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Christina Gibson, Kyiv (2025)

30/04/2024

Paintings of namesake golden wheat sheaves on 19th-Century oak-panelled walls evoke the circular grain exchange opposite (today contemporary art gallery Bourse du Commerce) as well as the surrounding countryside from where farmers came to sell their produce at nearby Les Halles market (until the fresh food market was moved out of town to Rungis in 1971).

From 1880, hungry market workers filled up on terrine de campagne (a type of coarse pâté) with cornichons, bloody steaks and riz au lait (rice pudding) at the Épi d'Or. The short menu has changed little since. It also remains equally relaxed and exceedingly good value, despite having a double-starred Michelin chef (Jean-François Piège) as owner.

25/04/2024

Along with the glittering Eiffel Tower and burlesque Moulin Rouge, the Parisian bistro is one of the French capital's most timeless icons. It is also the most down to earth. Born from a need to feed city workers in the 19th Century, the bistro, or bistrot, is a vital hub of neighbourhood life and bedrock of traditional French cuisine. It's little wonder that restauranteurs are seeking Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage status for Paris' bistros and cafe terraces, a prized safeguard already bestowed on the French gastronomic meal (since 2010) and the baguette (2022).

18/04/2024

For King, strong leadership from the US and China is one of the most promising things he could see coming out of the COP28 climate summit.

"I believe it's critically important for the United States and China to first of all come forward with a strategy," says King.

King negotiated with the Chinese and US climate envoys in 2015, both of whom are still in post. The US and China recently released an agreement on climate action between the two countries.

10/04/2024

Overshooting 1.5C is "fast becoming inevitable", according to a report launched at COP28 by climate and social scientists.

The report, which aims to inform the leaders of the COP28 negotiations, says "minimising the magnitude and duration of overshoot is essential".

It's not just whether we go over the 1.5C threshold that matters, but how long we spend above that level of warming. The longer the world spends in overshoot, the greater the risk of passing crucial climate tipping points, and the greater the damage done to climate-vulnerable societies, ecosystems and economies.

To avoid overshoot completely, we would need to reduce emissions by 43% compared with levels in 2019.

19/03/2024

What are some promising signs of staying within 1.5C to look out for?

For King, strong leadership from the US and China is one of the most promising things he could see coming out of the COP28 climate summit.

"I believe it's critically important for the United States and China to first of all come forward with a strategy," says King.

King negotiated with the Chinese and US climate envoys in 2015, both of whom are still in post. The US and China recently released an agreement on climate action between the two countries.

05/03/2024

The 1.5C target was based on assessments of the impacts of climate change at different levels of warming. For instance, the IPCC report found that at this temperature, extreme heat is significantly less common and intense in many parts of the world than at 2C. And at the other extreme, the coldest nights at high latitudes warm by around 4.5C when the world is at an average of 1.5C warming. That figure is especially important for the future of sea ice in the polar regions. At 2C warming, the coldest nights warm by around 6C.

"Before the Paris Agreement there wasn't really a focus point for the world to aim for, to reduce the climate change process," says Pauline Dube, an environmental scientist at the University of Botswana, also a coordinating lead author on the IPCC's 1.5C report.

13/02/2024

Why 1.5C above "preindustrial levels"?
The main reason is that the industrial revolution was the time when Britain, followed by the rest of Europe, North America, Japan and other nations, began emitting large quantities of fossil carbon – carbon that would otherwise have remained locked up in oil, gas and coal deposits underground.

Industrialisation led to rapidly growing levels of greenhouse gases. These gases trap the energy from the Sun within the atmosphere, heating up the planet.

In the Paris Agreement itself, the baseline for pre-industrial measures wasn't defined. But the International Panel on Climate Change uses a baseline of 1850-1900. That's because it's the earliest period with reliable, near-global measurements. It's true that some warming from human activity had already occurred by that point, because the industrial revolution began in the early 1700s. But having good historical data for a reliable baseline is crucial to measure changes happening today.

26/01/2024

T
There was a lot of hope riding on Sudan, the last male northern white rhinoceros. He was labelled the "world's most eligible bachelor" by the dating app Tinder, the "most famous rhino" by various news outlets and a "gentle giant" by the armed guards who watched over him 24-hours-a-day. But Sudan's life carried the baggage of a species decimated by poaching.

In the Ol Pejeta conservancy at the foot of Mount Kenya, AFP photojournalist Tony Karumba captured a celebrated snapshot of Sudan on 5 December 2016, approximately 15 months before the rhino's death.

