Long Ago, Here Today

Memories of youth are inevitably evoked by a Socratic walk in the countryside around the park.

The Shoe Tree

Converse, the American shoe company, sponsored a giant mural featuring the words “Create Together For Tomorrow” which decorates a building in front of the Politechnika metro station in Warsaw, Poland. The mural, designed by landscape architect Dawid Ryski in collaboration with muralist Maciek Polak, was painted with special photocatalytic, smog-eating varnishes which claim to have the same environmental effect as planting 780 trees. Photo: Good Looking Studio.

白鯨記 (Moby-Dick)

南通 (Nántōng), 江苏省 (Jiāngsū province), China: A 68-metre long image of a whale formed by plastic waste collected from the ocean during an event to raise awareness of pollution. Photo: AFP/Getty Images.

魔境夢遊：時光怪客 (Alice Through the Looking Glass)

An Air China passenger aircraft flying amid heavy smog over the suburb of 北京 (Běijīng), China, on January 2, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Jason Lee/File Photo.

答案在风中飘荡 (Blowin’ in the Wind)

Or maybe not. A Chinese government-backed study, published last month in the journal Global Change Biology, tracked the growth rates of six aspen trees in 北京 (Běijīng) between 2012 and 2015, when the city was shrouded in one of its densest ozone fogs. The scientists’s conclusions are astonishing: 北京 (Běijīng)’s air pollution helps its trees grow better, faster, and stronger.

北京 (Běijīng)-based artist 王智远 (Wáng Zhìyuǎn) created a 36 foot tall towering tornado sculpture – called “Thrown to the Wind” – from hundreds of plastic containers discarded as trash. Photo: inhabitat.com.

天气预报 (Weather forecasting)

China has already set a record for concentrations of lung-damaging ozone in June, rising 11 percent from the same month last year, but the Ministry of Ecology and Environment warned on Tuesday, July 17, that it expected ozone pollution to be particularly high in the region surrounding 北京 (Běijīng) over the next 10 days.

Buildings are seen amid smog on a polluted day in 北京 (Běijīng), China on April 2, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Stringer.

Moby Dick

Rome, Italy: A lifesize reproduction of two whales emerging from a sea filled with plastic waste has been erected in front of the Pantheon. Greenpeace hopes the installation will raise awareness about pollution in the Mediterranean. Photo: Simone Somekh/AP.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

2017 Photographic Competition “Capturing Ecology”. Up close and personal category winner: Roberto García-Roa. Anolis lizard changing skin. Photo: Roberto García-Roa/University of Valencia/British Ecological Society.

What it’s like to land on Mars

• 等停停 (Děng Tíngtíng), In China, the water you drink is as dangerous as the air you breathe, The Guardian, June 2, 2017

A rubbish-strewn beach in 安全村 (Ānquán village). China suffers from widespread water pollution after years of unbridled economic growth. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images.

Moby-Dick

Cavite, Philippines: A boy plays near a whale-shaped art installation made of plastic and trash made by Greenpeace. Photo: Erik de Castro/Reuters.

Starry Sky

Jesse “the Jessiah” Klaver celebrates Netherlands poll wins with pro-refugee message before possible coalition deal. [Read more].

• Jon Henley and Gordon Darroch, Populism can be stopped, says jubilant Dutch GreenLeft leader, The Guardian, March 16, 2017

Jesse Klaver with supporters in Amsterdam on Wednesday. His GreenLeft (GroenLinks) is now the biggest party of the left in the Netherlands. Photo: Francois Lenoir/Reuters.

Fate’s Left Hand

Party forecast to boost its MPs from four to 14 after storming campaign by young leader Jesse Klaver The big winner of Wednesday’s election – and now the largest party of the Dutch left for the first time – was GreenLeft, headed by 30-year-old Jesse Klaver, hailed by his enthusiastic supporters as the “Jessiah”. [Read more].

• Jon Henley, Dutch elections: big winner proves to be GreenLeft, The Guardian, March 16, 2017

GreenLeft (GroenLinks) leader Jesse Klaver meets members of the public in Amsterdam on Wednesday as voters went to the polls. Photo: Bas Czerwinski/EPA.

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle

Stefano Boeri, the architect famous for his plant-covered skyscrapers, has designs to create entire new green settlements in a nation plagued by dirty air. [Read more].

• Tom Phillips, “Forest cities”: the radical plan to save China from air pollution, The Guardian, February 17, 2017

南京 (Nánjīng) Green Towers, promoted by 南京 (Nánjīng) 扬子 (Yángzǐ) State-owned National Investment Group Co. Ltd, will be the first Vertical Forest built in Asia. Photo: Stefano Boeri Architetti.

Mitigation of windblown dusts

Tens of thousands of people attend mass protests in 大庆 (Dàqìng), 黑龙江省 (Hēilóngjiāng province), China. They’re demonstrating against the municipal administration for its project to build an aluminum factory in the city without any anti-pollution measures or restrictions.

Starting from thirty-one (Else why would we call it liberation war?)

Muhammad Ali holding up three fingers while reciting a poem predicting that opponent Charlie Powell will fall in the third round, 1963. Photo: Marvin Lichtner—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

Source: Italian Ministry of the Interior

I say yes, Lord

AL REFERENDUM DEL 17 APRILE VOTA SÌ
Greenpeace.org

Federazione Italiana Parchi e Riserve Naturali

Just Say Yes

AL REFERENDUM DEL 17 APRILE VOTA SÌ
Greenpeace.org

Federazione Italiana Parchi e Riserve Naturali

Say Yes to Time

AL REFERENDUM DEL 17 APRILE VOTA SÌ
Greenpeace.org

Federazione Italiana Parchi e Riserve Naturali

Say Yes to Love

AL REFERENDUM DEL 17 APRILE VOTA SÌ
Greenpeace.org

Federazione Italiana Parchi e Riserve Naturali

Damage Priority

• Damian Carrington, Climate change will blow a $2.5tn hole in global financial assets, study warns, April 4, 2016

A street in York, United Kingdom. Weather events triggered by climate change has a wide ranging impact on people, businesses and the wider economy. Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.