Artefacts of a
Burning World

Opinionated collection of 55 articles, films, podcasts and other artefacts related to the climate crisis.

You are viewing 1–10 of 55 posts.
Artwork
Collage of examples where Matthew Hinders-Anderson’s fonts have been used.

Activists struggle with the high costs when designing the visual identity of protests, which often lack sufficient  funding. Matthew Hinders-Anderson took it upon himself` to create “good-looking, freely-distributable fonts” that could be used by any “activist, an[y] academic, or anyone just trying to make this world a better place”.

Another designer who cannot go unmentioned in this context is Tré Seals, whose typefaces are inspired by social justice movements, especially those within the Black community.


Website
Area chart of weekly atmospheric CO₂ at Mauna Loa, Hawaii
Almost all the variation from week to week is natural, probably a result of shifting wind patterns bringing different air parcels to the sampling site, such that it is highly unlikely that we can discern anthropogenic effects from week to week. The steady increase from year to year, however, is clearly driven by our global emissions.

Robbie Andrew’s area and line charts are updated weekly to include the current atmospheric CO₂ concentration at Mauna Loa in Hawaii, sea surface temperature anomalies, and the global average atmospheric CO₂ concentration.


Newsletter
Line chart showing China’s CO₂ emissions rising since 2017 until 2024.
The 22m tonnes of steel used to build new wind turbines and solar panels in 2024 would have been enough to build a Golden Gate Bridge on every working day of every week that year.
, Economist.com

China's expansion of solar and wind power is breathtaking, both in terms of scale and technological progress. In contrast to Trump’s USA, China’s CO₂ emissions have remained constant or even fallen over the last 18 months.
As a result, the West is losing its pioneering role and more and more countries are turning to China. Countries that in the past were assured “common but differentiated responsibilities” for climate change, but which are now making astonishing progress. In his newsletter post, Bill McRibben shows how India, Pakistan, Jordan, Brazil, India, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and Nepal are finding progressive and innovative climate solutions.


Photograph
A collage of two images of a couple standing in front of the Rhône Glacier.

In August 2009, Duncan Porter visited the Rhône Glacier in Wallis, Switzerland, and took a selfie with his wife in front of it. Fifteen years later, in August 2025, he returned and took another selfie with his wife in front of the glacier. The viral post shows the glacier’s staggering retreat.

Others who have documented the glacier's retreat include Christian Åslund of Greenpeace and Neill Drake.


Article
Ultimately, it is symptomatic of the larger injustice of the climate crisis, which is that the people who have done the least to cause it are the ones who will suffer the most from its impacts.
, New York Times

Cooled people “work mostly indoors, bathed in the soothing breeze of manufactured air.” Cooked people are those, who are delivery drivers, oil field workers, farmworkers, construction workers, …

In his opinion peace for The New York Times, Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, describes the divide between these two groups as “The New American Inequality: The Cooled vs. the Cooked.” However, this uneven suffering can certainly be extended to people outside the USA.




Article
A photograph of a person standing on top of a mountain of rubbish, as seen from below against the sky.
Nearly all of Gaza’s trees are gone — either through the Israeli aerial and ground campaigns, or because Palestinians were forced to chop them down for heating or cooking. That deforestation, together with military earthworks that have compacted the soil, is raising the risk of long-term desertification.
, UNEP.org

Through the analysis of satellite imagery and on-the-ground reporting, Bloomberg reports on the devastating situation in Gaza for its people and environment, and for any future life in and around the region. The article is a sweeping indictment of all the consequences: “In the towns and cities, collapsing buildings have left at least 55 million metric tons of rubble […] and released toxic dust and smoke into the air.” “[W]aste water flows through streets and farmland. That mixes with heavy metals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, which have leaked from unexploded ordnance and other war remnants.” “[D]rug-resistant pathogens emerge from the polluted soil and unsanitary conditions, and toxic chemicals spread on the wind, in water, by migrating wildlife and the movement of people and vehicles.” The consequences are not confined to the region, with “about 84,000 cubic meters of sewage […] ending up in the Mediterranean Sea each day in July [2025].”


Photograph
A photograph showing floating solar panels on a lake, with a thin strip of land in the center.

Movie
Film still showing a metal scallop dredge with shells and other organisms being towed over a lifeless seabed
If we save the sea, we save our world.

Unlike Attenborough’s other films, which mostly celebrate the wonders of life’s diversity, Ocean (2025, 1 h 35 min) focuses on the devastating destruction of our world’s vital marine ecosystems. The film rightly addresses the main problem: overfishing and the fishing industry’s destructive techniques. The film advocates marine protected areas (MPAs), fishing techniques that do not involve discarding three-quarters of the catch, and highlights the importance of the ocean in binding carbon dioxide.