Cop26 in Glasgow, Scotland, has finally finished with delegates struggling to agree even their watered down resolutions. Promising to ‘phase down’ rather than ‘phase out’ coal hardly counts as a roaring success. But at least countries seem to be inching forwards rather than backwards, albeit too slowly.
Whilst we can all agree on the importance of addressing climate change – and doing so quickly, the detail of how to achieve it feels too complicated and contradictory for most of us to get to grips with. There is one bit of Cop26 however that may stick in people’s minds: when the prime ministers and heads of states were in Glasgow for the opening sessions, most were photographed in front of a dramatic art work called Gaia. The symbolism for showing they cared about the future of the planet was too good a photo-opportunity to miss.
But what is Gaia? Created by the UK artist Luke Jerram, Gaia is 7 meters in diameter, and is precisely 1.8 million times smaller than the earth. The globe is based on detailed NASA images of the earth’s structure and is intended to give mere mortals an opportunity to view the world exactly as an astronaut sees it from space.
From Glasgow, Gaia came straight to Coventry, currently UK City of Culture 2021. Here’s me, posing in front of it when it was installed in the ruins of the old Coventry cathedral last weekend. It would have been more dramatic if I had been able to get a ticket for later in the evening, when it would have been surrounded by darkness (just as the astronauts see planet earth). But by the time I knew about it, all the evening tickets had gone. It was still pretty impressive.
So why is the installation called Gaia? Gaia, sometimes written as Gaea, is the name given in ancient Greek mythology to the goddess of the earth. This formidable immortal gave birth to Uranus, the god of the heavens / sky. He subsequently fathered 12 Titans with his mother, Gaia. Among these was Oceanus – the god who physically represented the sea. Oceanus married a sister Titan, and fathered the river gods. Cronus, the youngest Titan, went on to castrate his father, Uranus, allegedly to separate heaven from earth; and ate his own babies to stop them fulfilling a prophecy of doing him in.
Gaia’s family seems truly dysfunctional – multiple acts of incest and infanticide, violent sexual assault, reckless over-breeding, poor parenting … With this level of familial chaos and discord among the immortals, is it any wonder we mere mortals can’t agree on how to save our planet?
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And Alex Still Has Acne – An adventure story for teens of all ages. £6.99, e-book £1.99. Free on Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alex-Still-Has-Acne/dp/B08LNFVRLY
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CAST OFF – short stories about Shakespeare’s women. £6.99, e-book £1.99. Free on Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08M8BKZKH
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Saving Grace.
What kind of trouble has Grace got herself into? And can Courtney save her before it is too late? £6.99, e-book £1.99. Free on Kindle Unlimited. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08P9LFG7N
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NEW!! A story set in 20th century Coventry for Coventry 2021
Silent Echoes: The Carters seem just like any other family. Apart from the life changing events nobody talks about. Will history just keep repeating itself? Ebook-£1.99, Print-£7.99.