Born at the right time

25 Mar, 2026

I was sipping my coffee on board Capsula, enjoying a rare moment of sunshine in the Orkneys, when this headline caught my eye: Trump Administration Readies Plans to Dismantle Renowned Science Lab (1). Basically, the Trump administration is thinking about breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the world’s leading climate and weather laboratories. Their rationale? In a social media post in December, Russell Vought, the White House budget director, called the Colorado center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”

Sure, no need to alarm anyone. We just recorded the 11 hottest years on record (2) and the climate is changing faster than predicted (3).

These headlines fuel my despair about our environmental impact, from climate change to loss of biodiversity. Whatever individual effort we make – sorting plastic, avoiding flying, eating sustainably caught fish, and the like – feels like peeing in a violin. The plastic we carefully sort is hardly recycled; most of it ends up incinerated or dumped in landfill (4). Oil and gas facilities keep leaking methane at massive rates, sometimes equivalent to tens of thousands of cars (5)(6). And let’s be honest, sustainable fish is rarely that sustainable (7).

The change needs to happen at a large scale, led by governments. But it won’t. The consequences are already here, plain to see. And still, we do nothing. We won’t act until we have no other choice.

I am ashamed to admit it, but my only comfort is that I will not be here to see it. For the first time, I am happy to have been born all those years ago, at least I have seen and enjoyed how beautiful our planet is, still.

#english #environment #thoughts