This
could have been your oopportunity to get famous, get published, and get some sweet swag. The newspaper Guardian Unlimited (from, um, England) recently
ran a competition that asked travelers to send in scribblings from their trips. They’re going to pick the best stuff
and then two, what they call "Netjetters" will be chosen to travel and write on two themes as they gallivant
across the globe. These two writers will have to scribe on two themes…"green" and "grey"
travel. That is, one will need to come up with a trip that allows them to travel as "greenly" as possible,
i.e. granola-ish travel, environmentally sound, etc. While grey travel with be about old folks. Kinda cool, and I’m
sorry I missed it.
Plenty Magazine
It’s official now – I’ve been
diagnosed with a case of the Green Holy Ghost. And who knew catching an eco-spirit could be so much fun?
It all started yesterday when I arrived first thing in the morn for the grand opening of a new Wild Oats market here in Tampa. I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and
determined to be one of the first 200 to nab one of the grand opening goodie bags. After they slapped all eagerly
waiting persons with the kind of green wrist bands you’d get at a nightclub and introduced all the VIP’s including the
mayor we were let loose, running rampant inside the natural marketplace. In their clever little marketing scheme
you could only pick up your bag at the register after you perused aisles and aisles of healthy fare. Nobody was bold
enough to go to the cashier without one item at the very least, so the smart ones plucked up little energy bars, got in
and got out. Adrienne, on the other hand ended up spending $45 bucks when my goal was to spend half.
Needless to say I was hoping there would be a 5-gallon trial size of ethanol
nestled somewhere inside, but there wasn’t. On the contrary, I did find some delicious energy bars, chocolate soy milk,
coupons and a recent issue of Plenty Magazine. Plenty? Hmm… Never heard of it
before. After just spending a few minutes looking through the glossy mag dedicated to several eco-related topics
including travel, I decided it was a fair trade off for the ethanol I had initially expected. Plenty appears to have
lots to talk about if you’re interested in finding very green events, spa destinations or food happenings for your next
vacation. Check out the online blog for frequent updates or find a magazine
in your area.
And I promise you it won’t even cost you $45.
Red Corner: Adventurer Karl Bushby Arrested in Russia
Crossing the Bering Strait on foot turned out to be the easy part. Adventurer Karl Bushby, a British paratrooper who is 7 ½ years into a 12-year odyssey to walk around the world, is currently being held by authorities in Lavrenty, Russia.
Since there was no border officials to greet him when stepping off the Bering Strait ice and onto Russian soil, Bushby and a travel partner were on their way to the nearest town to process their arrival papers when they were picked up by authorities. Naturally, their paperwork was not in order and the Russian police weren’t buying into their, “we walked here from Alaska” excuse. Especially considering they were carrying satellite phones, a gun, and sophisticated GPS equipment.
The British government is currently working to negotiate Bushby’s release so that the adventurer can continue on his journey. I might be wrong, but I don’t think this will be the end of Bushby’s challenges in Russia’s Far East.
America's Cleanest & Greenest Cities
The Ames-Boone area
of Iowa normally doesn’t get mentioned around here too much, but it’s time to turn things around or our travel
destinations at least. Forbes.com runs an
interesting health piece which highlights America’s greenest and
cleanest cities. The listing is based on ozone pollution and particles from data collected by the American Lung
Association’s 2005 set of statistics and according to other research studies pollution is costing a pretty penny. For
businesses it pays to be clean and for the curious vagabond just looking to roam aimlessly – where better to
spend your time than in clean destinations like those found on their list?
Newton, Iowa or Sioux Falls, South Dakota may not
come off as exciting as NYC, LA or Miami, but who needs the smog and increased exhaust fumes leaking from almost every
vehicle in big city traffic jams? Not me and certainly not you, so if seeing is believing and better for our health
plan ahead before being clean suddenly becomes trendy. The top 10 cleanest and greenest areas in America are as
follows:
- Ames-Boone, Iowa
- Bellingham,
Washington - Brownsville-Harlingen-Raymondville, TX
- Cedar
Rapids, Iowa - Colorado Springs, CO
- Deltona-Daytona
Beach-Palm Coast, FL - Des Moines-Newton-Pella, Iowa
- Duluth,
Minn., Wisconsin - Eugene-Springfield, OR
- Fargo-Wahpeton,
North Dakota., Minn
For a complete list with all
25 visit Forbes and be sure to check out the slide show. It’s so clean you won’t believe your own eyes.
Citizen Penn
I’m
about a week behind on my New Yorker reading and so was pleasantly surprised this week to find last week’s issue had a
rather informative and interesting profile by John Lahr on Sean Penn. Now, I’m no celebrity worshipper. I honestly,
deeply believe that our fascination with celebrity is both absurd and harmful. Absurd because we are placing such lofty
value in people’s whose compensation (in the form of money and status) is completely incommensurate with their
societal contribution. Harmful in the respect that we are largely distracted from more meaningful aspects of the human
experience by spending so much time and caloric output on worrying what Brad and Angelina are up to.
Now,
with that as a rather ridiculous, if contradictory, preface for this post, let me say that I did find the article on Sean Penn rather interesting. Penn, you might
remember has been traveling the world…or at least certain dangerous parts of it…to show us the other
side of these places, the happy faces of the Axis of Evil, and it certianly is nice for him to have himself
photographed walking among the people. He penned, if you’ll pardon the pun, a series of articles, some 12,000
words total, for the San Francisco Chronicle, some of which we discussed here.
Now, despite my cynicism, there is value here, because Penn holds himself out as a kind of citizen of the world, a
purveyor of higher truths, and he is one of a few celebrities who really tries of leverage his status to heighten
public awareness of issues that lie outside of Hollywood. Now whether that is a good or bad thing is another issue.
Whether we should in any way trust that Penn possesses the smarts or experience to be the one who alerts us to the
world’s ills is a fine question to ponder. So you just go ahead and do so. But I think you will find the article here
pretty fascinating, as Penn comes across as a rather complex character. I can’t positively say I like him, but he
intrigues me.