Jay Owens

The Thames may be cleaner than when it was declared biologically dead in 1957, but other rivers are close to ecological collapse, suffocated by algae, fungi and weeds that bloom in the run-off from industrial farming. On 1 June, Natalie Bennett, a former leader of the Green Party, waded into this slurry with the first reading of a private member’s bill in the House of Lords. The Nature’s Rights Bill calls for Nature (capitalised) to be recognised in law as ‘a legal subject and rights-bearing entity’. 

We ask a lot of some very small fish. Single species are relied on to save entire ecosystems.

Last month, Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) broke ground on the Hell’s Kitchen Lithium and Power project, an integrated geothermal power plant and lithium production facility on the coast of the Salton Sea in Imperial County, Southern California. It should produce enough lithium to make six million car batteries a year, powered by renewable energy and promising near-zero carbon emissions.