Angry voters may turn back the clocks

Science, the environment, and efforts to mitigate climate change are among the likely casualties when the UK goes through with the exit from the European Union. Within a year of the vote that granted rightwing populist Nigel Farage the fulfi lment of his lifetime ambition, electoral success for populists in the US and in France could bring a U-turn for Western civilisation and make it renounce our current ideas of progress. Michael Gross reports.