Pubdate: Fri, 04 May 2001 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Copyright: 2001 The Sacramento Bee Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376 Author: David Barton, Bee Staff Writer Referenced: http://www.voiceyourself.com Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm HARRELSON: INDIVIDUALLY, WE MUST EASE UP ON EARTH Woody Harrelson meets a lot of people. When you're a handsome, likable actor with major successes in both TV and film, it just happens. "Every time I go to the airport I meet 20 people," he says. But, he says, his conversations tend to move quickly past the gushings of fans on to more substantial subjects. "We talk, and they feel dissatisfied," he says. "They know they're not being represented in this economy and this government." Like Harrelson, they feel that the mass culture, particularly as regards its industries and their impact on the environment, has become a nature-destroying juggernaut, what Harrelson calls "The Beast." "We have to ask ourselves, 'How are we feeding The Beast on an individual, daily basis?' " he says. "I'm talking about our individual footprint. Do we have a light footprint on the Earth?" It is with those people in mind that Harrelson, 39, is putting the rubber to the road. But no airports this time. Instead, Harrelson and a group of five friends are taking a month to ride down the West Coast, covering 1,500 miles from Seattle to Los Angeles, hoping to raise awareness of the importance of what he calls "simple organic living." Today, Harrelson and his crew will be riding out to Sac State in time for Harrelson to give a free talk at the University Union at noon. Harrelson's devotion to both the practical and the pleasurable uses of the hemp plant -- the bus that is supporting his riding crew runs on hemp oil -- has earned him notoriety. It has also led some to consider his views somehow on the fringe. He begs to differ. "I think it's already a fairly popular consciousness in this century," he says by phone from Arcata, a few days before he reaches Sacramento. "There are groups of people all over this country, all over the world, that are talking about sustainability. They are people who want a change, they're not happy with how society is, they want to get off the grid, to live outside of that." Harrelson says that on his coastal ride, he's meeting a lot of people like that. "We're meeting up with a lot of different people, from lumberjacks to Ken Kesey (the countercultural rebel of the '60s)," he says. "I stopped yesterday and there was this guy who chisels wood with a chain saw, and the art was amazing, you'd have to see it, I can't describe it. He does all these different animals, and the sound of this chain saw ... well, I never equated a chain saw with art before." But Harrelson says that he's also seen some of the damage that can be done with a chain saw. "Riding along, we passed all these trucks going this and that direction with all these corpses of what were magnificent trees," he says. "And all I could think was, 'This is so unnecessary.' Up until the 1800s, 90 percent of paper was made from hemp, from stuff that was agricultural waste, not these gorgeous, irreplaceable trees." But the ride, and the lecture, are not just an occasion for Harrelson to bemoan ecological destruction. He wants to propose, and model, alternatives. A big part of that model is hemp, which has numerous uses, but fell out of favor when its cousin, cannabis sativa, or marijuana, was made illegal. Harrelson says he wears hemp clothing and that the bus that runs on hemp oil is doing just fine. Electricity on the bus is provided by solar panels, and the floor is sustainably harvested cork. "It's a model," he says. "There are models for simple, sustainable living out there. I'm encouraging kids to find that model within themselves." Harrelson says that he tries to be a model, noting that he lives in his truck in Hawaii with solar electricity, but he also admits, "I'm not part of this group of people who isn't knocked out by the stimulating carnival of events that surrounds us all the time. I'm no Ed Begley Jr. (an actor acquaintance who Harrelson says is religiously environmentally conscious). But I try." With the idea of empowering individuals, and of uniting people with environmental concerns, Harrelson has started a Web site, www.voiceyourself.com. On it, he is currently keeping visitors updated on the bike tour's progress, but it also features information on the tour bus. Eventually, the site will feature "Wood's Goods," what he says will be "a virtual store for small businesses that are making great alternative, sustainable products." And, he adds, when enough people are involved with the site, "I want to start boycotts against multinational corporations who are destroying the environment." But for now, Harrelson says that the change that needs to take place is spiritual as well as practical. "I do think we have to change in a lot of outward ways," he says, "But I think that personal transformation equals political transformation. There needs to be a love revolution, really." - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew