Climate Change Activist's Barefoot Walk Across America Ends in Tragedy

MarkBaumer2.jpg

Climate Change Activist's Barefoot Walk Across America Ends in Tragedy


I'm so sorry to share this...

Do you remember this posting?: https://www.thebarefootrunners.org/...-to-protest-climate-change.20032/#post-185696


Climate Change Activist's Barefoot Walk Across America Ends in Tragedy
New York Times
On Oct. 13, he published a video on his YouTube page as he set out on his journey with a barefoot run from Providence to Coventry.

Be sure to read the whole article to the end here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/mark-baumer-killed-climate-change-activist.html?_r=0


Sometimes because of my bare feet and the lack of daily contact, I feel like a ghost.

That was one of the final entries of a blog diary by Mark Baumer, a Rhode Island man who was walking barefoot across the United States to call attention to climate change.

It was written on Day 90 of his trek, but his stream of photographs and anecdotes stopped on Jan. 21, Day 100. At 1:15 p.m. on that day, Mr. Baumer, 33, was walking on the shoulder of U.S. 90 in northern Florida when an S.U.V. left its lane and hit him, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. He was pronounced dead at the site. To continue reading, please visit: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/mark-baumer-killed-climate-change-activist.html?_r=0


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Sad. Such a waste. Maybe we could have helped him. To tell you the truth, I had this eerie feeling when I read TJ's first posting, and from reading the early posts, that he seemed quite depressed. This was not his first cross-country walk, and he was "dropping out" much older, past his 20's. Never done any substantial barefooting before. Desperately looking for meaning in climate-change "activism." Now, I'm admittedly on the other end of the political spectrum, but I don't object when constructive action is taken. I've got a daughter studying environmental science in college, and I think she's got something to contribute. I've got a boy in grad school, too, working on environmentally-sound pest control. I really love nature and its simple pleasures. I've also got my "daredevil" side, and so do my kids. But this kind of "I'm going to save the whole world" protest...seemed eerily wrong, lacking constructive direction. Well, he made his "statement" with his life lived on such terms, but at such a cost! Of course, no one could have foretold he'd get hit: That wasn't his fault. But rather than this grandiose one-time statement, he could have made a zillion little statements: a zillion barefoot commutes to work, posted his mileage like anyone on this website, kept himself healthy for years to come, raised a crew of barefoot, environmentally-aware kids...No. I'm not saying he actively sought to become a climate-change "martyr," but the seed seemed there, and it seems more apparent from his last posts, the picture with the word "killed," "notgoingtomakeit," not sure if his thoughts will survive. Well, he certainly got attention to himself and his issue in his death: He made the New York Times. Sad.
 
Yes, it's a tragedy. He did do a couple of things that helped raise his chances of being hit. First was walking on roads. These days, with everyone and his uncle texting, that's scary right off the bat. Then there was the walking on the white line because it made his feet hurt less. Let's see how close we can get to those texting drivers. And lastly, there was this from the article - "He also said he would not move for cars but would heed to trucks because: 'They'll really mess you up.'" Playing chicken with cars going highway speeds when the driver doesn't even know he's in the game is just asking for trouble. No, he shouldn't have been hit. But arguably he could have been more careful.
 
Sad indeed. May he rest in peace. It's also kind of eerie how there were all those signs at the end were prognosticating his demise? Probably coincidental, and the actual death accidental, but then again the very last video showed him quite engaged in political shouting with folks roadside while standing apparently on or close to the white line and not even looking at oncoming motorists that appeared to be traveling quite fast there (around 2:40 on the day 100 video).

