In 1963, an unexpected volcanic eruption off the coast of Iceland changed the shape of the world forever: It created the world’s youngest island, Surtsey, named after a giant in Norse mythology.

Yoga began in South Asia about 5,000 years ago. It has grown in popularity, especially in the US, India and China, and today, some 300 million people around the world practice yoga.

With the election of President Donald Trump, the United States began halting action on climate change and retreating to fossil fuels, leaving some to wonder if the transition from coal, oil, and gas to renewable energy is dead. The world’s focus shifted almost overnight from concern about the impacts of climate change to anxiety about the global economy as the US president launched trade wars around the world.

At dawn in the German-speaking Alps, the world begins in silence. The sky’s first pink breath brushes the knife-edge peaks, and the crisp air carries only the faint clang of distant cowbells. Then a voice rises, not loud but confident, its notes curling upward like smoke toward the ridgelines. Another voice answers. Soon two or three weave together, a trail-side chorus drifting through the valley.

Today, there are two kinds of existential cry resounding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a central African nation synonymous with ecological and mineral riches.