News Insights

The Mountain Has a Name: Nepal’s Rasuwa Flood Disaster, One Month On

The satellites have named the mountain — the same massif that destroyed Langtang village in 2015. K.J. Parker sorts a month of evidence into fact, inference, contested and speculation, states the Langtang hypothesis, and sets out how it could actually be tested

El Niño Explained: 2026 Impact & the Future Prognosis

Ocean temperatures hit a record 21.1°C in August, out of season. El Niño, climate change and what the hottest sea ever measured means for 2027

Latest Posts

Accra: The Metabolism of Health and Heat

Accra: The Metabolism of Health and Heat - Green Cities /* Base Editorial Styles */ :root { --text-main: #333333; --text-light: #555555; ...

Adelaide, Australia: Water-Wise Greening in a Drying South

Adelaide is the driest capital city in the driest inhabited continent on Earth, and it has known this about itself for long enough to have developed some genuinely instructive responses. Its investment in recycled water infrastructure, its early and serious engagement with urban heat as a public health emergency, and its stewardship of one of the great metropolitan parkland systems in the Southern Hemisphere all represent hard-won lessons rather than inherited advantages. Whether those lessons are being applied at the speed and scale that a warming Mediterranean climate demands is a more complicated question — and one the city is still in the process of honestly answering

Our Planet

Epitaph for the Christmas Island Shrew

News in brief — 10 October 2025 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)...

Southeast Asia: Biodiversity Under Siege

Southeast Asia’s forests face collapse from deforestation, palm oil, and climate change—urgent action could still save this biodiversity hotspot.

50% Conservation by 2050: A Survival Pact for BRICS and Australia

Few doubt that as a species we are at a crossroads. We can carry...

Featured

Why the World Is Burning: The 2026 Wildfire Crisis Explained

Inside the 2026 wildfire crisis across Europe and Canada — the climate and land-use causes, the human and ecological cost, and what actually works.

World Environment Day 2026: Climate Action – Why It’s Still So Hard — and What Works

Clean energy is booming, yet emissions keep breaking records. A clear-eyed 2026 look at climate action—what's working, what's failing, and what it will take.

Science & Future

Meditation & Mindfulness

The Tender Gravity of Kindness: An Ancient Virtue and Its Modern Science

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, the poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing....

The Architecture of Inner Peace: Building a Sustainable Meditation Practice

Introduction: The Radical Act of Stillness In an age defined by perpetual connectivity and information overload, the search for silence has become a radical act....

One Minute Zen Meditation Technique: Unlocking Calm by Counting to Five

In our fast-paced, demanding world, the idea that a profound sense of peace can be found by simply sitting and breathing can seem almost...

Forest Bathing: The Ancient Japanese Practice of Shinrin-yoku

I have studied Shinrin-yoku and picked-up a Diploma in the practice along the way, so a modality close to my heart. Being in nature...

Deepak Chopra: The Transformation of Wellness

The work and insights of Deepak Chopra have influenced my life and work and I am grateful for his contribution to human evolutionary promise....

Blessings to All Beings: A Loving Kindness Meditation Practice

1. Preparation: Find a quiet space where you won't be disturbed. Sit comfortably on a cushion, chair, or floor with your spine straight. Close your eyes gently...

The Unfolding Lotus: A Scholarly Inquiry into the Classical and Extended Chakra Systems

Introduction: Mapping the Subtle Body Within the vast landscape of Eastern philosophies, few concepts have captured the modern imagination as profoundly as the chakra system....

Books by Kevin J Parker

Recent Posts

Accra: The Metabolism of Health and Heat

Accra: The Metabolism of Health and Heat - Green Cities ...

