Britain's National Ecosystems Assessment released a report last week suggesting that natural resources and a healthy environment were worth billions of pounds to Britain. The report stated that emphasis should be shifted away from producing more food and goods. "Humans rely on the way ecosystems services control our climate--pollution, water quality, pollination--and we're finding out that many of these regulating services are degrading," said Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser to the Department for Environment. He said that around 30% of key ecosystem services are degrading, while fish stocks are below optimum levels and England has the smallest percentage of forest cover anywhere in Europe. Meanwhile, the government announced more details of its plan to issue loans to help people pay for energy saving measures such as home insulation. The law will need to be changed so that energy firms will have to collect repayments from homeowners via their energy bills. For the full story on the ecosystems assessment, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13616543. For the story on the energy saving plan, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13626406.