PACIFIC ECOLOGIST - Key Persons
Pacific Ecologist editor Kay Weir says she is an accidental editor, who was a proofreader on the former Evening Post newspaper in the 1980s, and retrained as a sub-editor but resigned, never intending to work with words again. However, after starting to read material at PIRM in 1993 she was riveted and disturbed by the big picture of a world beset by increasing environmental degradation and the disintegration of communities. At this time the controversial Uruguay Round of GATT was being negotiated, which, without proper environmental and social regulations was due to make matters far worse. On return from a year overseas from mid-1993 to 1994, Kay was asked to help with Pacific World, and felt she could not refuse, though unpaid, as the work was too vital to ignore. Sadly, George became ill in 1996 and retired that year. In 1998 he died. She continued as editor of Pacific World from 1997 thinking it important to maintain a rare publication covering in some depth crucial issues of sustainability and survival. After all, how can we arrive at sustainable societies without looking at the deadly problems of maldevelopment policies caused by unsustainable assumptions and development projects like importing biofuels from 3rd world countries, under a guise of sustainability. This is one of the problems covered in issue 21 of Pacific Ecologist on the Food Crisis.