Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today Sunday newspaper on 13 May 2012

Exactly three months ago, on 13 February 2012, Robert Paul Lamb died at his London home. With his untimely exit, I lost a gifted mentor and the world, a planetary scale story teller.

For over 30 years, he reported about the state of our planet using its most pervasive medium: broadcast television. An accomplished science writer, TV journalist and documentary film maker, Robert was just 59 when he succumbed to cancer.

Robert’s outlook was rooted in journalism, where he started his career in the mid 1970s as a TV reporter with the BBC. He later straddled the worlds of media and development, but always remained a journalist at heart. He used simple words and well chosen moving images to show how we mismanage natural resources and energy.

Robert is probably best remembered as…