73 Comments
User's avatar
Mary's avatar

you just painted my broken heart

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

🤍 what a beautiful comment, Mary. Thank you. It seems many of us are walking around with breaking hearts these days.

Expand full comment
Holly Starley's avatar

Yes, Mary. This.

Expand full comment
jared mulhair's avatar

your gift for turning science into story, into poetry, is just awesome to watch, my friend. another wondrous meditation that somehow also exists as a call to action!

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

🤍 thank you jared!! that means a lot coming from a poetic maestro!

Expand full comment
Christine Agro's avatar

What a beautiful read in the early morning quiet. I'm going to become a paid subscriber and I hope others do to. We are accustomed to paying for news and supporting journalists. We need to get accustomed to supporting those that inform us in different ways, and who heal us with words. I hope you already have 1000s of paid subscribers, and I am just one more but if not, I hope people read this and join me. 💜

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Oh thank you so much - your support is hugely appreciated! I hope you continue to enjoy these weekly essays x

Expand full comment
Varun Jyothykumar's avatar

There is something terrible but grounding about the fact that we may wither away, birds will wither away, all life will wither away but what will remain, is the plastic.

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

I agree. I first wrote about this in 'come to the cliffs' and I couldn't get the image out of my mind, so I'm not surprised it cropped up again here. There is something so awful about it.

Expand full comment
morgan grace's avatar

Microplastics in every bird lung… how that doesn’t break the heart of every human is beyond me… such an important, urgent message told w such tenderness, as always. X

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Thank you Morgan! Over the moon to see you back here 🌙

Expand full comment
morgan grace's avatar

oh!!! that makes my little heart squeeze x

Expand full comment
Sarah Moorcroft's avatar

Your words once again describe my experiences in ways that I can't hope to manage. This week I have been listening to a podcast of one mans ascent of Everest, and I remembered the geese that fly overhead, gleaned from beloved David Attenborough no doubt. And yesterday I rewatched a video about a marine waste project, describing the journey of shotgun pellets from a shop in Nova Scotia to the beaches of Skye (we are embarking on the survey project here very soon). There is a humbling connection, a network, of people that care so deeply, and I am delighted to reach out and connect with them. I am fascinated to learn of the wonders of bird respiration, and despondent about the plastic, and ignorance. As so often, nature captivates and humans destroy with no realisation of their destruction, or worse perhaps no care.

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Oh so many parallels! It is always a balm to know a kindred spirit - even if remotely. What is the survey you'll be doing? I've just been working on one using MCS methodology.

I do, sadly, think a lot people don't care about the destruction of the natural world, but I think a big part of that is they simply don't know what they are actually losing. Education and exposure to wild places is so key... and yet the latter especially is becoming harder and harder to do...

Expand full comment
Sarah Moorcroft's avatar

so true. The marine litter project is working with Dr Tom Stanton from Loughborough University. He followed up on a 50 year project in Skye, and is coming to Kintyre’s more inaccessible beaches very soon, which is fabulous. Grid squares at the ready! Video link here in case you are interested? https://youtu.be/6G4LVAEn1s0?si=G_f152DEtUkhY-wN

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

That was fascinating Sarah, thank you for sharing! Orkney has many of the same issues, especially regarding aquaculture waste. We are also using drones up here. Hope your work on the project goes well!

Expand full comment
Marcy Norman's avatar

This is a poignant and beautifully written piece. "A bird body is a body laced with sky." You paint a vivid picture with your words. Bravo!

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Thanks so much, Marcy!

Expand full comment
Doula Dreams & Screams's avatar

I goggled this up with my morning cup of tea, loving every word. But it's the last phrase, the dystopia is in the details, that will stay with me today as I make my epic drive from the tip of Cornwall back home to North Norfolk.

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Have a safe and smooth drive home!

Expand full comment
Doula Dreams & Screams's avatar

I gobbled this up with my morning cup of tea, loving every word. But it's the last phrase, the dystopia is in the details, that will stay with me today as I make my epic drive from the tip of Cornwall back home to North Norfolk.

Expand full comment
morgan grace's avatar

“The dystopia is in the details”… so beautifully put x

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

🤍

Expand full comment
Natasha Khan's avatar

Our pale blue dot, how precious it is. Loved reading your post, thank you Rebecca

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

I'm so glad, Natasha, thank you for commenting!

Expand full comment
Karla Marie Sweet's avatar

Adored this piece & have added it to this month's issue of Remarkable Reads: https://karlamariesweet.substack.com/p/remarkable-reads-issue-1 xx

Expand full comment
Leslie Quigless's avatar

Ambition, optimism/delusion, laziness: a trifecta that amounts to a refusal to look. To really actually look.

Expand full comment
Dave Mead's avatar

I learn so much from your beautiful writing Rebecca and this is no exception. One thing I did know about was the overview effect, I had read about it before but have never really understood why it would be necessary to go to space to experience it. I completely get it without the need for space travel and struggle to understand why others don’t. Thank you as always 🙏

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Thank you Dave, I'm so glad you enjoyed this and yes - it seems a little mysterious to me, too - I suppose for those a little less connected to the natural world, a huge shift in perspective (literally) might be needed to cause that spiritual shift. But I really don't think it is the only way to learn this lesson!

Expand full comment
Chris Waltz's avatar

This is beautiful and wild. I remember reading something a long time ago about geese migrating over the Himalayas, how this has been going on so long (since before the mountains became such a formidable obstacle) that it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that mountains and migrating birds have co-evolved, the birds’ capacity for high altitude migration increasing as the mountains pushed farther into the sky. I suppose I might have dreamt this wild tidbit, but then again it all sometimes seems like a crazy dream, windpipe airsacs, respiratory bones, breathing wings and all.

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Oh wow!!! What an incredible theory. There's such poetry in that. And yes, so much about our world is like a wonderful fever dream when we really look - so it would not surprise me at all to learn this is true!

Expand full comment
Melanie Bettinelli's avatar

The way you move so effortlessly between scientific description of bird lungs to poetic descriptions of birds as bodies laced with sky! From joyful wonder at flying geese to searing lament over microplastics.... your writing is a balm to the soul. And heartbreaking. And rage-inducing.

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Thank you for this lovely comment, Melanie 🤍 I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

Expand full comment
Sarah Cahalan's avatar

I love your writing and realized I should go ahead and pay for it :)

I share your interests in coastal habitats, the marvels of life on this planet, the ethics of being a decent person while we are here. Thanks for the reminders that there are many gentle, smart souls out there who want to take care of one another.

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

Thank you Sarah, your support is so appreciated! I'm so glad you've been enjoying these essays and hope you continue to 🤍

Expand full comment
Ash Kilback's avatar

Rebecca,

You have such a gift for weaving the threads that make our world into a beautiful web of poetry. I breathe slower and find myself coming back to that still center within me as I listen to you read, thank you 💛

Expand full comment
rebecca hooper's avatar

🤍 this is so lovely to read. Thank you, Ash.

Expand full comment