NB: This article was posted recently on social media under the title ‘The murder of a divine geography’; and was written by Amitabh Pande. His lines ring very true. Thanks are due to the writer. The video report below by Hridayesh Joshi is also a valuable piece of journalism: A sinking city: Fear and anger… Read More The sinking of Joshimath and the commercialisation of sacredness
SIMRIN SIRUR Joshimath: The land below their feet sinking, helpless residents of Joshimath town were gathered in front of the battered Malari Inn hotel for a second consecutive day of protests Wednesday. They were demanding “fair compensation” for being driven out of their homes and possibly the town itself. Tensions between the displaced residents on the one… Read More ‘Only place we’ve ever known’: As Joshimath crumbles, the displaced demand ‘fair compensation’
By Soutik Biswas and Raju Gusain Early in the morning of 2 January, Prakash Bhotiyal woke up to a “loud sound” in his house in Joshimath, a small Himalayan mountain town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. The 52-year-old tailor switched on the lights and surveyed his newly-built, double-storey house to find gaping cracks… Read More Joshimath: The trauma of living in India’s sinking Himalayan town
A United Nations-backed scientific panel has concluded that actions taken under the Montreal Protocol have successfully strengthened the Earth’s ozone layer, helping avoid global warming from 0.5 to 1 degrees Celsius by mid-century. The Montreal Protocol is an 1989 international treaty aimed at regulating the production and use of chemicals that contribute to the depletion… Read More Earth’s ozone layer on way to recovery, finds UN report, should mend by 2040
SACRAMENTO — Heavy rain continued to drench California on Tuesday as an ongoing parade of storms left much of the state in disarray, with power outages, collapsed roadways, mud and landslides, and treacherous floodwaters widespread across nearly the length of the state. Authorities have attributed at least 17 fatalities to the onslaught of storms that… Read More California storm: floods, tornado warnings as death toll climbs
A new field of psychology has begun to quantify an age-old intuition: Feeling awe is good for us. HENRY WISMAYER We were halfway down the Point Reyes peninsula when Dacher Keltner wandered off-trail. He stopped at an outcrop of granite boulders, where the ground fell away toward Driftwood Beach and the wide, open Pacific beyond.… Read More Finding Awe Amid Everyday Splendor
Flora Feltham on Mana The island where I live, Te Mana o Kupe o Aotearoa, sits half an hour off the coast of New Zealand’s north island. It has one house and a permanent human population of two: my husband, Pat, and me. In April, this will increase to three because we’re having a baby.… Read More One house, two people and some rare flightless birds: welcome to Mana Island
Max Porter As I lie down under a 2,000-year-old small-leaved lime coppice, I contemplate what is truly sacred This is me trying to have a sacred encounter with the 2,000-year-old small-leaved lime coppice at Westonbirt Arboretum. Because of my terrible hunched posture I’m always looking for an opportunity to lie down and alleviate the pain in my… Read More In an ancient forest, I look for peace, but instead I find Happy the puppy
Jonathan Watts For anyone who cares about the Amazon rainforest, there will be an extra reason to celebrate the new year countdown in Brazil on 31 December because the first stroke of midnight will mark the last moment in power of Jair Bolsonaro. The defeat of the ultra-right former army captain, who unleashed a wave of… Read More Seven reasons to be cheerful about the Amazon in 2023 – and three to be terrified
A summer of extreme heat and drought around the world has been a reminder that water scarcity is a pressing issue and one that will only get worse with climate change. Already, more than two billion people worldwide lack easy access to clean water, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). For some countries, desalination plants offer… Read More How sunlight could turn seawater into freshwater for coastal communities
