Earth Day 2026: climate change and academic notes

Greetings from Earth Day 2026. The holiday was first celebrated fifty-six years ago, back in 1970. I wanted to share some general thoughts at the global level, then some reflections on what this might mean for the academy. First, a vision of the Earth from the Artemis II mission earlier this month: From NASA: “Artemis II Captures the Terminator Line art002e000190 (April 2, 2026) – A view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft’s four windows after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026.” Does that give you a touch of the overview effect? Right now, it seems that the state of the Earth system and humanity within it is, at best, mixed, or rather learning towards dangerously bad. Overall, we’ve crossed 7 of 9 of Rockström’s planetary boundaries. To pick one of the lot, ocean acidification is getting worse with no signs of slowing down. Climate change is worsening via just about every measure. For example,…