The last couple of weeks of July 2008 I am spending on board Greenpeace’s Rolling Sunlight for its The Global Warming Story Tour, I will be cruising up and down the West Coast of the US with some folks from Greenpeace for twenty days while they collect personal video stories about how global warming is affecting ordinary American’s and getting them to ask the Congress to legislate to stop global warming by not investing in dirty or dangerous technologies and instead to use the money in clean, safe renewable energy!
Thursday 10th July 2008
We met at 8am at the GP warehouse and went straight to the plaza by the Ferry Building in San Francisco for our first Global Warming Story Tour stop; a chance to ensure everyone knows what they are doing, that we had all the equipment it all was working and collect some stories while they do it.
We left SF for our first stop, the Oregon Country Fair near Eugene, just after lunch. We have almost two days to get there, so plenty of time.
We drove out of San Francisco on the I-80 and then onto the 113, through small humid towns thick with the smell of ripening fruit, fresh cut grass and smoke. All the way it was very overcast, everything looked a little orange. It is hot and the sun is high in the sky and yet I can stare directly at it, by the time we got onto the 99 and Chico the sun had disappeared entirely.
Right nhis area is badly affected by the smoke from wildfires raging elsewhere in California, I have no idea if this is typical (I am told it is, but getting worse each year) but the more we feel the effects of global warming maybe the worse this is likely to be here.
Friday 11th
We awoke to a glorious day, Northern Californian sun and mountains and Lake Shasta. The sky was blue and there was no sign of yesterday’s smoke and gloom. Crossing Lake Shasta it was amazing how empty it was, it is fed from snow-melt and run-off from the mountains and these have been demising drastically over recent years and glaciers receding leading to doubt and water shortages, there is little doubt in anyoones mind here that this is directly attributable to global warming and climate change.
It is 334 more miles to Eugene up the I-5. We passed Mt. Shasta on the way and met some great people in gas stations, they are all attracted to the truck, most assume we are selling PVs but are happy to chat when they find out what we are really up to, even if they don’t agree they are very nice anyway…. generally.
Eugene
On the way we filled up with B99.9 (99.9% biodiesel) from SeQuential Boifuels in Eugene, I am so impressed with these guys! However, they are struggling due to how hight the price of fuel, including biofuels, have risen recently. I’d have loved to have put them in my book but too late (maybe there will be a second edition guys).
Oregon Country Fair
Arriving at Oregon Country Fair was initially quite a let down, the promised festival in the forest turned out to be much more like a hippie-mall in the forest, with hundreds of tie-dye t-shirt makers and other “crafts” people all trying to sell their wares to you - but the food available in there was great and not too pricey and much of the music was great too. It was also very hot and humid and dusty.
However come the evening the paying visitors are swept out of the site leaving a night time woodland wonderland devoid of hippy-shoppers and full of dark spaces, nonsense and sillyness in the dark; suddenly i got why people rave about this festival, it is all about the after party. It would have been amazing to stay up all night and play, by the sound of it hundreds did, but we had work in the moring.
Portland, OR
After two very hot days at The Fair we continued on our way north, towards Portland for a quick photo opportunity with Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood (and a quick hello to my old friend Rebecca), then onwards towards Seattle .
Al Gore’s Speech
Al Gore’s Speech on the 17th July times nicely with what Greenpeace are trying to say here, instead of talking about how global warming / climate change is the biggest catastrophe facing mankind (though it is becoming more obvious that it is), he focuses on solutions. Hank Green at EcoGeek says:
Now he’s focusing the whole suite of problems that can be solved with renewable energy: job creation at home, removal of reliance on other nations for our power, sustainability, pollution and global warming.
Gore’s ten year target is very over ambitious, I can only assume that by being so bold to stimulate debate and get things moving, maybe he would be pleased if it happens in twenty. Unfortunately, as Gore well knows, we may not even have ten years to turn this round.
