Kiwi named as World Eco Warrior
09 Jan 2008
A former mayor turned environmental entrepreneur has been named as one of 50 people who could save the world.
Vicki Buck has been named by British newspaper The Guardian as the ‘ultimate green warrior’ and someone who could save the planet from the horrors of climate change.
She is the only New Zealander on the list that includes some world famous campaigners such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, United States politician Al Gore, Australian rocker-turned-Environment Minister Peter Garrett, anti-whaling activist Paul Watson and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Vicki Buck is the former mayor of Christchurch and is a director of a small company Aquaflow, which has helped develop technology that can harvest wild algae from sewage ponds and extract fuel from it for cars and aircraft.
The Guardian described Buck as the 'acceptable face of biofuels' in a world scrambling to find fuels that do not exacerbate global warming.
Buck says it was ''very nice'' to be included but her work reflected the efforts of many and minimising the environmental impact of climate change was ''the most important issue there is''.
''I think the planet will be fine -- the planet will self-correct -- it's just humans and probably all other species that are hugely at risk.
''Personally, I think we may already be too late, but because I'm a natural optimist I can't think that way, plus it's self-defeating to think that way.
''New Zealand seems to me to be full of really, really clever technical, engineering, science people -- which I'm not one of -- who have thought about dealing with these things, often in a different way, that could make a potential difference.''
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