We rescue the banks but let nature die

SINCE the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, a huge amount of media attention has been focused on the collapse of other financial institutions as well as the perilous state of the public finances in many countries.

History tells us that banks do recover and countries such as Japan and Germany did rebuild their economies after World War II and became two of the richest nations on earth.

Scientists today are telling us that, globally, nearly a quarter of all mammal species, a third of amphibians and a third of flowering species are threatened with extinction within this century unless radical remedial action is taken in the next 5 to 10 years.