Adelaide, Australia: Water-Wise Greening in a Drying South

Adelaide is the driest capital city in the driest inhabited continent on Earth, and it has known this about itself for long enough to have developed some genuinely instructive responses. Its investment in recycled water infrastructure, its early and serious engagement with urban heat as a public health emergency, and its stewardship of one of the great metropolitan parkland systems in the Southern Hemisphere all represent hard-won lessons rather than inherited advantages. Whether those lessons are being applied at the speed and scale that a warming Mediterranean climate demands is a more complicated question — and one the city is still in the process of honestly answering

The Trainable Heart: Buddhism and the Discipline of Kindness

Buddhism treats kindness as something you practise rather than something that visits you. On mettā as a trainable skill, Buddhaghosa's near enemies, and what happens when the most developed doctrine of loving-kindness in the world is set beside its own record

The Mountain Has a Name: Nepal’s Rasuwa Flood Disaster, One Month On

The satellites have named the mountain — the same massif that destroyed Langtang village in 2015. K.J. Parker sorts a month of evidence into fact, inference, contested and speculation, states the Langtang hypothesis, and sets out how it could actually be tested

Melbourne, Australia: The Liveable City Under Heat Stress

Melbourne's liveability rankings measure the compact, tram-served inner city. They do not measure Tarneit on a 45-degree day. On 27 January 2026 the western suburbs ran three degrees hotter than the centre — and that gap, not the weather, is the story of a world-class urban forest, a sprawling metropolis, falling reservoirs and two cities under one name.

The Law of Laws: Theosophy and the Backbone of Kindness

"Is kindness merely a feeling, or is it a load-bearing structure for society? Kevin J Parker, author of 'The Backbone of Kindness: Restoring Our Oldest Virtue', explores the profound intersection of Theosophy and modern ethics, examining how compassion functions as the 'Law of laws' and the essential backbone of human arrangements."

The Reality of Global Warming

Explore the empirical reality of global warming right now. Uncover accelerating ocean heat, temperature overshoot pathways, and critical planetary tipping points.

Stonehenge: The Machine, the Landscape and the Making of a World

Hawkins's computer was too literal. But his instinct — that Stonehenge handled information — survives every test the sixty years since have thrown at it. An investigation through stone provenance, isotopes, ancient DNA and landscape archaeology, ending with a named, testable hypothesis: the Gathering Engine.

Smart City: The Word Finds an Owner

Cities ran sewers and traffic computers long before anyone sold them the word. Around 2008 “smart” acquired an owner. Four product cities show what it cost.

El Niño Explained: 2026 Impact & the Future Prognosis

Ocean temperatures hit a record 21.1°C in August, out of season. El Niño, climate change and what the hottest sea ever measured means for 2027

The Divine Within: Why I Keep Circling the Idea That the Sacred Is an Inside Job

The divine within: a personal reflection on Jung, mysticism, meditation and prayer, and why I still cannot decide whether the sacred is an inside job.

Commissioning Curiousity: Retraining the Our Social Media Echo Chamber to Serve Up Variety

Retraining Spotify revealed how AI recommendation algorithms narrow us — and why commissioning curiosity, not searching, is the literacy of the age.

The Compass and the Cosmos: Sacred Geometry

Sacred geometry, examined: the real history behind the ten forms, what nature actually does, and what physics has found in the shape of the universe.

The Greening of Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Riyadh is planting 7.5m trees and running a new metro against an Expo 2030 deadline. A look at the water, heat and money behind the desert city's greening

Ocean Plastic Pollution: Is the Tide Finally Turning?

Ocean plastic pollution is falling: 39% less on Australian coasts. The data, the clean-up technology and the policies proving change is possible

The Backbone of Kindness: Rekindling Our Oldest Virtue in Troubled Times

Kindness is not niceness. Kevin J. Parker argues it is civilisation's load-bearing structure—the backbone on which coexistence depends

The Digital Deva: The Future Relationship of Humans with Artificial Intelligence

As regular readers of this blog know I have an abiding interest in Artificial Intelligence, and, in particular, it's potential to develop proto-consciousness, or,...

Why the World Is Burning: The 2026 Wildfire Crisis Explained

Inside the 2026 wildfire crisis across Europe and Canada — the climate and land-use causes, the human and ecological cost, and what actually works.

Large Language Model Update August 2026- The Defenders Dilemma as Hugging Face Gets Cracked

An AI sandbox breach exposed a new risk: powerful agents can turn tools and permissions into action, leaving guardrail-bound defenders at a disadvantage.

