麻豆社

Pascale Harter introduces insights from writers from around the world - reflecting on how people and the planet might recover after the many challenges of 2022.

After the destruction inflicted during the conflict in May 2021, hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace might seem low, or at least on hold. Tom Bateman met one young female artist in Gaza City who's determined to hold on to her own aspirations. And she's found one way to express them: in giant, temporary artworks raised in sand. Rama al-Ramlawi says it's one of the few materials available in abundance to her.

In Fiji, Megha Mohan visits an entire village which had to move entirely - to escape the ravages of extreme weather events linked to climate change. The community of old Tukuraki was first crushed by a landslide after heavy rains, and then the survivors were driven out by cyclones. Now there is a new Tukuraki, rebuilt not far off in a safer site. But on an island with a special word for the spiritual connection between people and their birthplaces, can the 'transplanted' villagers really feel at home - and how long can they feel safe?

The devastating wildfires of summer 2021 burned huge swathes of forest - and some of the world's oldest, largest trees - in California. Justin Rowlatt revisits some of the burnt-out groves in Sequoia National Park, to find a landscape of ashy grey just beginning to sprout with new life. Giant redwoods evolved to cope with regular, naturally-occurring fires, and survived them in the past. But today's blazes are fiercer, and the conditions more threatening.

And Marnie Chesterton investigates the human tendency to optimism - in the company of a base jumper who's beaten the lethal odds and made over 8,000 jumps without dying, and a neuroscientist working on how (and why) natural selection might have favoured people who tend to look on the bright side of life.

(Image: A fern growing out of burned soil. Credit: allg)