It is impossible for us aged ones around here to read this story without thinking of Spike Milligan:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Backward step for mankind: man walks 800km in reverse to save Indonesia’s forests[/perfectpullquote]Yes, OK, so they’ve gone for the Apollo 11 reference but there’s a better one:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] A man from a village in East Java has embarked on an unconventional mission to raise awareness about preserving forests: he is walking 800km to Indonesia’s capital, backwards. Medi Bastoni hopes that, after taking thousands of steps backwards – and hopefully forwards for mankind – he will have the opportunity to meet President Joko Widodo so he can ask him for a symbolic tree seed, which he intends to plant on the slopes of Mount Wilis. [/perfectpullquote]Spike having given us this:
And our man in Java is doing it for the same reason too – to show that I love yooooouo!
The wrong line to quote being the “it’s just a publicity stunt”
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I wonder if Mr. Bastoni is carrying out this pointless activity on his own?
If he is a well-established environmental activist, he will have a support team, a publicity manager, equipment providers and a lot of hangers-on. All these people will want paying. He will probably have a sponsorship team to handle the income and distribution. He will be in receipt of grants from several environmental foundations.
All this work goes to keep the financial wheels of environmentalism flowing. Because, as Northcote Parkinson observed, work has to expand to justify people's salaries. Once upon a time, environmentalists may have done something useful. That time is long past, but in order to maintain themselves and the structure they have built up, they now need to walk backwards towards Krakatoa*.
* Actually Anak Krakatau - but it's a good illustration of how nature is rarely cuddly....