Rights of nature, in particular the drive to assert the rights of natural entities, such as rivers, to have rights as living entities. He visits 3 rivers - Los Cedros rising in the cloud forest of Northern Ecuador. The Adyar river which flows into the Indian Ocean at Chennai. The Meutehekau which runs South into the St.Lawrence river in North Eastern Canada.

The Los Cedros is under threat from mining but still alive - Robert joins a group of river guardians treking into the jungle to the source. The Adyar is dying, or even dead, by the time it reaches the sea - he journeys from where the waters are clear down to the ocean where the river has been killed by massive pollution - glimers of hope as there are locals he meets trying to restore it. The Meutehekau is very much alive as he journeys down it in canoe guided by ancient wisdom - but a dam is threatened which would kill it.

Linking it is the picture of nine springs that rise in a small wood on a hill near his home in Cambridge.