He’s Got broad shoulders, i thought when i recently, almost literally, ran into one of the world’s foremost ecological economists at the entrance of the seminar room in the Sustainability Institute outside Stellenbosch. Broad shoulders and a big smile.

Both attributes can come in handy when you have a mission to save the planet and find that a whole lot of people take you seriously. Yes, ecologist turned economist Robert Costanza, who has been cited in more than 3,000 scientific articles since 1987 and been the subject of more than 80 interviews and reports about his work in various media, including Newsweek, US News and World Report, The Economist, The New York Times, Science, Nature, National Geographic, and National Public Radio, needs both. When you take on a big challenge, you need both fortitude and a sense of humour. And you need to be able to see the bright side when the storm clouds darken.