I was born in Detroit and fortunate enough to grow up on a happy dirt road about a 30 minute drive outside of the city. I now live in Southeast Asia where the weather’s either warm or hot and the fruit’s fresh, cheap, and abundant all year round. In 2002 I stepped aboard a plane for the first time with the intention of spending a summer in China which would be my first time in a foreign language speaking land. I ended up staying in East Asia longer than one summer, in fact I’ve only been back to the States once since 2005 and that was in 2011 for my Dad’s funeral. Although I don’t want to move back to the States I would like to visit however in 2005 in light of the climate crisis I recognized that it was irresponsible for me to fly halfway around the world every year or two therefore I decided I needed to pick a region to call home and I chose East Asia.

My nomadic/migratory lifestyle in East Asia was awesome but In 2015 I committed to not even flying within the region. I used to take about 3 round-trip short-haul flights a year for a total of around 12 hours of annual flight time to avoid overstaying my 3 to 6 month visas or applying for too many back to back. This also allowed me to regularly mix up my fruits, vegetables, and general surroundings which was much appreciated and is sorely missed. Technically I can still go wherever I want as long as I don’t drive or fly there but when you need to take an uncomfortable and/or painfully slow bus, train, or boat to where you’re going you think long and hard about whether or not you really need to go. Moreover although buses, trains, and boats are generally much better in environmental terms than driving or flying these forms of public transportation are still powered by burning fossil fuels which is something humanity can no longer afford to do.

I mentioned all this because I hope that my little sacrifices as a flightless vegan will inspire others to drive less and walk/bike more, fly less and take the bus/train more, eat less animals and more plants, and to consume less and conserve more resources while recognizing what is and isn’t required to live a happy and healthy life. With that said thanks again for visiting and checking out my small contribution to promoting health, freethought, and animal rights (particularly human rights) in order to help improve public, social, and environmental health along with humanities prospects for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future.

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