(you can read what else Hank has to say here, along with the full text of Gore’s speech)
Seattle, WA
Tuesday is a day off in Seattle. We are staying in a suburb of the city call Kirkland in a crappy motel (the toilet is broken in both the rooms we are in). Spent a lot of the day drinking coffee and eating but when we did manage to get the bus to down-town Seattle we had a ball, visiting all the touristy crap and taking pictures by the big Space Needle thing. We ended up trying to go to the famous Crocodile Cafe for a beer but we were a few months too late so we ended up in Shorties (SIC), a busy and cool bar playing punk where I would have fitted right in ten or fifteen years ago but now I look like the old guy in a nice short-sleeve shirt.
Wednesday was back to work with the Rolling Sunlight crew in a suburb of Seattle, it was a bit slow but we were joined by some of Front Line and, later, my friends from England, Tara and Mike, and a couples of professional photographers
{photo – tara and mike}
No ID, no beers…………
We met up again later at some bar / restaurant near the Greenpeace office but they staff refused to accepted my UK driver’s license as ID when it has been fine everywhere in the US since 2004, according to them only a US, Mexican or Canadian driver’s license are acceptable, I have to cary my passport – bullshit! I don’t mind the whole carrying ID thing, but lets have a bit of consistency for what constitutes suitable international person’s ID, my passport is the most pretious document I have, I am not going to carry it about, especially when I am intending to get drunk, just for the 0.1% of servers who think it is necessary…….. and besides, I have been legal to drink in the US for the past 15 years!
Olympia, WA
Thursday was a quick event at Evergreen University Campus in Olympia and then we set off for San Francisco again – about 15 hour’s drive away. Made it as far as Eugene, handy for a B-99 fill up in the morning.
(brief) Return to San Francisco
The next day was a very long one, driving from Eugene to San Francisco, it took about 12 hours in all. We got back to SF to find it cold and foggy, so the fabled SF-summer has finally arrived here! Weekend hours in the city before the head on South.
Left The City on Monday for a quick stop in San Jose and on to LA.
Los Angeles
We are staying on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood but we don’t have much in the way of time to see much of the sights. Hollywood is not quite what it is cracked up to be anyway, it is mainly a shabby neighborhood, with the rich living in the Hollywood Hills. We did find time to visit Hollywood Boulevard and walk along the walk-of-fame but this too is a crappy city-center-shopping experience with big stores sitting alongside Sientology establishments (there are a lot of these in L.A.) and underwhelming famous cinemas / theartres; unless you happen to be in town and have nothing better to do don’t bother.
Long Beach
We did an event in Long Beach, outside the City Hall, which was a big success, and later that evening we were joined by a new volunteer, Katheryn – she is from Carolina and has a cool southern accent, says things like “y’all” a lot which she says makes her sound ignorant but I think is endearing.
OC
Thursday’s event was in Huntington Beach in Orange County; surf bums, Irish girls on holiday, humunclous meatheads in giant hot-wheels trucks, women with too much makeup and fake tits; not a very nice place at all (but the beach the the surf were amazing despite the oil rigs just off shore), but we met some good people even here, tones of people all worried about the environment, especially the kids who, without exception, all seem very well informed on the subject of global warming.
Palm Springs
Friday we spent driving inland, away from the cool sea air and into the desert, it got hotter and hotter until we arrived in Palm Springs where it was 113 degrees (that is about 50 in English) and humid.
Next morning was a 5am start for all of us for an event in Desert City College’s parking lot, much too early and hot and all too much to be honest, we had to pack the truck up in the midday sun and it just about killed the three of us. Kyle’s family are in town so the afternoon was spent napping and being looked after by them, they were so hospitable, cooked us dinner and everything.
