SustainAbler interviews Planetwalker Dr. John Francis

In 1973, Dr. John Francis witnessed an oil spill in San Fracisco Bay and wanted to do something about it. His reaction was simple and personal—he stopped riding in cars. For 22, years he walked everywhere, including the length of the U.S. and South America. Along his journey, he decided he was tired of arguing with people—so he stopped talking. For 17 years he did nothing but listen. Along the way, he earned a PhD in land resources, wrote oil-spill regulations for the Coast Guard, and became a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. The author of the book Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence which will be republished by National Geographic in April, Francis now sees talking as central to his mission. He wants to get his story out and convince others that they can make great changes through the power of personal statements, listening, and a willingness to change themselves.

SustainAbler took the time to talk to Francis before he spoke at the Conseravtion Alliance Breakfast at the Outdoor Retailer show in January. Francis’ simple, powerful statement echoes the types of personal decisions that we hope this site can inspire in others. You don’t have to stop talking or driving. Just listen.

Was it difficult to walk and not speak for so long?
Well, my book is not about suffering. It’s a celebration. Someone can say, “Okay, I’m not going to ride in an automobile,” and then have a full life, and go to school and get a PhD, work for the government. You can do all these things: you can have relationships, go camping, have fun—but you don’t have to ride in an automobile. You don’t even have to use motorized vehicles. And just to put something else on top of that, you don’t talk. But it’s a good life.

What insight did your years of walking and listening give you into the environmental crises we face?
We really need to redefine what environment is, and what the environmental crisis is. We are each of us part of the environment. However, we need to take that a little bit further and say, “If we are all part of the environment, then we really need to be nurturing, to be respectful and caring to each other.” And until we can do those things, then when we try to address environmental issues, we’re really just going to be putting band-aids on things, because the ultimate cause of our dysfunction in the environment is our dysfunction in ourselves.

So, for you, people are essential to the environmental equation?
Environment has a lot to do with human rights. It has a lot to do with civil rights, with economic equity, with gender equality. I’m looking to redefine what environment is and looking at forming partnerships with people and organizations who don’t really see environment as something that is a concern to them. Outdoor people are already looking at the environment as something that they’re a part of but maybe they don’t see it as a part of economic equity. When we start talking about environment and all its ramifications, there is no left and there is no right, and there are no red or blue states. We’re really here all together, and we can really make an impact, and we really stand to fall all together.

What do you think it will take to get people who are entrenched in those divides to work together?
I’m not the only story out there that people will hear, get interested in, and reflect upon. They can hear all these stories and say, “Hey, we’re really a part of this.” But it has to come from within all of us. You can’t make someone do anything. People really need to hear the story, or feel the story, and realize that they are part of it. So after not speaking for 17 years, I’m really about just telling my story and seeing if people get anything out of it. It’s not to say everyone should be like me. I think there are many, many voices. So I think it’s going to take listening to the many voices who are out there.

And you learned to listen better to other voices when you stopped talking?
I realized that I would usually listen to people just long enough to figure out what I thought that they were going to say. I thought I knew what they were going to say. I had stopped listening to them and was kind of working out in my mind what I was going to say back to show them I was right, or they were wrong.

Some people say that the environmental crisis we face is so big that personal changes are not enough, that we need massive societal change?
What we really need to understand is that at the core of all these big environmental issues is how we treat each other. Now, we just don’t drop those issues and say, “Well, let’s forget deforestation and all that stuff, because the real issue is how we treat each other.” No, we have to take care of those issues as well. But the way we treat each other really brings us all together. Because when I talk to someone about carbon offsets or start talking about scientific things like economies of scale, I lose them. So when we find out something we’re doing is really hurting people, we modify our behavior not because of the environmental issues so much, but because of the people.

Are you hopeful for the future of the planet?
Absolutely. I wouldn’t do what I do if I wasn’t hopeful. I think that’s healthy way to be. It doesn’t mean that I’m just like, “Oh, gee, I hope things will work out.” I do things. I’m developing a curriculum for kids from K through 12, all the way to the university. It will get people out walking, and learning as they walk. I’m using the idea of walking and pilgrimage to teach about the environment.

How did it feel when you started to ride in cars again?
I learned a very important lesson. We all have to be open to change and reinventing ourselves. I guess that’s very difficult for all of us, no matter who we are or where we are. And for me, it was difficult because I was this guy who walks everywhere. Everybody knows I’m a walker. What’s going to happen when I get in an automobile? So I ride in cars, right now, and I have to do that in order to make this book a go. I have a responsibility to tell my story. I do continue to walk. I continue to say that walking is really something that we can all do. But at the same time, I fly around the world now, too.

Do you own a car?
I have a Prius that was given to me by some movie producer. They wanted the rights to my book to make a movie. And I was having dinner with this producer who drove up in his Prius. He said, “If you could drive any car in the world, what would you drive?” And I was going to say a Lamborghini. But I did say a Prius. And two weeks later, the guy calls us. He says, “I want you to have a Prius.”

How can the rest of us try to make a statement as meaningful as yours?
You know, the only person that you have a responsibility to change is yourself. Not anyone else. And we learn and teach each other. So people see what you’re doing and they’re going to learn from it. You see what someone else is doing, and you’re going to learn from it. We can all come up with our own journey, our own path, and have our own way of finding it. You don’t have to tell anyone how to do it. I didn’t go hide off in a monastery somewhere or hide in the wilderness. I was out in the world with people. People had to see that and they had to deal with me. And so I understood if people got really tired or really frustrated with me. What I was asking people to do was something huge—to help me to be who I am. And that’s all we can do. Discover who we are and be that person. What else is there?