Hope, joy, absurdity and marvel: there is so much more to our world story than loss

Amid environmental tragedy, a hidden world of curiosity and wonder still exists. And in this, says Natalie Kyriacou, we can find glimmers of hopeThe last great auk, it is said, was strangled unceremoniously in its sleep in 1844. Plump and penguin-like, the great auk had survived for hundreds of thousands of years until humans discovered the utility of its soft down feathers, eggs and meat. Great auks mate for life, and it was on Eldey island in Iceland where the final pair on Earth met their fate at the hands of three fishermen who fell upon them."I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him," said the man who killed the last of a species. Continue reading...