grandeur, has well and truly got into my veins

Un-Earthing meaning: Colin Caffell’s ‘Reflections on the Feminine – a visual essay’ at Penwith Gallery, Cornwall

It seems strangely fitting that artist Colin Caffell, who typically works with earthy materials (clay, bronze, wax, resin, wood) as a potter and sculptor (see his beautifully multi-hued seascape-theme ceramics below), should have chosen to highlight the very fragility of Mother Earth in his solo exhibition, ‘Reflections on the Feminine – a visual essay’ atContinue reading “Un-Earthing meaning: Colin Caffell’s ‘Reflections on the Feminine – a visual essay’ at Penwith Gallery, Cornwall”

Taking a Pulse on Climate: The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2022

In view of imminent annihilation if we continue our current trajectory towards 3°C of warming, what can art say? Considering 18th century romantic artists were already mourning the loss of an innocent, agrarian lifestyle by invoking classical pastoralism in their landscapes, is any time left for discussion as the Earth burns and everything in it dies?

The Long and Short of It

Dear friends and readers, Since I began this blog in January 2020, I’ve tended to publish mostly long-form articles on topics of interest or concern to me, as well as interviews with various salsa personalities, etc. As most of you probably don’t have time to read longer pieces, however ‘worthy’ they may be, I haveContinue reading “The Long and Short of It“

Grief Trilogy / A Grief Shared

For those feeling overwhelmed with personal or climate grief — or for those with a deep sense of solastalgia (loss of place), time out in nature is essential

Deforestation and Flooding

While forests could provide more than one-third of the total CO2 reductions required to keep global warming below 2°C through to 2030, mankind unbelievably continues to chop trees down at an unprecedented rate. In the relatively short period between 2001–2015, over 300 million hectares (nearly the size of India) of tree cover was lost. Such short-sighted behaviour is essentially suicidal – if we continue chopping trees as we are, we will be unable to survive.