Living Like Ed

So I met Ed Begley Jr. yesterday at the Green Living Show in Vancouver. He is a wonderfully down to earth, humble gentleman. I stepped outside of my comfort zone at the trade show and stood up in front of the crowd of people who were there to sit in awe of this man and listen to him talk and asked him a couple of questions.

To my first question "The people of Vancouver are skeptical about solar panels due to the lack of solar rays available to us. What is a good alternative energy source we can apply instead?" (the crowd giggled at this). He suggested a small vertical access wind turbine.
My second question was just plain cheeky. "Would you sign my book with my non-toxic, recycled marker?" (again, the crowd giggled). He said he'd be more than pleased! So I got mine signed to me and a second one signed for Shelley, the environmental officer for Lush and he told me to come find him after so we could chat some more. So I did.

I walked around the show for about an hour or so after his talk as he had a long, long line-up waiting for him at the Chapters booth. I went back later and had another chat with him about what I do for Lush, how I was honoured to meet him and that I promised to use his book to help Green out the Lush factory more than it already was. I got an opportunity to introduce Shelley to him after as well. I'm not sure why but she used that meeting to embarrass me on purpose in front of Ed... she told him that I was thinking about getting an electric bike for riding to and from work (he's a supporter of electric bikes but she made me look like an ass). I think that's her weird way of motivating me to ride to work, it's a bit ass-backwards if you ask me but whatever. At least it will give me an excuse to email him later when I DO eventually start riding to work.

Another hi-light of my day was seeing Jean-Michel Cousteau give a talk about his recent work in the Amazon and his upcoming projects with our local killer whales. I couldn't stop laughing to myself about the stark comparison to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Here's a link to his organization The Ocean Futures Society. Something he shared with us was about a recent trip to a secluded Hawaiian Island during his study of the North Western reefs and the sharks that live there. He says he sat on the beach and within reach of where he was on the sand was garbage that represented 52 countries (based on his collection of these items and verifying the country of sale): mascara tubes, toothbrushes, medicine bottles... All had washed up on shore from the deep ocean.
*shudder*
I'm looking forward to watching his new documentary in 3D at the Imax that will be narrated by Daryl Hannah! =)