Earth Day 2022

Earth Day is the point each year where we can take stock and measure just how much closer we are to irreversible climate catastrophe. The outlook isn’t great. But properly understanding the biggest issues facing us is the first step to doing something about it. So in this week’s bumper edition we look at…

50 years of the Gaia hypothesis
In 1972, Scottish chemist and inventor James Lovelock published a theory emphasised the symbiotic relationship people have with planet. The problem is, over the last few decades that self-regulating system has been knocked out of whack by human activity. But perhaps we can re-establish balance.

The invisible extinction
Our understanding of the natural world has always been reliant on the ecologists and hobbyists who record it. But as well as the species at risk of extinction, the number of nature surveyors is also in decline. We travel to a bog in Yorkshire to find out why preserving biodiversity is crucial.

Plus four easy ways you can boost biodiversity, the celebrated nature writer Robert Macfarlane explains why language is the key to understanding our environment, we look at the rise in forest schools and how gangs of guerrilla gardeners are reclaiming patches of unloved land and turning it into wildlife havens.

Also inside:

• A diary of a foodbank manager, interview with a robot and more news, views and miscellany in The Dispatch

• Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park songwriter Jimmy Webb says that writing some of the world’s most famous songs almost destroyed him in the process in a Letter To My Younger Self

• How Anya Taylor-Joy has cornered the Complex Female Character market

• Thomasin McKenzie and Sian Clifford talk about their new BBC drama Life After Life

• And we meet Ilkeston vendor James and his cocker spaniel Harlow!

Plus even more!

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