BERTRAND PICCARD

BERTRAND PICCARD

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Psychiatrist, Explorer, Aviator of the First Round-the-World Solar-powered Flight
Founder and Chairman of Solar Impulse Foundation: 1000+ Profitable Climate Solutions
United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment

So this is why I prefer to speak with a really down to earth language. So maybe the people who love nature are going to say, “Oh, Bertrand Piccard, now he is too down to earth. He's speaking about profitable solutions. He's speaking to the industries that are polluting,” but we have to speak to the industries that are polluting and bring them profitable solutions, otherwise the world will never change, or humankind will never change. And don't forget one thing, what we are damaging is not the beauty of nature. What is being damaged is the quality of life of human beings on Earth because we can still have beautiful things to see, but if we have climate change, if we have tropical disease in Europe, if we have heat waves, floods, droughts, millions of climate refugees, life will be miserable, even if nature is still beautiful.

PETER NICHOLS

PETER NICHOLS

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Author of Granite Harbor · The Rocks · Voyage for Madmen & other books

Although I’m American, I was brought up in England and Europe, and I prefer living in Europe, but I currently live in the United States to be close to my son. I like Maine and have chosen to live here because it seems to me a throwback version of the US, not overrun with strip malls and box stores and the rest of the visual crud of the USA. It’s less spoiled; the modern world seems farther away. Where I live, in Camden on the coast of Maine, it’s postcard pretty, has a still working seafaring industry, an aquaculture industry that is thriving because of the pressures on wild seafood, a farm-to-table culinary scene, all of which is very authentic, self-sustaining, yet feels like an earlier time. I like Maine also because it’s comparatively undeveloped, with large unspoiled natural areas—it’s kind of the Auvergne of the USA—a lot of hiking, sailing, kayaking—which I love to do—available here. I also have a motorcycle, and Maine is a paradise of small roads weaving through beautiful country, thought the winter is long here so the riding season is limited.