Taylor Livingston is inspiring, to say the least.  He made up his mind upon graduating college to immediately immerse himself in an endeavor that relates to his environmental studies major and which was partially conceived at Huxley College of the Environment http://www.wwu.edu/depts/huxley/, a division of Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, where he attained his degree.

 

This endeavor has many phases, so numerous that a large business would have trouble implementing them all in an orderly and timely fashion.  One aspect relates directly to one of Taylor's passions - riding his bike.  He enjoys it for a myriad of reasons; pleasure, exercise, getting to and fro in Bellingham, but his two green reasons, as he "rants" (had to throw that in, Taylor) in his travel blog, is to GET AWAY from the dependence of an automobile as the major mode of transportation to reduce traffic and carbon emissions.  'The perspective from a bicycle is truly unique, everything slows down as opposed to always being on the offensive and defensive in a car.  You learn to appreciate and see the immediate world around you through calmer and clearer senses - biking becomes transcendental.'

 

So, Taylor decided to ride his bike from Blaine, WA, at the Canadian border, to the Mexican border at Baja, a total of almost 2,000 miles, all in the name of raising funds to help implement The Guatemala Urban Disaster Risk Reduction.  What is this you ask?  A third of the town in Villa Nueva, Guatemala live in 'squatter settlements' on steep and unstable slopes, which are thrown together with inferior materials in one night (commonplace in areas throughout Latin America), and are extremely prone to high risk environmental factors such as landslides and earthquakes.  They are considered illegal and remain unserviced, and therefore, dangerous to its inhabitants and the communities around them.  After a survey of these households and many focus groups,  landslides, which primarily occur from inadequate drainage from rainfall, and secondarily from garbage-blocked drains which disrupt the flow of storm water were determined to be the greatest threat and risk to not only the squatters encampments, but also to the communities built at the bottom of these slopes.

 

Huxley College of the Environment and Oxfam, a large international humanitarian aid organization, are working together to develop an outline to use for urban disaster risk reduction in Villa Nueva as a tool for social, political, and economic community development in these settlements.  Oxfam is also interested in exploring the possibilities for a multi-year university collaboration, hoping that the skills and capacity of Huxley students, faculty and staff can encourage an innovative and energized approach to urban risk in Guatemala and beyond.  Hopefully, Taylor's ride will be his way of getting the word out about this potentially dangerous situation's impact on the environment and to start to raise much needed funds for this project!

 

 

 

He can't pick up every piece of paper, bottle, can and cigarette butt he sees, but whenever he happens to notice a big mess on the side of the road, he stops and puts it in his trailer (similar to a side seat, but hooked on to the back of his bike, where he stores camping gear, food, supplies etc.) and then later recycles what he can and photographs it for the record.  Taylor says that the most distressing part of all the trash he sees is the inordinate amount of cheap malt liquor cans and bottles that are all over the place.  This is upsetting to Taylor, not only because of the littering problem, but because people are drinking and driving in their cars and littering to boot!  I asked him how much trash is on the side of the road and how many dumpsters would it fill, "Insurmountable!"  He did add that when he biked through the California Redwoods that he saw a lot less trash, most likely because they impose a $1,000.00 fine!  Makes me think that a fine like that should be in place all over our roadways!  It would certainly make someone think twice before they decide to ditch their trash out the window!

 

I just checked Taylor's last blog and he was in San Elijo camping two days ago (August 22nd) and he said that he was thinking of spending a couple of days there before heading to central San Diego and then on to his final destination and the end of this incredible journey, the US/Mexican border at San Ysidro.  I just called  him to see where he was and he decided to push on early from Encinitas, he reached the border yesterday (August 23rd) and is now relaxing in La Jolla with friends before he goes to Poway to visit family for a few days.

 

 

 

 

I stand up and applaud you Taylor for your vision and seeing it through!  It is quite an accomplishment for so many reasons and, again, hopefully, your journey will inspire many others to act on what they believe in so, they too can have a positive affect on the world around them.