Mike Hembury

Almost a year to the day after the assault on the US Capitol Building by an insurgent right-wing Trump-supporting mob, prospects for the continuation of US democracy – such as it is – after the Biden administration are looking bleak in the extreme.

The 26th world climate summit (aka “Conference of the Parties”) COP26 has been and gone. In the runup, UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres set the bar for action high, by referring to the current crisis as “code red for humanity”, the moment when politicians of all stripes should finally recognize the severity of the climate catastrophe facing the planet and initiate measures commensurate to the threat. “The climate action struggle requires all hands on deck. It is everyone’s responsibility.

Writer and photographer Mike Hembury spent a week on an Inner Hebridean sailing trip as part of Sail Britain’s multidisciplinary Coastline Project. He recalls this small group’s ecological encounters and shares poems and photographs they inspired in him. 2,510 words: estimated reading time 10 minutes The West Coast of Scotland offers some of the most spectacular seascapes to be found anywhere in the British Isles.