The list (of 50) is out at the Guardian. There are a number of obvious choices (Al Gore, Wangari Maathai), a few oddballs (Cormac McCarthy? Say what? Leonardo di Caprio? Honestly.), and various ordinary and a few extraordinary unknown individuals with inspiring David-and-Goliath stories. Always good to see Amory Lovins on these lists. We need more like him.
And then, of course, the Guardian’s shameless gimmick to sell papers and generate buzz with a lame contrarian tossed in for “balance”: Bjorn Lomberg.
Note to Guardian: Bjorn Lomberg is about as likely to save the planet as Jack Abramoff is to clean up Washington. Unless, that is, he can eventually get a clue and learn to stop deliberately lying distinguish credible evidence from think tank effluent. Interestingly (perhaps this was exactly the Guardian’s plan), Lomborg’s inclusion was the single biggest item of (overwhelmingly negative) discussion in comments on the piece. Probably sold a lot of papers.
But let’s not get too far off track. I spent some time trying to pick someone on the list to feature as my favorite but couldn’t decide. Worth reading yourself.
Love the Abramoff - Lomberg juxtapose.
[…] Emmett Duffy, The Natural Patriot, mostly agrees with The Guardian’s list of 50 er… 49 people who could save the planet. […]
A more appropriate article might have been the top 50 corporations that could have a positive impact our planet. It is very hard for any one individual to have any impact whatsoever. Now if General Electric were to have one of their subsidiaries focus solely on one positive idea we may get somewhere. Like affordable de-salianization or a natural replacement for plastic…or..or.. It’s the corporate world that need to help us change the direction of this massive ship we are all riding. The captains of industry need to make some decisions.