Counting the cost & paying the price

It might be hard sometimes coming
up with good news in this crazy world of ours. But we’ll keep at it. And there
are always good people to talk about – like our 100 Global Sustain Ability
Leaders. They  keep popping up all over
the place and in this issue we let you know where to meet some of them, including
Wayne Visser (also profiled), Thomas Thomas, Esther An, Jessica Cheam, Howard
Shaw, Simon Tay and Harveen Narulla. We had a positive reaction to our list
release last issue, even getting acknowledgement from the White House, when it learnt
that Energy Secretary and Nobel laureate Steven Chu had been honoured. We will
continue to draw attention to and feature our Sustain Ability Leaders in coming
issues. This issue also features positive stories about advances with tidal and
wave energy in Europe; some good news on the solar front from Australia and
China, and  deserved attention for leading
companies like GE, Ford, Toyota, BMW and Walmart for smart sustainable
investments. The insurance industry knows that climate change is for real, even
if politicians in some places don’t. There’s a new global energy management
standard and Singapore could go for urban farming, while Australia counts the
cost of its carbon price compensation “protectionist” plan. We learn that
geo-engineering is not all it is cracked up to be and maybe we need to have
another look at nitrogen. There’s a psychological as well as a physical price
to pay for all the extreme weather the world is getting and we cannot blame God
or Nature for the disastrous species loss. “The Oil Price” might be a piece of
fiction by Guy Lane but it is deadly serious. Will we ever learn? – Ken Hickson