So it’s official. Deep in Carboniferous and Jurassic rocks beneath parts of the north of England are locked an estimated 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. That is an awful lot, far more than was ever produced from North Sea fields. Is this a natural windfall of great economic importance, an opportunity for the UK to demonstrate cutting-edge technological capabilities and a source of long-term energy security?

In finding solutions to our growing energy challenges it is important to step back from our obsessive debates about different technologies and to take a wider view of the reality we inhabit. A good starting point is to remember how our planet is largely solar powered, and has been for a very long time. When it comes to the natural world the most visible manifestation of this fact is photosynthesis.

An absence of positive political debate about the natural world is even more troubling than the decline in the UK wildlife revealed by State of Nature report.

More than half the wildlife species found in our islands are declining, under an assault of development, air pollution and chemical attack. Bumblebees, wildflowers, songbirds and butterflies are among the more obvious casualties.

One of the most dangerous misconceptions of the modern age is the widely held view that there is somehow a choice between the advancement of economic development on the one hand and the protection of nature on the other. Fortunately, however, this false choice is being rapidly dismissed.