To the casual observer who is relatively objective and impartial, the Biodiversity Summit in Montreal, which ended today, appeared to signal a desire for meaningful changes to the ways in which nature is protected. Confusingly dubbed COP 15, it has been running behind the similarly convened climate summit, which is now in its twenty-seventh incarnation….

If you don’t already know, I am preternaturally interested in the independent archipelago republic of the Union des Comoros. The three constituent islands, Grand Comore, Anjouan and Moheli, lie in the Mozambique channel almost equidistant between Madagascar and the Kenyan coast. A little way off to the south is the island of Mayotte, a French…

The 20th century satirist, writer, and comedian, Spike Milligan, famously had something to say about everything, but he was particularly concerned about the state of the planet. A sincere enough soul, he was nevertheless prone to making naïve generalisations about a raft of environmental issues. He was inclined, rather quaintly, to repeatedly call upon ‘world…

The Fragmented World of the Mongoose Lemur is a book about a critically-endangered species; fractured ecosystems; and the global war on nature. It is a compelling story in which author Michael Stephen Clark reveals the fundamental paradox of the mongoose lemur’s natural history. The mongoose lemur Eulemur mongoz is native to NW Madagascar where it…

Is it possible to feel so overwhelmed by world events that a strange sort of inertia begins to take hold of your mind and body? Prior to the Brexit farrago, the Covid-19 emergency, and war in Ukraine, I wouldn’t have thought such a thing was possible. But not now. There is trouble every day without…