Yesterday I bumped in to my old friend Hugh Patterson, who has been sailing around the world for the last two years with two of his friends. They all wanted it to be more than just a circumnavigation of the world, and sure enough, their purpose materialized after some months of the voyage.

Turns out that every beach they visited, anywhere in the world, no matter how deserted, was littered with garbage at the high tide line. When they inspect the sand, it is scattered with small pieces of plastic that have been crushed and torn among the reefs and rocks from the waves.

It’s worth just thinking about this for a while. Everytime you mindlessly use a plastic water bottle, know that it could end up somewhere you don’t intend, even if you recycle it. It takes 700 years just for a plastic waterbottle to start decomposing.

At the very very least, start using a re-usable water bottle, take it with you wherever you go. Same goes for re-usable coffee mugs. If you’re doing that, re-consider some other plastic usage habits you may be able to eliminate.

Anyway, check out these videos from my sailing friend, who is part of the OceanGybe crew. Godspeed on the second half of the journey.

I think one of the emerging ethical questions of our time might be as to whether the carbon footprint of our jobs is justified. For example, travel is a huge part of my career as a professional mountain biker; and air travel is particularly harmful to the environment. Is the amount of pollution I emmit through my job worth all the positives that may come from it? Am I making enough of a difference to influence humanity toward a more integral and harmonious lifestyle? Or is my jaded western value system still tricking me, even after all the research and reading I have done, in to believing my role is important enough to travel the world?

I of course have had to justify this to myself in order to keep proceeding with my lifestyle. With this thought in the back of my mind though, I have seriously considered every trip I have been invited on, and the trips that I do agree to, I have been making sure my contribution while on the road is as complete as possible.

Education about the environment is important, this is why I linked up with The David Suzuki Fountain. When I am speaking at a school, or performing at a public event, I reference this foundation, and give out brochures about global warming. After all trips, I also ‘offset’ my carbon emissions; this has to be one of the best ways to justify polluting (although always as a last resort, reducing is the most important), as there is really no such thing as going on a trip that is “carbon neutral”. Anyway, this is enough of a rant for now, it’s nice to get these ideas out of your head and on to paper (well computer), somehow, doing this just makes the thoughts just that much more real.

Happy day everyone,

Ryan