Le Grand Départ
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world. Not all those who wander are lost. The mountains are calling and I must go. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future…
The problem with many of these oft-cited quotes about ‘leaving it all behind’ to go adventuring is that you can’t tell if they were written by John Muir, Gandalf, or ChatGPT. But as I wander through Yosemite National Park, with the snow-capped crest of Half Dome to my back, I don’t particularly care which bearded wise man first spoke the words that drive my wanderlust.
It’s December 21, 2020. The first COVID-19 vaccines have just been administered; a new U.S. president has just been elected; the EU has just increased its GHG reduction targets; and the world is awaiting 2021 with bated breath, unsure what promises and perils the new year will hold.
But one thing, for me, is for certain - months of quarantine, endless Zoom meetings, and confinement have set in motion a course of events that will shake up my vision of what the next few years look like…
But before we get into all that - let me take a step back and introduce myself. I’m Megan, and with my partner Polo, we’ve taken the oft-dreamed of leap to quit our corporate jobs, sell our stuff, and pack our 50-liter backpacks with just the bare minimum to travel the world. But this is not going to be a story of hacking credit card points and airline miles to jet between far-off destinations. And (I hope) it’s not going to be navel-gazing quest of beatnik self-discovery like in On The Road. Instead, we’re setting out to re-imagine how and why we travel.
So what is The Green Journey?
Welcome to The Green Journey, a first-of-its-kind adventure to create and share stories of climate hope while traveling the world using low-carbon, slow travel.
The idea for The Green Journey first took flight on a hike in Yosemite that day in December 2020, when I shared with Polo my then-aspiration to visit the 63 National Parks before I turned 30. Polo looked at me with raised eyebrows, and, with the slightly superior laugh that only a French guy can pull off, challenged me to expand my horizons beyond the U.S. and consider traveling the world with him instead.
(At this point, I should probably mention we’d been together in person for three weeks after meeting on a Zoom conference call on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean but hey - that’s love in the time of COVID-19 for you.)
In the two years that followed that discussion, we bounced around the ideas. We were both working in consulting, advising climate tech startups and larger companies on decarbonization and sustainability strategy. It was exciting stuff - we met a lot of incredible people working on climate, and got to see up close the building momentum around energy transition. So when we thought about traveling - we were both excited about the concept, but nervous about quitting these jobs. We wanted to have fun and experience the joy and adventure that travel brings at a young age - but we were both adamant about the importance of continuing to work on the climate crisis. And so we kept coming back to a central theme - if we were going to ‘leave it all behind’ and hit the road, we needed to try to create something greater than ourselves.
After all, the world keeps getting warmer - and the global carbon budget is shrinking. And with each day that passes, we see more and more the truth of Barack Obama’s 2015 proclamation - we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.
The Green Journey is an adventure to meet, share, and explore with the changemakers in our generation who are doing something about it.
Why us?
Let’s face it - when you look up ‘badass world travelers’ in the dictionary, we might not be the first entry. I stand at a formidable five-foot-zero in shoes, and Polo essentially cannot function without his daily nap. We’ve both always been travelers at heart, having completed long-distance hikes (Megan), bikes (Polo), and living in several U.S. cities together before settling in Berkeley, California - but candidly, a few years have passed since our last big adventure.
But one of the goals of The Green Journey is to show that you don’t need to be a millionaire / superhuman / Instagram model to travel the world. And more importantly, we’re out to show that anyone, anywhere can make a positive impact in the fight against climate change. Despite the fact that this newsletter has been a deeper introduction about ‘us’ (perhaps a necessity of an introductory issue) most of the journey will focus on the narratives of the places we go and the people we meet.
Don’t think of us as travel influencers or bloggers - because we’re not. Instead, see us as your connection to learn more about the climate crisis in a way that inspires hope about a post-carbon future.
How can a world tour possibly be ‘climate positive’?
