Cross-country bikers measure environmental concerns
By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
What better way to learn what people are doing to help preserve the environment than by bicycle?
That’s the thought behind Jeff Hyland and Mike Tryon’s 3,000 cross-country documentary to speak with people from all walks of life regarding their feelings on environmental concerns.
The two men left Orange County, Calif. on New Year’s Day, and are traveling cross-country, conversing with everyone from farmers to politicians, scientists and Native Americans, as they travel to Key West, Fla., which they hope to reach by the end of April.
“We’re trying to get people to realize that even though we live in a consumer culture, and we have to consume resources, we need to think about the way we do it, and it’s impact on the environment,” Hyland said.
The goal is to get an idea of where America as a nation stands on environmental health-related issues, a sort of national temperature-taking, for the purposes of an environmental documentary, which the two men hope to finish later this year in time for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
They also plan to enter the documentary in environmental and bicycle film festivals.
“We don’t feel the environment is just a science issue,” Hyland said. “We’re also getting a religious perspective. At the core of every religion is a command to be good stewards of the earth.”
The two were passing on their way to meet with scientists in Baton Rouge, and passed through the Acadiana region, spending a couple days in Eunice last week.
“We came through to get a flavor of Cajun country, to sample the food, the music, and to meet with people. It’s a unique culture that needs to be preserved,” Hyland said.
Once in Baton Rouge, the two hope to discuss organic farming and the fate of New Orleans with professors from Louisiana State University and Tulane.
Details of their journey can be found at www.southern-tier.net.