has it that a certain Mary Shelley decided that the dark atmosphere and incessant rain of June 1816 was worthy of a horror story: Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Doesn t this story showing how Man s excessive self-belief can cause him to cross fundamental boundaries and lose control of his own creation seem curiously familiar?

Of Frankenstein and Prometheus

In 2015, the two hundredth anniversary of one of the most significant climate events of all time has gone strangely unnoticed. On 5 April 1815, the Tambora volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa erupted. Tsunamis reached islands hundreds of kilometres away, before the effects of the catastrophe were felt on every continent.

In Europe and the United States, farmers called 1816 the year with no summer. From South-East Asia to the northern hemisphere, the climate became erratic: summer snow, endless rain and unprec- edented colours at sunset that could well have inspired the extraordinary hues of Turner s twilight paintings Legend even

Since the first industrial revolution, Man has shattered the fundamental balance of the planet and its ecosystem.

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Volcan Tambora, Indonésie I Mount Tambora Volcano, Indonesia

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