Global: 'We cannot command nature except by obeying her'

'Nature cannot be submitted to the wills of the laboratory. Science and technology are capable of everything including destroying the world itself,' said Pablo Solón, the permanent representative of Bolivia in a speech to the United Nations on 20 April. 'It is time to stop and reaffirm the precautionary principle in the face of geo-engineering and all artificial manipulation of the climate. All new technologies should be evaluated to gauge their environmental, social and economic impacts. The answer for the future lies not in scientific inventions but in our capacity to listen to nature.'