Milan, Italy: Can Trees Cool a Dense European City?

Green Cities Series | Article 17 For a decade, the Lombard capital has captured...

Cape Town and the Watershed of Resilience: A Metropolitan Study of Post-Drought Transformation

GREEN CITIES SERIES | ARTICLE 15 The atmospheric tension in Cape Town during the austral summer of 2017–2018 was characterized by a distinct psychological phenomena...

Why Mexico City is Sinking: The Environmental History of a Modern Water Crisis

Mexico City faces sinking and water crises due to drained lakes and urban growth. Explore the environmental challenges and solutions shaping its future

Evolve

Green Cities

Vienna – Green Social Housing as Climate Policy

GREEN CITIES SERIES  |  ARTICLE 3 For a century, Vienna has built...

Singapore: Engineered Nature in a Tropical City-State

GREEN CITIES SERIES  |  ARTICLE 4 Singapore has spent sixty years turning...

The Sapphire Empire: A Chronicle of Britain’s Blue Belt and the Resurrection of the Wild

Introduction: The Map and the Territory The ocean is a memory. It remembers the iron taste of the harpoon and the heavy drag of the...

Western European Wilderness Lost: Rewilding the Tamed Lands

1. Historical Baseline Pre-1750 Wilderness Extent The aurochs' last bellow echoed through Poland's Jaktorów Forest in 1627, marking Europe's first recorded megafaunal extinction.¹ This wild...

Marine Wilderness: The Blue Heart of Earth

Marine wilderness is vanishing fast—climate, overfishing, pollution, and mining threaten ocean life. Indigenous wisdom and bold protection offer hope.

Take a Deep Dive

Adelaide, Australia: Water-Wise Greening in a Drying South

Adelaide is the driest capital city in the driest inhabited continent on Earth, and it has known this about itself for long enough to have developed some genuinely instructive responses. Its investment in recycled water infrastructure, its early and serious engagement with urban heat as a public health emergency, and its stewardship of one of the great metropolitan parkland systems in the Southern Hemisphere all represent hard-won lessons rather than inherited advantages. Whether those lessons are being applied at the speed and scale that a warming Mediterranean climate demands is a more complicated question — and one the city is still in the process of honestly answering

Why Mexico City is Sinking: The Environmental History of a Modern Water Crisis

Mexico City faces sinking and water crises due to drained lakes and urban growth. Explore the environmental challenges and solutions shaping its future

The Poles: Arctic and Antarctic Wilderness

Earth’s poles—vast, fragile, warming fast—anchor global climate. Indigenous wisdom, science, and cooperation are key to preserving these icy wildernesses.

Middle East Wilderness: Desert Wisdom and Scarcity

1. Historical Baseline Pre-1750 Wilderness Extent The Arabian oryx paused at the crest of a sand dune, its white coat reflecting the scorching sun that would...

Psychopomps: Navigators of the Soul

Introduction: The Universal Guide Across the vast and varied tapestry of human culture, few figures are as persistent or as profound as the psychopomp. This...

The State of Global Fish Populations: Crisis and Conservation in the World’s Waters

The Ocean's Vanishing Wealth The world's fish populations stand at a critical juncture, caught between ecological collapse and conservation hope. With 37.7% of assessed marine...

Consider

Seoul, and the Return of Water

GREEN CITY SERIES| ARTICLE 11 How...

Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change: The Twin Existential Threats

A Review of ICAN Australia's Groundbreaking Report The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Australia has released a compelling briefing paper that illuminates the profound interconnections between nuclear weapons...

Reading the Book of Nature: The Alchemical Medicine of Paracelsus

Introduction: The Luther of Medicine In the tumultuous heart of the European Renaissance, a period of profound upheaval in art, religion, and politics, there strode a figure as brilliant, contradictory,...

One Minute Zen Meditation Technique: Unlocking Calm by Counting to Five

In our fast-paced, demanding world, the idea that a profound sense of peace can be found by simply sitting and breathing can seem almost too good to be true....