Developing countries can go green, but we have to be delicate about leading them.

Question: Is it fair to ask developing countries to go green? 

Graham Hill: 

Well it’s a very difficult question. It’s very understandable that they could say, “What are you doing telling us what to do? Look what you’ve done. You’ve had your time in the sun. We want ours.”

It’s very understandable, but it’s also very important. So I don’t know.

I think that whether it’s Gandhi or Michael Jackson saying, “Start with the man in the mirror,” I think it’s really important that we do our thing and lead by example.

I think that the U.S. is a very powerful country, and one that can change, and one that can lead. And I’d really like to see us lead. And I think we’re starting. And hopefully that will help developing countries see there’s another way of doing things. And hopefully they can leapfrog and not go through all that. It’s a very challenging thing.

It’s a very understandable thing that these other countries want to achieve a lifestyle that we’ve been living. And so who are we to really say?

I think we have to influence as much as we can, and also lead by example. We have to practice what we preach.

Recorded on: Oct 16, 2007