The Bourne prophecies/AN OIL MAN RUNNING A MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL NGO SEEMS AN UNUSUAL FIT, BUT IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING

摘要

The pink tie and business shirt look out of place among the casually clothed campaigners of WWF-Australia, but there is no mistaking the energy and close-cropped, balding dome. Greg Bourne is an odd fit among the environmental activists he leads, an urbane and industrial figure amid the young and idealist. The Sydney-based non-government organisation is a far cry from BP's Melbourne headquarters where he reigned as Australasian president for almost five years, and even further from his stint as energy and transport adviser to Margaret Thatcher. But there is no mistaking Bourne's experience at reading the tea leaves of economic, energy and environmental reform, particularly regarding the extractive sector. His tale of oil industry baron turned environmentalist has been the subject of considerable media interest, which he has skillfully parlayed into newspaper column inches and electronic airtime for his stance on a sustainable course for society. "The first paper I wrote on climate change was in 1988," the former University of Western Australia chemistry student told the ABC in a recent profile.