The Planet newsletter's first anniversary

Looking back and forward, please share your suggestions for the second year.

One of the travel pictures that I shared on Earth Day

Today, it was one year ago that I sent out the very first "The Planet" newsletter. It was a new idea, but based on a long-time wish to write more than tweets and find more readers than the handful who discovered my blog.

I would like to thank all readers, especially those who are so kind to support my writing. It is my job, and this only works when enough of you are willing to make this possible. Some of you have been with me since we started this full circle around the sun 365 days ago. I hope you enjoyed it too; I believe we made quite a journey together.

For tonight, I want to look back, forward and get your feedback on what you like to read. So let's start with my very first newsletter, where I set out what my plans were; I will share some quotes from that first newsletter, give some comments, and share some flash-backs. I wrote a year ago:

"For a newsletter named 'The Planet,' you may expect me to write about some of the most significant challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, water, food, energy, and related problems that we have to face on this rapidly changing planet. There is a lot of confusion about these issues, and part of that confusion is fabricated by those who prefer to keep us ignorant of the existential threats that we should urgently solve.

I will update you on the news and write about the background stories, the available solutions, and why politicians (whatever their political background) don't always choose the most logical path out of this mess. Then, when you lose hope, I will tell you that it is not too late to take meaningful action; we can still avoid the worst-case scenarios. But when you forget about the urgency, I will share stories to remind you that we have no time to lose."

I started the first days with articles about climate change, like the one about trawlers and airplanes or one of the government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, which proves the point that politicians don't always choose the most logical path out of this mess. 

"The challenges of our time are very diverse but are often more connected than you would have expected. So I will share a wide-angle view, and we will follow the connections from one issue to the other."

I suppose that you will recognize that, for instance, in this recent article on the compounding crises of the pandemic, climate change, and Ukraine.

"I will share positive stories about local initiatives, showing what you can do, and talk about technological innovation. Still, we won't get anywhere without significantly raising the ambition at the national and international levels. We live in an exciting time of opportunities; building back better, the U.S. is back on board for climate action, and the critical COP26 will take place in Glasgow in November."

Remember the one about what you can do to restore nature? Or the ones on COP26, like this one?

And what else?

Under this heading, I continued:

"These threats and opportunities are what motivated me to start this newsletter. I have worked most of my life on environmental and security issues, and I have seen how these have become increasingly intertwined into planetary security challenges. 

But if we only look at our planet through the lens of climate change and the loss of nature, we miss an essential part of the story. We often admire anything fragile; we see its beauty and want to protect it. It is also a way of looking at our planet: delicate, beautiful, and in need of protection. I have increasingly changed my focus from the threats to our world to what is at stake. Nowadays, I focus more on the beauty of wildlife, forests, or oceans in my public speaking. Remembering what we risk losing motivates us to preserve all this for the next generation."

A few days after starting the newsletter, I wrote about "waking up while listening to birds singing." And I can add that I am eagerly awaiting that moment again these days. Unfortunately, the mornings are still quiet, and there are still piles of snow outside. But likely, it will only be a matter of days until I can hear the birds singing again. I will keep you informed. I also wrote about cicadas or combined the damage done by climate change with the beauty of nature in this article about earlier blossoming flowers in a warmer world. 

And then I continued my first newsletter with:

"I mentioned the threats and solutions, mixed with reminders of our planet's beauty. Still, that is not enough to tell the whole story. The stories of our times on this planet will mostly be about us. We live in the Anthropocene, the new geologic epoch that is all about our impact on this planet. Therefore I will also focus on us. Not just the burning of fossil fuels, but about all kinds of aspects that are part of the story of who we are at this point in history. My writing about history, archeology, travel, science, or art will often relate to the core planetary challenges. I share, for instance, examples of art about climate change in a separate Twitter account called @artforourplanet."

My writing last summer falls mainly into this third category. You may remember the nearly fifty posts I wrote about the island in the Netherlands, where I wrote about its history, nature, culture, and architecture. For instance, just before I left, I wrote about trying to see something beautiful every day. 

You can read the full text of that first newsletter here. I wrote hundreds of newsletters, and you can find all of them back in the archive. 

Starting the second year of The Planet newsletter

But let's now look forward: what shall I write about in the second year? I always listen to your guidance. I have always done that on Twitter, and I have done it in the past year as well, and I hope to hear back from many of you. My plan is to continue on this path that I followed, with a few changes (but please steer me in the right direction). Which means:

• Not following the advice given to me by Substack: “focussing on one specific issue and writing each week on the same day(s)”. Instead, expect a wide variety of subjects, and I will write whenever I have something to share. I committed last year to a minimum of one hundred posts; I wrote hundreds. I promise the same minimum for this year. 

• So, unless you convince me otherwise, I plan to write about a variety in subjects between the three groups of posts that I mentioned: the threats to our existence on this planet (that includes Ukraine, the pandemic, climate change, or biodiversity loss), appreciating the beauty of nature, and this third broad category that you may sum up as 'anything interesting' that includes science, history, news, travel, art, or just storytelling. 

  

  Luna is also “appreciating the beauty of nature”

• I plan to continue The Planet podcasts, like the one I made today with Alister Doyle (as we do every Thursday at 3 p.m. ET). You can listen to that one here. Every Monday at 11 a.m. ET, there is the Green Living Podcast with Vanessa Champion; this is the one from last Monday. 

• A long summer period (say May-September) with mostly lighter stories, like the island stories of last year. I plan for a lot of travel in Europe, and I plan to share my journeys in photos and stories. Expect islands, landscapes, nature, long walks, history, architecture, and the stories of my travels. 

• Since more people signed up in the summer when I wrote about the island and my travel in Europe, I hope that the travel posts will be appreciated again. And I also noticed fewer people subscribe when I write about developments like the war in Ukraine. I know it is not easy to read. Nor is it for me to write, but I feel that I can't ignore it either. I will continue to find a balance. 

What do you prefer to read?

Which brings me to my main reason for writing (the second main reason, the first was a big thank you for your continued support): what do you prefer to read? Please let me know your preferences, suggestions for topics or new approaches, or anything you would like to share. 

The easiest way is to reply to this email; it ends in my regular Gmail inbox. Or you can also give a comment via the "comment button"; the difference is that these are visible for all subscribers, while replying is a standard email. 

Thanks, everyone, for your support, encouragement, suggestions, and comments. I'm looking forward to the second year of writing The Planet.

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I write these newsletters because I believe that together we can do better on this beautiful but fragile planet.

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The back page:

Earlier this week: an evening in Montreal