“Into the eyes of nature
Into the arms of God”

— Swans, The Eyes of Nature (Love of Life, 1992)

There was an article a few days ago in The Guardian newspaper about how many scientists are experiencing grief in their working life, as they are face-to-face with the growing environmental impact of humanity on the planet.  Shrinking glaciers, dead coral reefs and tiny islands of remaining populations of plant and animal species are just some of the issues they are having to confront and with that comes a profound sense of grief.

As one marine biologist put it:

“I’d just recruited a PhD student to study fish behaviour, and between the time of recruiting him and getting out for the first field season, the Great Barrier Reef died – 80% of the corals where we work were gone, and most of the fish that lived there also moved on. I told him in the interview that his visit was going to be this most wonderful experience, and it was just a tragic graveyard of historic coral reef life.”

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