General News
Inspired by the success of the Walk Against Warming event, self-described fan of the environment Juan Martinez is staging a one-man road trip to fight climate change. With a “honk if you hate fossil fuels” bumper sticker firmly in place, Martinez will drive his dilapidated Kombi van on a whistle-stop tour to his local shopping centre, spreading his anti-global warming message to fellow motorists on the way. “Think global, act local,” he says.
Martinez says he had intended to participate in the Walk Against Warming, but somehow “never got round to it.”
“I started off thinking about a bike-ride, but I’m not in great shape, and it’s pretty dangerous with all the cars on the road. Then I thought I’d drive a hybrid car, but they’re pretty pricey,” he says. Martinez points out that driving allows him to carry tens of thousands of information booklets printed on high-quality paper.
This is not the first time the semi-committed activist has mounted a campaign of this kind. He once had a team of sky-writers spell out “RATIFY THE KYOTO PROTOCOL NOW” in the skies above Brisbane. But not everyone supports the campaigner’s stances.
“People are pretty quick to criticize,” he says. “They’ll point out that what I’m doing not only harms the environment, but also requires no real effort. But it’s often the little things that make a difference. If everyone just left their air-conditioner on full-blast 24-hours a day, temperatures wouldn’t rise as fast. And we can all do our bit for the water crisis by using bottled water whenever we can.”
Martinez is now planning a weekend-long lounge-room “stoned sit in” to advocate the decriminalization of marijuana.