From the editor

Cop26 is being flagged as a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change – our last chance to avoid catastrophe. Burning fossil fuels has long been said to cause global warming. Events have shown the impacts can be more complex than this sounds: more devastating, more immediate and more wide ranging.

Naturally we hope that in Glasgow countries will together commit to actions that will control climate change. The challenge is enormous, but this is about even more than climate and its effects on lives and ecologies. Measures to cut emissions have many other benefits, from cleaner air and quieter streets to a world where energy is generated locally rather than controlled by a few nations.

Such measures also affect our past. On the one hand, rising seas, floods, storms and droughts irreversibly damage remains that are the only record of our long early history. On the other, solving the climate crisis will ensure the survival not just of humanity, but of the story of how an intelligent form of life came to dominate a planet. In the meantime, responding to the threats creates new interest in sites and histories.

Cop26 looks to the skies. But it also concerns what lies under our feet.