Polar Bears Up Thames

A polar bear and her cub stranded on an iceberg were towed up the River Thames today, from Greenwich to Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. Don't panic! It's a statue commissioned by Eden, a new digital natural history TV channel. A team of 15 artists spent two months creating this 16ft (5m), 1.5 tonne sculpture. Excellent job. It was created to highlight the plight of the polar bear, whose sea-ice habitat is being lost due to global warming. It faces extinction. Eden is hardly the word with which to describe the state of Earth, but this sculpture is a good way to promote the new channel.