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After a very productive couple of days with HP in Zurich, Charmian (Love) and I headed off to the airport this evening, albeit in some trepidation because we had heard a fair number of flights to London were being cancelled. After a fair old wait, my flight to Heathrow was cancelled, but hers seems to have gone through. So I’m holed up in Room 333 (half the Number of the Beast), hoping for Heathrow to drag itself into the 21st century. But have made a good deal of progress with idea for the next book, which is encouraging.

Many years ago, I wrote an article for Jain Spirit magazine that explained the religious roots of my early conversion to environmentalism. A philosophical collision in the mid-1950s with a Mother Superior in Limavady, Northern Ireland, when I was 6 or 7, derailed any belief I may have had in monotheism. Mother Superior said I was either a pagan or a pantheist, but even my ill-developed mind knew it sure as hell wasn’t destined to take the Catholic path.

That said, and given the reality that is the Catholic Church, it’s encouraging that Pope Benedict used yesterday’s New Year address to underline the need for environmental responsibility – and to change their lifestyles to save the planet. But I wonder whether he has – or his cardinals have – been introduced to what I see as the single most fundamental equation in the sustainability field: I = P x A x T?

The logic here is that the environmental impact of an individual, community, corporation or economy is a function of population numbers times the prevailing levels of affluence/lifestyles times the level of technology used to sustain those lifestyles across that population. Perhaps its time for the Vatican to launch an internal environmental literacy program? Perhaps Daniel Goleman’s book Ecological Intelligence could be laid alongside all those Bibles?

In a world headed towards 9-10 billion people, if you believe the demographers, how long will it be before the Vatican finally bites the bullet and accepts the need for population control? Until it does, pious calls for lifestyle changes are unlikely to move the needle very much. How long before we are lucky enough to see a truly ‘unreasonable’ Pope in St Peter’s Square?

Julia Hailes sent me a link this morning to the CSR International survey of leaders in the field of corporate social responsibility, in which I appear in fourth place tied with Muhammad Yunus, and behind Al Gore, Barack Obama and Anita Roddick. If I learned anything from statistics courses 40 years back, it was how easy it is to use them to provide a distorted lens on the world – but it’s a wonderful start to the New Year to find that, at least in 2009, I was in such august company.

Golden pheasant 1 Golden pheasant 2

I have no idea what the Chinese are dubbing 2010, in terms of animal symbolism, but for me it begins as the Year of the Golden Pheasant. As Elaine and I walked around Kew Gardens today, in glorious afternoon sunshine, a golden pheasant walked straight across to us, bold as brass, and looked us in the eye. Unbelievably beautiful.

Recent days have been restful, though yesterday we went to the EARTH Exhibition at the Royal Academy. Some 10-12 years ago, I began to develop an exhibition of environmental campaign posters, many of the posters still stacked upstairs, and I devised the logo EARTH, which has now popped up for this exhibition. Scratch that idea.

A few other photographs from recent days follow:

Richmond Park skyline Anish Kapoor shows balls at Royal Academy My shadow and I in Kew Gardens Coot chase Green Man bench Fountain

A crystal clear Moon is moving upwards, left to right, across the night sky – seen through the glass roof of our kitchen. Last night, it was a Blue Moon, which I needed to have explained to me again. Elaine and I watched the Moon through the binoculars a few moments ago, marvelling at the sheer number of impact craters. An indication of what a hell the Earth must have been in its early days. I recall seeing a huge circular impact crater somewhere as I flew east across Europe many years ago – and another in the south-west of the USA.