Roof garden

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: Earth Day 2020 and Climate Action

By Alan J. Hesse / April 22, 2020

Earth Day 2020 is being widely and rightly celebrated around the world as I type. This is good, this is great! But its not nearly enough. One could argue that ‘Earth Day‘ is redundant, for the simple reason that every day should be Earth Day. In the same way that every day should be Mother’s Day or Children’s Day.  If what we…

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Clare Shakya

A conversation with Clare Shakya

By Alan J. Hesse / April 20, 2020

I was lucky to have a chat with Clare Shakya for an interview as part of my research for my next comic book, the sequel to The Adventures of Polo the Bear: a Story of Climate Change.  Clare is the director of the Climate Change research group at the International Institute of Environment and Development…

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homeschooling resources for parents

Fables of the Amazon book excerpt: Why poo-loving dung beetles are important

By Alan J. Hesse / April 16, 2020

Dung beetles just love the stuff, they do. And its actually quite important, even for you and me! The mysterious reason why is explored in my very first comic book, co authored with Louise Emmons: Fables of the Amazon: Fun Lessons in Ecology. This funny comic book is one of several homeschooling resources for parents…

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shark

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: the vast ocean

By Alan J. Hesse / April 9, 2020

Humanity is in unprecedented global lockdown and kids are bored at home. What a great time to awaken their curiosity about the natural world! This excerpt from The Adventures of Polo the Bear, a fun educational resource for kids, is all about the ocean and its wild inhabitants. Because of global lockdown, the world suddenly…

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doom and gloom

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: Doom and gloom is not cool

By Alan J. Hesse / April 3, 2020

Whether its for COVID19 or the underlying climate crisis, naysaying, denial and despair are not the way to go. Coronavirus will pass, climate change will not. Some of the effects of global warming we will have to learn to live with. By rallying to the cause, by embracing the challenge and switching small things we…

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Coronavirus blog

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: Coronavirus is temporary, climate change is not

By Alan J. Hesse / March 27, 2020

It is vital that society at large does not forget the real emergency humanity is facing. COVID19 is but one more symptom of an already collapsing world. The solutions to arrest global warming and mass extinction DO EXIST, and I for one am very optimistic. But for them to work, everyone needs to get engaged,…

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Bangladesh

Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: the floating vegetable gardens of Bangladesh

By Alan J. Hesse / March 19, 2020

We are living a period of critical, immediate crisis superimposed on a far longer period of escalating, gradual crisis. Coronavirus is paralyzing human activities across a world that is already critically ill from human-induced climate change. I believe humanity is threatening its very survival; this may be the ultimate test, the final battle. Of course…

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Behind the scenes with Captain Polo: Polo in the land of contrasts

By Alan J. Hesse / March 11, 2020

Polo learns about climate change in India – at the same time a powerhouse of both fossil fuels and renewable sources of clean energy.

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Polo in Ecuador: the giant sponge effect!

By Polo Bear / March 10, 2020

Dear followers,Welcome to Ecuador! I’m here visiting my biographer, Alan Hesse, the author of the comic book I star in. Today we’re visiting the Antisana volcano, which has the biggest glacier in Ecuador and is 5,790 metres high: that’s more than 5 times higher than Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Britain! The day of my visit to Antisana the…

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Water makes electricity in Malawi

By Polo Bear / March 10, 2020

Dear followers, I’ve just come back from Malawi in southern Africa!  I visited people living in villages in the south of Malawi, near the town of Mulanje. These villages have electricity thanks to a project by Practical Action and a local non-profit company called MEGA.  Thanks to this project, people are lighting up their homes, powering schools and energising businesses. …

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