Play It Green

Racecar driver and environmental advocate Leilani Munter delivers a first-hand report from the front lines of the Gulf spill–interviewing shell-shocked fishermen who talk about having to find other careers now, discussing how oil execs shortchanged those who lost their livelihood and talking up the importance of moving to renewable energy. Despite her own fossil fuel-driven livelihood and all.

Why did this happen?

Oil companies: $150 million a year for 750 full-time lobbyists.

Gulf Coast residents: zip.

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We all have those moments when we wish life came with an escape hatch…when we could ditch it all, head out on the road and never look back. Some, with little in the way of personal ties, manage to fit adventure and spontaneity into their lives, but most of us give up such dreams once a mortgage, child and more “practical concerns” come along.

So it is with some amazement, and a touch of envy, that I learned about the Pedouins–a family of 5 who are pedaling 7,000 miles from Kentucky to Alaska on a five-person, or quint, bicycle. The parents, Bill and Amarins, with their 3 daughters, Cheyenne (6), Jasmine (4) and Robin (3) left on Aug. 1 of last year and made it to California by way of Mexico this past February–they expect to reach Fairbanks, Alaska this summer.  Along the way, they are immersing themselves in the country’s natural wonders, finding new friends who lend them places to stay and spending more quality out-in-nature time together than most families can ever hope for. Follow their journey online, and allow yourself to be inspired.

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Don’t worry that the rich are not doing their small part to improve this otherwise polluted world. Why on July 30, the Atlanta Motorsports Park, described as a “private motorsports country club that offers a memebership for motorsports enthusiasts looking for executive level priveleges and amenities” (I’m reading this as “snobs who like cars, martinis and hookers”) is unveiling a new  Tilke track, that they claim will make the park the “only eco/green/sustainable-friendly motorsports park in the world.” The press release goes into no details about what particular aspects will make this new track (God, I love this term) “sustainable-friendly,” but even if it were made out of native plants, it’s a race track! It is a big, circular track for inefficient, souped-up race cars to barrel around, and around, and around.

I may be a bit sensitive here, what with Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay’s What We Leave Behind, sitting on my bedside table. The authors make a similar point about the much-lauded William McDonough, the cradle-to-cradle designer behind the Ford Rouge Dearborn Truck Plant. The plant has a 10-acre “living roof,” the largest in the world. The site describes it as: “a glimpse of the transformative possibilities suggested by this new model for sustaining industry.” Jensen and McBay point out: it’s a massive truck factory. There is nothing even remotely “sustainable” about it. But don’t let these inconvenient truths dissuade you from joining the apparent hordes who are signing up for AMP’s exclusive offerings (they write that the club has sold $400,000 worth of memberships in the last 35 days)–including automatic faucets, a computer with internet access and “biometric fingerprint technology to access members only lounge.” Grey Goose models will be there, as will Atlanta Falcon’s wide receiver Michael Jenkins.

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In trying to encourage environmentally conscious living, it helps to follow one’s own advice. That’s why Al Gore took such a media flogging when focus turned to his own 80-year-old energy-sucking Tennessee mansion (since renovated to ultra-efficient gold LEED standards), or why I won’t expect to see Bill McKibben pull up to a book signing in a brand new Hummer. I like the latest environmental focus on bicycling (well, really, on 2-wheeled travel of all types with the extravagant fuel costs). There is nothing so free-from-the-emissions-trappings as riding a bike–and it can be communal or solo, exercise or leisurely cruise, rugged adventure or urban commute.

So Brita, makers of the water filter bearing my name, are sponsoring the Brita Climate Ride, the first to call attention to the global warming crisis, by engaging in something which is part of the solution. They are dubbing the Sept. 20-24 350-mile ride from NYC to Washington, DC “a fundraiser, a climate conference on wheels, and a citizen call for action.” The “Climate Riders” include MBA students focusing on sustainability and they are raising funds for Clear Air–Cool Planet and Focus the Nation. And they’re looking for riders.

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