Addicted to change or business as usual?

There’s a business focus this week along with giving added attention to some startling innovations from home and abroad. Always interested in seeing what good uses carbon can be put to, we find it could have a role, in the form of graphene, to make solar cells cheaper and more effective. Then there’s big battery research for the electricity grid and electrifying plants that matter. Could there really be a clean and environmentally friendly nuclear fusion power over the horizon? And what’s the role of black carbon – or soot – in dirtying up the atmosphere and contributing to climate change? CleanTech business comes into its own and is growing in importance globally, but what is holding it back in Australia? Glacier melting is not something we can ignore any longer. Bad news from Peru and the US. Business has definitely decided not to wait for Government to act (or not) and is going it alone – and collectively – to deal with climate change, emissions and clean energy. Dr Tony Haymet, in profile, is a setting a fine example by bringing business and research institutions closer together, while the University of Queensland gives global change and the environment a strong focus for its centenary. Time Magazine gives European energy innovations the space they deserve, while Greenpeace gets stuck into Koch Industries for secretly funding the climate denial machine. Lucky Last we have some wise words on the fossil fuel addicts. Who’s hooked?  Ken Hickson