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San Diego
The latest Crew member arrived last night at 4am, poor thing had a hellish flight with missed planes and lost luggage - she is Rachel and, i have been told, is “awesome!!”. San Diego’s event was a great success, and we caught up with Kelly and Jenny there and after which was so cool. After last night in some hotel 30 miles out of town we moved into the 500 West Hotel in San Diego.
Stolen bag!
A weird thing happened when we arrived, while checking in one of your bags disappeared! Obviously we freaked out! I ran around the block expecting to find it being ripped apart by some homeless guy round some corner while the others tried to work out what had happened inside the hotel and to get the guy on the desk to believe it had happened and that we had not just left it in the truck or something.
Then this young guy wearing no shoes walks across the lobby carrying the bag’s labels, he hands them to us, it is all very odd, the guy is behaving very strangely, his eyes keep rolling upwards in his head and he is not making much sense; we ask him where the bag is and he tells us it is “upstairs”, we ask him if he took it and he says “yes”, we ask him why he took it and he says “that is what you do with bags, you take them upstairs”, as to where upstairs he does not know.
We call the police, who take an age to arrive, and run frantically about upstairs until we find the bag, still closed, on the second floor. We have been watching the guy for a while now and by the time police do turn up is is very clear to us this guy is mad or high or something. He has no ID on him, does not seem to know who he is or where he is staying or anything, so he gets arrested and we go our for beer.
Ocean Beach
Next day is a day off, Kyle stays at the hotel and works all day while the rest of us go clothes shopping in Ocean City and to check out the beach.
Another late night with Greenpeace San Diego ensures a late start tomorrow.
Yuma
Not much to tell you about Yuma. We only spent the night here, but it is so hot, we made good use of the hotel’s pool and drove on towards Phoenix and Scottsdale the next mooring. For the sunniest place on Earth and being in the middle of nowhere it is amazing that it appears to have no solar (PV or thermal) and it must have a massive electrical load with all those thousands of AC units, all presumably running on electricity made at some dirty and inefficient coal power station hundreds of miles away.
Phoenix and Scottsdale and my last night
On to Phoenix and Scottsdale, five or so hot hours travel in the truck. I can never tire of travel through the desert, I love it, but in this noisy hot truck it almost becomes a chore.
Tonight is my last night. The hotel is fantastic and the pool is great, but Rachel is not at all well, Kathryn and I walk a few blocks and get her some medication, she looks a lot better for it and I find myself being so pleased when she comes out for dinner with us on my last night - they were right, she is is awesome.
Final thoughts on the trip
Flight out is Southwest from PHX to SFO; I hate the idea of flying home, it seems such an oxymoron to be flying an environmentalist anywhere but 500 miles takes 2 hours in a plane and 2 days in a truck, it releases about 10% of ones fair share of carbon for the year and costs less than a day’s wadges - this is of course the problem with air travel, it trivialises distance and costs the earth dearly while costing your pocket comparability little - still, I get an ace view of the Grand Canyon and Yosemite included in the price.
The guys drop me off at the airport in the Sunlight and I find myself very sad to be going back while the three of them travel onwards for another two or more months. Kyle and Kathryn and Rachel (and Geshe too), you are all amazing!
Have an amazing trip, I have learned so much, am so going to miss you, have a good one guys!
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Interesting (?) facts about the trip:
- The only people who gave us the finger while overtaking our truck were motorcyclists.
- About 10% of car drives waved, hooted, gave the thumbs-up, smiled or otherwise gave a positive signal.
- Truck drivers seem disinterested.
- The vast majority of Americans we have spoken to are very worried about climate change and want to see radical action now, almost everyone is concerned and wants to see greater leadership.
This is in direct contradiction to what most people overseas think but concurs with Greenpeace’s own research. - There are still significant numbers of people who persist in the absurd belief that Global Warming / Climate Change is not proven, that it is somehow still open to debate.
I am at a loss as to what to say the these people. - An astonishing number of people approached me about HHO “technology”, it seems the scam is very prolific, I wonder how many unfortunate people have bought into this.
