We can all agree that the past decade has been remarkable for the human race.

This was the era when mankind peered back to the dawn of the universe through the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, while also shaping its future by creating deep learning models capable of complex reasoning.

We pushed the boundaries of both space and sea. We landed the Perseverance rover on Mars and watched Ingenuity achieve the first powered flight on another planet. We cheered on as American Victor Vescovo descended nearly 11 kilometers to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on Earth, only to find that plastic debris had beaten him there.

It’s no secret, we’re the smartest creatures God put on planet Earth, but for a species capable of rewriting its own DNA and flying aircraft on another planet, we seem to be incredibly stupid, too.

For one, we’re determined to follow in the footsteps of the previous tenants, who dominated the planet’s ecosystems for 160 million years. It seems for the past century, despite unprecedented technological breakthroughs and medical advancements, mass extinction seems to be our most ambitious long-term goal.

From Mars rovers to melting glaciers, 2026 is proof we have the intelligence to solve the climate crisis and the will to ignore it

From Mars rovers to melting glaciers, 2026 is proof we have the intelligence to solve the climate crisis and the will to ignore it

Each political decision, every emissions milestone, every climate catastrophe and every “hottest year on record” isn’t just another metric but a small victory in a race we’re somehow determined to win.

What began as rising temperatures on a graph and was once “the greatest con........

© Dawn (Magazines)