A thriving ecosystem exists a mile and a half beneath Antarctic ice in a lake that has been cut off from the outside world for millions of years, scientists have discovered.

JAMES LOVELOCK has a long and noble history of defending the natural world and brings a gust of robust realism to the woolly green romanticism which passes for international environmental policy.

JAGGED mountains the size of the Alps have been found entombed in Antarctica’s ice, scientists said yesterday.