Humanity's moment: 'How can we find meaning in a world that is at once both heaven and hell?'

Facing the reality of climate change forces us to grapple with a range of complex emotions, and rigid logic will only get us so farIn the final days of 2021, I visit one of my favourite places not far from home: the Nightcap national park in northern New South Wales, where all the things worth fighting for are on spectacular display. Two years earlier, the usually wet subtropical rainforests of Terania Creek were impossibly ablaze. Although the nearby ridgetops were burnt, the lush gorge containing Protesters Falls - named after the iconic forest blockades that gave birth to Australia's environmental movement - were mercifully spared. Although these superb rain­forests were saved from loggers by the local community in the late 1970s, some 40 years later, their survival is now threatened by worsening heat, drought and fire. But, for now, a second wet summer in a row has brought relief. I take a slow, deep breath and feel my molecules rearrang­ing. The air is different here; its crisp density tingles in my lungs. The sound of the rushing creek beckons me to stop, to listen. So I do, pausing long enough for this primal communion to restore me. Continue reading...