Journey Dispatch #6
Welcome back to the USA 🇺🇸
Almost 5 months after setting sail from Montenegro, we arrived in Miami. The journey spanned 3 continents, 10 countries, 20 distinct islands, 7,000 miles, and 7 separate sailboats. Along the way, we met with leaders ranging from Bajan regeneration experts to the captain of Energy Observer. We made lifelong friends and learned more new skills than I can inventory.
But truth be told, we’re excited to be done with sailing. We wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything (and I feel extremely privileged to have found a way to hitchhike across two seas and an ocean). But near the end, I was struggling with the confinement; I craved the freedom to run through forests and set my own schedule, a yearning fed by diminished cardio stamina and a growing backlog of to-dos. So when Captain Mark suggested a nonstop sail between the North Exumas and Florida, Polo, Benoit and I happily agreed.
Two nights at sea later, the first sunrise over Miami’s skyline was a welcoming sight.
We immediately realized that arriving in Miami (during Spring Break, no less!) presented a complete pivot from life on the water. The city was abuzz, overstimulating, and chockablock with traffic. Little trademarks of life at home quickly made themselves known: giant cars, bold American flags, iPad-driven tipping culture. But there was no time for a gentle adjustment; we said goodbye to our captain and crew, grabbed a celebratory Cuban coffee, and immediately went thrifting. Our sailing foulies and cutoff shorts weren’t going to pass muster at our next destination…
Aspen Ideas: Climate
We set our sights on Florida as our gateway to the American continents because of a conference. In the winter, we received the news that Polo had been selected as part of the Future Leaders: Climate Summit (go Polo!!!) and we immediately knew we had to do our best to get him to Miami Beach in time for the meeting. For a while, it looked like we weren’t going to make it; but with the help of Captain Mark, we were there with two days to spare.
During five days in Miami Beach, we met hundreds of people working on every imaginable aspect of climate, from bioscientists to fiction authors to the current Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm.
We were blown away by the breadth and depth of the conference. We walked away re-energized about the criticality of climate action, across disciplines, and more assured of our path and our niche. I have dozens of takeaways to share from Miami Beach (which I may or may not write about later — many are still percolating in my road-weary mind) but the biggest came from not a single presentation but an overarching theme: it’s time to move from ideas to action.
Home to Houston + The Great Reset
We’re pressing pause on these Journey Dispatches for a few weeks; we’re taking some time to rest and rejuvenate in Houston with family + friends before continuing on to Mexico and Central America.
I also wanted to share about a bit of a reset we’re undergoing here at The Green Journey. We learned dozens of lessons during our first 10 months on the road, but one realization has kept popping up: we want to use our platform to drive lasting, large-scale change.
What does this mean for our readers? Well, not much in the short term. We’ll still be sharing stories of climate solutions here on Substack and Instagram, and charting a low-carbon course around the world. But as we think about how to grow our impact and work on what truly matters, we’re shifting focus towards a longer time horizon.
Think of it as an expedition mindset: we’re going to invest more energy into adventures that cover a critical climate priority in greater depth. Our hypothesis is that this will lead to better content and deeper learning, with more impact.
In that vein, we’re hard at work preparing something amazing right now. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements about our plans for Summer 2024! And thank you, as always, for supporting our journey
💚 Much love, Megan & Polo
🌳 Solution of the Week: Talking About Climate Solutions
Okay, admittedly this solution is somewhat meta and self-indulgent, since talking about climate solutions is what we do here at The Green Journey. But as Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist for the Nature Conservancy, emphasized across several panels and keynotes in Miami Beach, the majority of people are worried about climate change. But when it comes to taking action, paralysis prevails. And as Katherine says, “when it comes to climate change, many are still convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.”
That’s why, talking about solutions — whether it’s clean, affordable energy or the mental + physical health benefits of 15-minute cities — is a simple way to fight paralysis and realize the potential to build a better future. Thank you for joining the conversation.
📣💚 Shoutout to: Friends, New and Old
Let’s not be overly formal about it; the BEST part of Aspen was getting the chance to meet and hang out with a bunch of crazy-cool young people working in the climate space. It was super rejuvenating (and also validating!) to connect with a diverse, engaged group.
Lamisa, Mia, Jonathan, Suzie, Matt, Rose, Pooja, Jack, Teyha, Melina, Camille, Samantha, Carissa, Harvin, Bodhi, Amy. Kristy, Lamisa, Mia, Jonathan, Atharv, Kyra: Thank you all so much for sharing your brilliance + company. A special shoutout to David, Michael, Yadira C., and Yadira D., who went out of their way to welcome us to Miami, sharing homes and meals.
Also, shoutout to Varun Sharma: An unexpected benefit of posting on LinkedIn about our arrival in Miami was reconnecting with one of my best friends from college, who was unexpectedly in town on break from law school. Serendipity was on our side; it had been a whopping 1.5 years since we saw each other in person, so the chance to meet up was such a lovely gift.
❌ 🎒Travel fail: Greyhound Bus Lines
With no active Amtrak route covering Miami-Houston, we booked one-way tickets on the Greyhound and settled in for a personal record-breaking, 30 hour bus ride. We’re no stranger to long overland journeys, having taken lots of overnight buses in Europe — but the Greyhound was a harsh wakeup call to the broken state of the U.S. public transport system.
Dirty bus stations, delays, and uncomfortable seats we can handle; but being woken up and herded out of the bus THREE times in the darkness (8 PM, midnight, and four in the morning) was a first.
The experience shed a new light on the shortfalls and injustices stemming from bad public transport infrastructure. It’s hard to blame travelers for their carbon footprints from flying in the States when taking the bus is so dehumanizing, time-consuming, AND more expensive than a plane ticket.
It’s guaranteed that we have more of these bus-related travel fails coming up in the future, so stay tuned to help us figure out what can be done to fix this massive problem.
📸 Photo of the week: Beyond thrilled to arrive in Miami!
Journey Dispatches will return in Mid-April. Until then, stay tuned for some more climate solutions!
Varun!
Hope you guys make it to CO this summer.