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Asia-Pacific

The Sun King

21 March 2007

These days, just about everyone accepts that the world's truly big economic story is the phenomenal rise of China. That said, they may be surprised to learn that the richest man in mainland China - worth a cool $3 billion and still counting - is not Chinese, he's Australian. Well, Australian-Chinese! Dateline's Chris Hammer travelled to the People's Republic to meet a tycoon whose solar-powered vision for that vast nation is based on years of research he did here in Australia. Indeed, the Sun King is convinced his business plan could actually change the world.

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Europe

The Shrinking Alps

2 May 2007

And now to Europe's snow-clad Alps - or to be more precise right now - Europe's normally snow-clad Alps. The northern winter in Europe just gone was one of the warmest on record with the multibillion-dollar ski industry, in particular, hit - hit hard, in fact - by abnormally poor snowfalls. And now the experts are warning that future European ski seasons could be looking at more of the same. But it's not just the economic impact that has the locals worried. The very real fear is that in some parts of the continent's famous alpine ski fields, global warming could actually bring the mountains themselves tumbling down onto villages below. With his snowboard, Thom Cookes went to Austria, France and Switzerland to investigate what could be a literally shattering repercussion from climate change.

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