Whether you’re a seasoned follower of the climate movement or a casual reader of New York Times headlines, you probably have some skepticism about what ‘climate positive’ truly means - especially given confusing corporate jargon and greenwashing surrounding the subject. And wait a minute - wasn’t the term ‘carbon footprint’ invented by Big Oil to shift the blame for the ever-warming planet away from the primary role it plays in ecological calamity?
So yes - we understand your skepticism. We even share it! After all, Megan’s favorite book is The Great Derangement, where Amitav Ghosh so aptly points out that climate is not just a crisis of a physical world, but of communication and imagination as well.
So, to hold ourselves accountable as we travel, we’ve penned a mini-manifesto of principles that direct us to (1) reduce our environmental impact (2) respect communities and cultures and (3) restore by leaving the world a better place than you found it. We’ll cover the detailed mandate behind each of these in a future issue of this Substack, but for now I encourage you to focus on the last part - we’ll consider The Green Journey a success if we manage to do what our kindergarten teachers encouraged and leave each place we go a little cleaner than we found it!
But, for those of you who think in numbers - fear not. While you’ll learn from following along that the climate crisis is about much more than just carbon, we will diligently track the carbon emissions associated with our transportation, avoid some methods of getting to point A to B entirely, and intersperse our travels with dedicated volunteering time to work on regenerative agriculture and rewilding projects to ensure our personal carbon number ends in the green (no pun intended).
Are you going to travel the whole world?
That’s the goal! But The Green Journey has a unique twist - instead of being guided by number of passport stamps obtained, miles traveled, or souvenirs collected, we track our progress in terms of climate hotspots visited. Climate hotspots, in brief - are the most significant places in the fight to keep the planet livable. But to us, the stories of climate hotspots are not just ones of doom and gloom - and we’re not setting out to clog your feed with more images of melting glaciers and burning forests. .
Here at The Green Journey, you’ll learn about great things that are already being done to reimagine our shared future - like the conversion of an old airport into a public park, or the fact that Spain gets nearly half its energy from renewable sources! Doesn’t that sound like a breath of fresh air?
We’re keeping the list of climate hotspots under wraps for now but can tease that we’ll be visiting Białowieża Forest and the Arctic in the coming weeks. Also, we expect to add and evolve the itinerary as the climate crisis evolves - so please reach out if you have something to say about the climate hotspots near - and far - from you!
Where are you going first?
We’re setting off from Nantes, France - a fitting starting point as the 2014 European Green Capital, the birthplace of adventure writer Jules Verne, and perhaps most conveniently - the longtime home of Polo’s family. From Nantes, we’ll make our way through Northern Europe, passing through Berlin, Warsaw, Tallinn, and Stockholm before rounding our way back into France for the Mad Jacques Creuse Festival to complete Step 1 of our journey by mid-June.
We’ll spend the rest of the summer rambling our way through Europe - stay tuned for the adventures ahead, which include a 2000km+ bikepacking trip from Venice to Athens. Our objective is to then sail across the Atlantic with the autumn easterlies and continue the adventure across South America heading into 2024! (Side note: we still need to find a boat that will accept us as crew - so don’t hesitate to reach out if you know a sailor / are a sailor who might be willing to take us along for a transatlantic crossing).
How can I join the adventure?
Well, if you’ve read this far, you can already consider yourself a supporter! But seriously - the most important thing you can do to help as we launch the project is follow our content on Instagram (THEGREEN.JOURNEY) and our website (launching soon) and of course, subscribe to this Substack!
I’ll use the same overused writer’s technique to close this newsletter that I used to start it and end with a trite quote (and a promise to do better in the next issue!)
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.
The Green Journey has a whole world to travel and plenty of time to do it, so we if you liked this post, we truly appreciate you sharing it with your network to help us continue beyond our periphery and share our story!
— Megan and Polo
Megan! I love when friends start blogs. Looking forward to keeping up with your journey. I love the concept and am excited to see what you all discover.