1) What inspired you to become an explorer and environmentalist?
In 2004 I had an environmental epiphany. I was reading a book about the Hopi tribe, and their belief that we have to look after the Earth if we want it to look after us. That hit me with all the force of a fundamental truth. I was horrified that I hadn’t realized this very obvious fact sooner, and appalled at my past carelessness in over-consumption and careless disposal. I resolved that I would do what I could to wake other people up to the fact that we can’t carry on treating the Earth this way and expect to have a healthy future.
But I needed a platform for my message, and I found it in rowing solo across oceans.
2) What kind of training did you do to prepare for rowing the pacific?
Training is really the least part of my preparations. I have a pretty relaxed attitude to training, spending between 30 and 90 minutes a day in the gym (depending on my other commitments) – pretty much a “fitness for life” philosophy, i.e. the kind of training that any person would do to maintain strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness, and to keep their body relatively fit and lean.
The much bigger parts of my preparation are fundraising, refurbishing the boat, arranging logistics and media coverage.
3) What are your strongest memories from rowing the pacific?
The sad memories would include seeing pieces of plastic suspended throughout the water column, even thousands of miles from land. The great ocean wilderness is far from pristine now.
Good memories would include the wildlife I saw – whales, dolphins, turtles, pelagic birds, and even a whale shark. And the stars – I love to look up at the stars as I brush my teeth at the end of a long day’s rowing and feel connected to everything.
4) Do you think climate change is a real and immediate threat?
I think it is absolutely real, yes. How can we think that we can keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere and for it not to have consequences? For a long time humans could get away with more, because there were fewer of us. But now we are nearly 7 billion, and although the world is large, you can take it from someone who has rowed around most of it that it is not large enough to continue to take this abuse.
5) You launched an anti-plastic bag campaign with Greener Upon Thames and Zac Goldsmith. What do you think are the effects of plastic on the environment?
Plastic is just about everywhere now, throughout our ecosystem and getting into our food and our bodies. The real tragedy is that most of the plastic that we generate has a useful life of about 20 minutes (think plastic bags, bottles, and drinking straws) and yet has an afterlife of many decades. It simply makes no sense to make “disposable” items out of an indestructible substance.
6) Who inspires you as a person?
I get inspired by the people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get on with tackling a problem. There is nothing special about these people, other than that they go from complaining to acting. Talk is easy, but we need action. Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, is a particular hero of mine. He is intelligent, well-informed, passionate, and relevant. Anita Roddick was also a real role model for me. I love the way she used her shop windows to wage campaigns on everything from rainforest destruction to human rights.
7) What can people do to be more green?
The first step is to take responsibility, and to recognize that every action counts. If we wait around for governments and corporations to do the right thing, we will be waiting a very long time indeed, and the ecosystem will be damaged beyond repair by then. We all need to recognize that every time we buy something, or throw something away, or choose how to get from A to B, we are casting a vote for the kind of future that we want. We have to cast those votes wisely.
I’d also like to point out that we are not talking about saving the planet. The planet will be fine, given a few billennia. We are talking about saving the human race. We are not as resilient as the planet is, and if we don’t wise up really soon, we will have altered our world so much that it can no longer support human life.
8) Any advice for those wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Or oarstrokes!
There is nothing special about me. I just found a cause that concerned me so deeply that I couldn’t stand by and watch the world go to hell in a handcart. That motivated me to overcome all kinds of fears and limitations. Even now, I occasionally suffer a wobble, and wonder if I can continue – either with the rowing, or with the campaigning. And I just have to remind myself to take it one oarstroke at a time, and I can accomplish almost anything.
9) What’s next?
Indian Ocean this year, North Atlantic next year, and then I hang up my oars and find a less physically strenuous way of cam