Tour Begins

Travelling through airports, getting crammed into "chrome cocoons," to use Fred Small's line, behaving unsustainably and implanting a huge carbon footprint, all make me blue. What matters thirty years of preaching the gospel of simple, low impact life if you cannot walk the walk? I wonder. Down every concourse on every journey like this one faces unsustainable options. At Starbucks: a few "environmentally friendly" blends at the bag o' beans shelves (actually only 20 percent seem to be organic and/or fair traded), but none at the counter. You'd think from their advertising that Starbucks could do better than this. And sitting here awaiting a connecting flight, banging away on a computer made in China, juiced by Ohio coal stored in a toxic batter, er, battery, is unspeakably irresponsible. Then there's lunch. Without the packed lunch I should have prepared in a reuseable container, I'm forced to buy a sandwich in a plastic box, not reusable, not recyclable. Woe. Whoa!

On the other hand, we're travelling to meet with folks who are (or will soon be) sustainability leaders and collaborators, especially students from seven campuses in Washington, Oregon, and California. Not to mention hanging out with good folks in BC, Washington, Oregon, and California working on sustainability every day, at New Society Publishers (a big shout-out to them), at Yes! Magazine, and in the Mattole Valley, as well as meeting new friends at six events at booksellers and gatherings in Bend, Bellingham, Bremerton, Lakewood, Olympia, and Arcata. Put that way, the trip is surely less indulgent than, say, a ski vacation to Whistler. Some consolation there. Further, to salve our guilty consciences (mine and Donna's), we've bought carbon credits for this trip from Native Energy, which is using them to install renewable energy capacity on Native America lands. In Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (MSP), I imagine a blackout. The whole operation, in my day dream, slams shut in a heartbeat, as would most of the indoor space we inhabit, in this project called civilization. Makes me think MSP ought to invest in Native Energy, right quick.