This issue is co-curated by my very smart and talented friend Kruti. She did most of the work, really.

“Hello! I’m Kruti. I’m very passionate about all things environment and work in the environmental sector too. Vishal’s let me help him curate this environment special for Kat’s Kable - some articles that I keep talking about with him, and I’m glad to share here! Feel free to get in touch via email.”

1. Elegy for the Arctic - Some lovely piano played by Ludovico Einaudi, on an iceberg, to start us off while we dive into this week’s articles. Talking about diving - Google Street view lets you dive underwater and explore our reefs and oceans!
   

2. Sometimes, a Whale Dies - Having a real life encounter with a dolphin or whale at sea can be pretty cool - but these magnificent creatures are most threatened by ships, which are responsible for over a third of whale deaths every year. This article is an incredibly fascinating and heartbreaking account of the author’s participation in the necropsy of a vessel-hit whale, and how it changed him forever.

   “While I appreciated the science that we were doing, and the improvements in policy and conservation practice it might lead to, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I just had a deeply moving, almost spiritual, experience.

   It was the same kind of feeling I would get when looking up at the arc of the Milky Way under dark skies, or a beautiful sunset over the ocean. It was magic. And, more importantly, it was a strong reminder that we all share a magnificent, beautiful planet, full of wonderous and amazing creatures — including these magnificent animals that we share a kinship to.
   

3. Beauty in Nature - When we gaze into a starry night sky, we become aware of our separateness from the material world. Why do we find the stars, the mountains, the ocean, all natural landscapes so awe-inspiring? A peek into the mind of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose essays on nature first expressed the concepts of transcendentalism.
   
4. How Tomorrow’s Parks Will be Different - The US Park Service has been doing things to make sure that National Parks stay as pristine as possible, such as setting off controlled fires and the reintroduction of various native species. Now, however, Parks are faced with much more. Their boundaries and climates are changing drastically, and it’s clear that many of the National Parks of today will not survive in the form that they are in currently. National Geographic being Rational Geographic.
5. Weapons of War Litter the Ocean Floor - Unlike the other rather picturesque pieces shared this week, this one is a little (litter) sinster. There are tons of (really, tons) chemicals at the bottom of the ocean, and they haven’t shown themselves to be terribly potent yet. However, this is yet another problem we’ve created for ourselves.
   
6. The Environmental Toll of a Netflix Binge - While we’re used to thinking of our environmental impact in terms of the trash we throw out, the water we use or the emissions from the vehicles we drive - who’d have thunk the weekly movie binge can cost our planet too? Guess that’s some incentive for not continuing my “five minute YouTube break” the next time.
   
7. Altered Oceans - Pulitzer-winning writing from 2006 by the LA Times. A five-piece long series, this has beautiful photographs and extremely in-depth reporting. Still not out-of-date.
   
8. The Case for Optimism on Climate Change - Moving on to some positivity, here’s Al Gore on why he’s hopeful our generation can make a difference in the times when it feels like climate news cannot get much worse than it already is. (Also, Trump says humans might have some link to climate change, I’d like to think that is a good start for a man who denied its existence throughout his campaign. And China clarifies publicly that it didn’t invent climate change.)
9. Climate Change is a Huge Opportunity - Bertrand Picard, pilot of the solar plane that circumvented the globe, Solar Impulse 2, talks about how humans need to embrace technology and use climate change as a platform to develop new ingenious technology. His plane has 97% efficiency, why can’t the rest of us strive to achieve that too?
   
   You cannot imagine how much resistance there is,” says a visibly dismayed Piccard. “They say: ‘Oh, we should not have more regulations. Oh, it will be too expensive. Oh, it will be too complicated. Oh, we don’t know how to do it.’ Look, we have all the solutions, they are profitable, just go for it. Be ambitious.”
   
   “People are blind in this world, they don’t see the potential of technology, they don’t see the potential of human beings, they don’t see how important it is to dream”
   
10. If you haven’t watched this already - here’s an incredible clip of a baby iguana being chased by snakes, from BBC’s Planet Earth II. My jaw was on the floor by the end of it - I don’t think many drama TV shows are as intense as this.

Hope you’ve liked reading this special issue. Have a great week ahead!