Day 25 of Putin's war against the Ukraine. 

I've been struggling to put story stuff out there in the face of the war crimes being committed by Russian leaders against the Ukrainian people. But look at what President Zelensky is doing. He is using his media savvy and pulling all the storytelling registers to fight back. Stories can change and inspire people.

With that in mind, I offer you another talk by Kim Stanley Robinson . As a science-fiction writer, KSR offers tons of insights for understanding and ideas for solutions. This talk - apart a painfully prescient comment on Putin’s war against the Ukraine before it happened - is his best yet IMHO, really combining it all. Should be compulsory viewing for activists, politicians and corporate leaders.

Along the same lines of prescience and solutions, on the Outrage & Optimism podcast, Yuval Noah Harari talks about how 2% of global GDP can get us to the desperately necessary 1,5° goal. Two per cent… check that against the percentage spent on subsidies for fossil fuels or for military. I don’t pretend to know these numbers but I bet that combined, if not alone, they far exceed 2%.

Keep telling your climate and justice stories. We have an acute and a chronic crisis setting the planet on fire. We must fight them both.

I have not been keeping up this digest because in the face of the horrifying war Putin is waging in Ukraine, it felt futile. Empty. Distracting. And yet, it’s not like the climate emergency cares or stops.

The next instalment of the IPCC is out, the one UN General Secretary Antonio Guterrez calls ‘an atlas of human suffering' and - understandably - it’s not getting the attention it desperately needs. The Ukraine is a crime scene of unimaginable horror. So are Syria, Jemen, Sudan. Suffering from war and destruction, suffering from the consequences of climate change. We must keep all of it in mind, and do our best to fight all of it. So as you donate to Ukraine relief, don’t forget others.

I do want to offer two links this Sunday. One to this New Yorker Radio Hour conversation about what’s going on inside Russia plus an interview with Zelensky’s advisor on how he uses his entertainment savvy. The other, an Outrage & Optimism episode on the possible emergence of a new political order away from fossil duel dependency. Ignore William Hague’s grating lordly drawl and listen for the information - and David Milliband’s ideas are very clear and useful.

Don’t let the acute distract from the chronic. We desperately need to address both.

PS This week's image is from street artist My Dog Sighs. I copied it from Instagram and don't have the rights to use it but I'm thinking and hoping it's okay with them.

Three-weekly digest - my apologies. Life is busy.

My favourite over all three weeks: environmental journalist Andrew Revkin's video conversation with NatGeo photographer Paul Nicklen about diving with whales and saving the oceans, hope and reaching people through images and emotions. Even, and perhaps especially, people who do not see the climate crisis as an issue. Also, sign up for Paul's bulletin for some stunning nature photography and stories.

The Fix @Grist second annual short story contest, Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors. No entry fee. Focus on indigenous futurism - read the details (and last year’s stories) here. Deadline 5 May.

New favourite podcast: Guardians of the River. Amazing storytelling set along the Okanvango River in Angola, Namibia and Botswana; a kind of companion piece to the Nation Geographic film ‘Into the Okavango’ but also  much more than that.

In the making: a playbook for screenwriters to ‘inspire and empower working writers in Hollywood and around the country to write about the climate crisis.’ So - rather Hollywood-centred (not to say limited?) but should also be useful for non-US writers (and perhaps also beyond screenwriting). Sign up to be notified of its publication.