His career in Civil Engineering is a total paradox to the savetheplanet site, yet it was the impetus behind its conception. Here he is next to a weapon of mass destruction, a bulldozer.

"I love my job and being involved with all the equipment," he says, "but we can't keep going on the way we are. This school foundation in the picture might be justified as progress, but progress generally has created all of our climate issues. Construction is heavily dependant on powerful equipment and there is no visible technology that replaces the likes of this bulldozer, but if you look around at what's on the market for many other industries, it is amazing what's available."

"This school is 12 miles outside of town and if environmental considerations were taken seriously, then the sensible policy would be to locate it closer to the people that are going to use it. One day, one day soon it seems, the big picture will be realised by many."

Vision into practice

The latest version of savetheplanet (STP) is not perfect by any means, but a considerable amount of effort has gone into researching and presenting the clearest picture possible of the alternative choices we will all be faced with. The site presents news from industry to demonstrate that manufacturers are launching and introducing new and exciting alternative technologies to the market. The editorial team searches the world news about the products that are currently available and what they can do - and reports on scientific activities that show promise for even better technologies tomorrow.

The growth and direction of the site has changed as individual people have come forward and offered their varied abilities, helping the focus of the site to ensure that it is 'fit for purpose' - i.e. to reach into the lives of everyone who wants or needs up-to-the minute information about alternative choices.

Among these is Auckland-based Barry Prince, a veteran of the UK and New Zealand trade press, who is using his half-century of experience as an editor/journalist in the role of STP's 'quality controller' for the daily flood of raw input that is translated into accurate and unambiguous reportage for the website. To satisfy the editorial criteria of the Editor-in-chief, Barry has the task of separating opinion from fact, and providing the website's daily visitors with relevant reportage that can be relied on.

Another stalwart is website builder Andy Kent who, along with his multi-talented team at AngelSolutions in Warkworth, New Zealand has offered great strategic advice - and had to persevere with the Owner's desire to remove anything erroneous, misleading, or biased.

The news on the Home Page comes from Dr. Glen Barry from Ecological Internet in the USA whose mission is to empower the global movement for environmental sustainability by working to conserve climate, forest, ocean, and water ecosystems; and to advance the age of ecological sustainability and restoration. As many readers of savetheplanet are already aware, Wisconsin-based Dr. Barry is available to give talks and multimedia presentations.

Will is a roving Civil Engineer and is currently on contract in The Bahamas. His base address is 43 Shaftesbury Avenue , Vicars Cross, Chester, UK

The right attitudes

Being frustrated at the lack of respect that Man has for 'his' environment is one of the things that drove Will Sleddon to start the savetheplanet concept. Yet, he says, it is more galling that Man continues to ignore the destructive effects of climate change, despite the fact that the buildings and infrastructure being created to keep us safe are built with parameters that Nature is beginning to exceed. "Isn't that like driving a car blindfold?" he asks.

Speaking as an experienced Civil Engineer, Will says: "In our built environment, the USA has few structures designed to exceed the Florida Building Code which stipulates that buildings must be designed to withstand 150 mph wind-speeds. In theory therefore, a good Category 5 hurricane should blow the place down."

Across the continents where Will has worked, similar design criteria are employed to avoid over-design and over-expenditure on building projects. Drainage is designed for the 1 in a 100 year storm.

"If it rains more than it has done for one event in the last 100 years, then flooding will occur. Are these disasters natural or unnatural, or are they natural but their frequency and intensity are being made unnatural by our environmental impact?"

Will adds: "Furthermore, an even greater degree of importance needs to be placed on farming, where too much or too little of the sun and rain ruins our food crops - which mainly succeed only because farmers understand the ebb and flow of the weather.

"Changing the weather patterns and introducing extreme weather events is just about the least helpful thing that Man can do, but it has happened quite quickly under the guise of "progress." If the forecasts we see in the media mature into truth, then our progress has been at a horrendous cost - but we can still progress responsibly."

The United Nations tells us that the adoption of alternative energies has moved from desirable to imperative, and the team at savetheplanet is dedicated to ensuring that truthful and accurate information about these technologies is reported to all interested parties around the world.