At the forefront of Karumba's image is the tender relationship between the humans at the conservancy and Sudan. The photo is iconic but not iconoclastic, exemplifying an ordinary moment of the all-too-late-yet-genuine care that northern white rhinos received from the species that decimated them. Once lost, gone forever, only to live in photos like Karumba's photo series.

09/01/2024

Still, the 75% of redwood lands in corporate hands are an impediment to healing half the forest. Even those certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council are never going to grow old. I asked Save the Redwoods CEO Sam Hodder what the league's strategy is to overcome this obstacle. "Be ready," he said, when willing sellers come along. Unfortunately, he added, the big redwood timber companies aren't willing because they're making too much money.

The timber companies weren't willing in 1968 either. They lobbied Congress to drop the park while cutting its ancient trees as fast as possible. A last-minute "legislative taking" amendment slipped into the bill by Senate staff was needed to immediately stop the logging. When companies are unwilling, that's what eminent domain is for. And while it's true that large industrial holdings are better for nature than a landscape of ranchettes with fences, driveways, and houses, it's also true that redwood companies already have real estate divisions with catchy names like getredwoodland.com selling off parcels.

26/12/2023

California and the country should bring back a redwood landscape, not just groves. Save the Redwoods League calls for the protection and restoration of 800,000 acres (3,237 sq km), representing half the remaining 1.6 million. They estimate that over 300,000 acres (1,214 sq km) are already in some sort of conservation status, so an additional 500,000 acres (2,023 sq km) need protection. We should do it. As experts noted in the respected scientific tome, The Redwood Forest, "Ultimately, only within intact ecosystems will the redwoods endure." Big, unbroken redwood forests, they explained, would be resilient to climate change; cover diverse habitats; and provide space for species with large ranges, like rare Pacific fisher and Humboldt marten. Large reserves also secure the headwaters of rivers where salmon will hopefully once again spawn in huge numbers, delivering crucial pulses of oceanic protein to the forest.

Big redwood trees hold carbon better than small ones because they have a higher proportion of rot-resistant heartwood. Big forests hold carbon better than small ones because their interiors are protected from wind and fire and stay connected to water sources. "If you drive down the Avenue of the Giants, you see almost every tree has a dead top," said Van Pelt, referring to the "beauty strip" of ancient redwoods, protected in the mid-20th century along 31 miles of Highway 101 to hide clearcuts from passing motorists.

24/11/2023

Redwoods store more aboveground carbon than any forest on Earth. Now, work is beginning to restore these forests that once stretched across coastal Northern California.

Only 5% of California's redwood forests have never been logged. An initiative to restore these forests is gaining momentum, aided by research showing that redwoods store more aboveground carbon than any forest on Earth.

Lyndon Johnson signed the bill that established the Redwood National Park in California 55 years ago. It was a long time coming, with proposals blocked in the 1920s, 30s and 40s by an industry that was beavering through the most valuable timberlands on the planet. When the National Park Service recommended a park again in 1964, bipartisan support in the Senate, a nod from President Johnson and, I believe, the trees' own power to inspire eventually got a deal through Congress.

The national park was not the first redwood park. Several small California state parks had been created decades earlier. But it was the first from which most of the old growth had already been removed. Created in two phases, in 1968 and 1978, 75% of our national park had been razed. Overall, the public owns over 100,000 acres (405 sq km) of injured, young forest on federal and state land. Land managers are trying to actively nurture some of them into new old growth. Tactics include one-time thinning of dense stands, prescribed fire, closing roads, dropping trees in streams to make salmon-friendly pools, ongoing selective logging to favour a few large trees, and just leaving the forests alone.

Restoration has drawn recent attention and picked up momentum with the launch of Redwoods Rising, an ambitious recovery program. Operations began in 2020 and have been gaining urgency, as the impacts of climate change have become a part of everyday life in the region, and a growing body of science has shown that old-growth redwoods store more aboveground carbon than any forest on Earth, up 2,600 tonnes per hectare (0.01 sq km). That's three to five times as much as even the oldest secondary forests. "The only vegetation that grows faster is sorghum and sugarcane," says University of Washington scientist Robert Van Pelt.

Christina Gibson

30/04/2024

25/04/2024

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10/04/2024

19/03/2024

05/03/2024

13/02/2024

26/01/2024

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