Who will stop the planet from committing ecological suicide? The UN? Governments? Activists? Corporations? Engineers? Scientists? Lawyers may not immediately come to mind but they provide new rules to legislatures, see that they are enforced, tackle big business to ensure money flows into cultural change, and keep us informed. Lawyers who take the Earth as their client are exceptional and inspirational and our speaker James Thornton is one of them. James Thornton is an environmental lawyer, the founding CEO of ClientEarth, best known in Britain for forcing the government to act on illegal levels of air pollution. He was named by the New Statesman as one of 10 people who could change the world. Martin Goodman is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction. He holds the chair of Creative Writing at the University of Hull, where he is director of the Philip Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing.