I am 76 years old and retired from an academic career in Civil Engineering. My main interests are outdoor physical pursuits, walking and scrambling, although these are being eroded by Parkinson's Disease. Chess is a counterbalancing indoor interest, resurrected after a gap of several decades. As someone with a scientific background, I follow the news of climate change and other detrimental developments with anxiety and hope that mankind will not ultimately ruin the beautiful planet it inhabits.