Our energy infrastructure, in the so-called developed world, is largely inherited from the Industrial Revolution of the 1850s, with all the catastrophic climate changes caused by the resulting carbon-based pollution of land, sea and air. New initiatives must be welcomed like never before – for example, carbon-digesting flora and microbial ocean life are being developed; but only serious cuts in fossil fuel use will make the real difference.

At last renewable energy is now being seen at high levels as more viable. The former Governor of the Bank of England now calls for disinvestment from fossil fuels, and the CEO of BP has recently declared for a shift to renewables by investing huge sums in vast wind farms. Meanwhile the UK has been running its power needs increasingly from renewable wind, sea, solar and hydro power, generating 42 per cent of UK electricity needs last year. Until clean green energy options become more established as real economic alternatives, time continues to run out for the prospect of ever reversing the damage to life on Earth.