The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Waste reared its ugly head during Singapore International Water Week. But like most things in life on earth there is the good, the bad and the ugly whether we consider water, energy, climate, carbon or waste. What’s encouraging is that so much more time, effort and money is going into finding sustainable solutions to benefit mankind and the planet. We report on what’s happening in Singapore and globally from the Week’s events, as well as news of the formation of the Singapore Sustainability Alliance and plans for the first Waste Management and Environmental Technology event – or WasteMET Asia 2012 – to be co-located with the World Cities Summit and Water Week in Singapore first week of July 2012. So as not to appear too parochial, we also have the world covered, with views from the Washington Post on EPA and NOAA’s state of the climate report. Europe gets in the picture with moves to deal with traffic congestion, we hear what a famous Ford has to say and electric vehicles go on trial. How bad are set top boxes and what’s happening with biofuels in Australia? We get an update on the carbon tax from Giles Parkinson and veteran political commentator Barry Jones gives vent to his feelings. Now that Singapore gets back its railway land from Malaysia, there’s hope it will become a welcome green corridor and SGX calls for sustainable reporting. Which reminds us to remind you – don’t forget to send in your nomination for the 100 Global Sustain Ability Leaders’ quest. So it can’t be all bad! – Ken Hickson