If you were expecting “Solar Power” to be a climate anthem, you’ll be disappointed. Lorde’s first song in four years, a gently intoxicating track anchored by acoustic guitar and bongo drums, is instead an ode to the summer, and the bright, new state of mind that even the smallest pinch of sunshine can bring. The track, the release of which coincided with the solar eclipse, is
The documentary film
8 Billion Angels opens with majestic footage of farmers tilling the land, factories billowing smoke, traffic-choked highways, city streets teeming with people, and a voiceover by the primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall. “What I really, really, really would love to change, without causing pain or suffering: reduce the number of people on the planet,” she says, “because there’s too many of us. It’s a planet of finite resources and we’re using them up. And that’s going to cause so much suffering in the future.” With these words, she sums up the driving argument of this grand, sweeping documentary, produced by the environmentalist Terry Spahr. The film maintains that there is a simple solution to climate change, environmental destruction and mass extinction: to protect the planet and each other, we need to have fewer children.
Economic growth figures this week have reaffirmed the message that the removal of Covid-19 restrictions is causing a rapid return to economic growth. The US and the UK have recorded strong figures for the first part of the year, whilst the official estimates for the eurozone show substantially better growth than anticipated. And unlike last summer’s rushed attempt to return to
The G7 has long presented itself as a group of the world’s wealthiest countries, which together account for around half of global GDP. This allows its members – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – to claim legitimacy when they make decisions about some of the biggest issues affecting humanity. Figures from the World Bank show that the G7 collectively
China’s geopolitical rivals have long struggled to launch a viable alternative to Beijing’s globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for infrastructure. Now one further attempt looks set to be rolled out at this weekend’s G7 meeting – and most likely another failure too. Dubbed the “Clean Green Initiative”, the new plan is part of a package being unveiled as Prime