Back in the 1880s, the mathematician and theologian Edwin Abbott tried to help us better understand our world by describing a very different one he called Flatland. Imagine a world that is not a sphere moving through space like our own planet, but more like a vast sheet of paper inhabited by conscious, flat geometric shapes. These shape-people can move forwards and backwards, and they can turn left and right. But they have no sense of up or down. The very idea of a tree, or a well, or a mountain makes no sense to them because they lack the…

February 08, 2017 The Hague Mr Mike Pence Vice President of the United States Number One Observatory Circle Washington, District of Columbia 20008 The United States of America Dear Mr Vice President, Because you are a heartbeat away from the Presidency, the letter I addressed to President Trump dated 26 January 2017, a copy of which you received on 30 January 2017, is also meant for you. Is the Israeli-Palestinian Quest to Co-exist worth World War III? Will the people of the world ever hear a US President declare: “Mr Prime Minister, tear down those walls”. Which outcome, Mr Pence, would…

For 75 years, the peoples of the Middle East watched the United States exercise the kind of immense political influence that can only be undergirded by military might and economic prosperity. There were military coups to be thwarted or supported, strongmen to be courted, contained, or removed. The U.S. influenced the political trajectories and orientations of countries from Iran in the east to Libya in the west. U.S. influence shaped the outcomes of wars from the Suez Crisis in 1956 to the October War of 1973. The U.S was engaged intermittently in peacemaking missions between Arabs and Israelis but also…

Humanity’s transgression of ecological limits has caused widespread damage, including a climate emergency, catastrophic loss of biodiversity, and extensive degradation of soils around the world. Earth abuse is also at the root of the Covid-19 pandemic and the grim likelihood that new pathogens will continue to emerge from other animal species to infect humans. Cultivation, deforestation, mining, livestock raising, and other activities degrade and destroy wildlife habitat, leaving animals no choice but to move closer to humans, potentially bringing pathogens along with them. Suburban sprawl and tourism (especially “eco-tourism”) also bring humans and wildlife closer together. Hunting involves the most…

Last week, the CDC acknowledged what many of us have been saying for almost nine months about cleaning surfaces to prevent transmission by touch of the coronavirus: It’s pure hygiene theater. “Based on available epidemiological data and studies of environmental transmission factors,” the CDC concluded, “surface transmission is not the main route by which SARS-CoV-2 spreads, and the risk is considered to be low.” In other words: You can put away the bleach, cancel your recurring Amazon subscription for disinfectant wipes, and stop punishing every square inch of classroom floor, restaurant table, and train seat with high-tech antimicrobial blasts. COVID-19 is airborne: It…