The Sustainable Futures Report

As the Arctic melts, Extinction Rebellion urges the British government to speed up its response to the climate emergency.

No, this one is not the one about electric vehicles that I promised . I'm holding that over for a future episode because I wanted to catch up with Extinction Rebellion and last week's protest. Not everyone agrees with XR's message. Powerful forces are gathering to stop it being heard.

Just one topic this week. Rare earth metals and elements are crucial to our electronic devices, which these days are in everything from phones and computers to cookers and cars. I recently attended a lecture on this and then tracked down the speaker, Dr Alice Courvoisier, in a coffee shop. She explained how the process of extraction and use of these materials has wide-ranging consequences for us all.

In this week's report: can you get a discount if you take your own cup to a coffeeshop? Are batteries the investment of the future? I'll tell you about my smart meter, about electric cars in India and about the implications of tellurium supplies for solar panels. The RHS comments on the effect of climate change on gardens. Will we soon been drinking GM tea? The court has ruled against the government once more on air pollution, the Marine Conservation Society issues a plastic challenge and plastic waste could be coming to a road near you. President Trump will shortly set out his climate policy and Professor Stephen Hawking urges us to colonise distant planets.

All this and not a word about the British parliamentary election!

Since my last episode quite a lot has happened. We have a new prime minister in the UK, there’s a new green bill in the United States, Russia turns off its gas supplies to Europe and Pakistan turns from drought to catastrophic floods. The new prime minister has promised to sort out the energy crisis within a week and as he leaves office, Boris Johnson appears to have committed the incoming administration to building a new nuclear power station at Sizewell. That won't be in time to solve the current crisis and in any case the Greens believe that the solution is simply to nationalise the energy companies. Meanwhile incoming Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng raises doubts about the truth of the green credentials of Drax power station, which has received multi billions of pounds for burning wood. There’s feedback from patrons and listeners, Tommy Wiedmann and Carol Dance, and finally will the United States’ Artemis mission ever get off the ground, and if it does, is it a good thing?