Anyhow it's stuff like this that freaks me out about running/cycling on the road. I hear reports of cyclists or runners getting killed far to often. I dislike being on the road around here. Population is increasing, roads are getting more congested, even the countryside around here which was nice and quite now has houses popping up shoulder to shoulder in spots and a constant flow of traffic at times. And now instead of a radio with a few station we have entire computerized entertainment consoles with digital displays and touchscreen controls that you have to actually look at and read to operate, not to mention cell phones and portable electronics. It's nice that they are putting in dedicated bike trails, and also bike lanes in town, but their execution has plenty of flaws like sometimes very confusing turns or intersections and how often these bike lanes end suddenly without much warning right in busy downtown intersections. I get anxiety just thinking about it. And the rail trail here closes at dark for some reason. Like just when you want to get off the road the most, you can't! It seems to me things are still getting worse, not really better, and I'm not sure what the solution is to safety on the road. I just want to live in a small cabin on the side of a mountain and hope there is a paved rail-trail nearby. :D
 
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That is sad, he was obviously frustrated by the way the election had turned out in what these days is a process that has been corrupted by money.
I think if I was planning a walk across country I would have looked for quiet backroads or trails well away from the traffic. I know that would make it a little less prominent if you are trying to get a message across. Knowing how many things there are to distract drivers in cars these days, phones, kids, satnavs, video there is no way I would walk along busy main roads especially in the horrible conditions he was walking in.
As Ira mentioned I is sometimes better to make the smaller changes to your life if you want to make an effect. I've been a vegetarian for well over 30 years and just over a year ago I gave up all the dairy also and contrary to popular belief I didn't waste away and die of malnutrition but my little change maybe meant a few less animals have to suffer on my behalf, lots of little changes lead to bigger changes.

Neil
 
A very good documentary to watch that opens your eyes to things that I was ignorant about. I always wondered why cows always produced milk, I just thought it was something they did all the time, gee I must have been dumb. But then again the truth is hidden away or else people wouldn't buy the product.
It is pretty weird that we feed cows milk to human babies, very weird. Lucky there are no extra terrestrials observing us as they would think we are the most illogical species on the planet.
Wear big shoes to run and drink cows milk.

Neil
 
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Yeah, sadly the truth is always hidden, got to keep the profits rolling in and f*** the environment and people's health.

People still are under the illusion that they need to eat animal products for health when the opposite is actually true - it's the animal products that are causing all the chronic diseases.
 
Every human can be the healthy on a vegan diet. I would stay clear of big food and big pharma funded whore sites. All 4 of those reasons in you link are utter nonsense. Do some real research.
 
To answer the psuedo science in the above link...

Vitamin A...

No wholefood vegan is deficient in vitamin A. Population studies have consistently shown that diets that contain no cooked-carrion as having the highest vitamin A. Americans - who are amongst the highest cooked-carrion feeders in the world have vitamin A noted as a nutrient of concern within the cooked-carrion feeding community. Once again, i point out, wholefood vegans do not have vitamin A deficiencies.

Microbiome...

Wholefood vegans have the healthiest microbiomes and the healthiest bowels. In all population studies we suffer the least from all bowel health issues. Nuff said!

K2...

Let's look at this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K2#Health_effects

As stated, the jury is completely out on all views on K2, however, let's look at each health benefit proclaimed...

Bone strength... wholefood vegans have no issues with bone strength, dairy feeders have the highest rates of osteoporosis and hip fractures.
Arterial health... wholefood vegans have the healthiest arteries, cooked-carrion, dairy and egg feeders have the worst.
Blood pressure... wholefood vegans have the healthiest blood pressures, cooked-carrion, dairy, egg and junk feeders have the worse.

So all in all what exactly is a wholefood vegan missing by not getting K2 from dead stuff?

Amylase and Starch Tolerance...

Wholefood vegans do not have any insulin problems unless they got them before they became wholefood vegans and even then the insulin issues are greatly reduced if not cured completely. Insulin sensitivi
ty is caused by fat, not starch, and animal protein spikes insulin as much as pure sugar does. A wholefood vegan cannot get diabetes - simply impossible. Only cooked-carrion, dairy, egg and junk feeders get diabetes.

Choline...

While choline in a wholefood vegan diet causes no health problems whatsoever, choline in a cooked-carrion, dairy and egg feeding diet creates TMAO - not something you want to have swimming around your blood stream, especially with all the cholesterol that cooked-carrion, dairy and egg fills your body with. Wholefood vegans do not suffer from choline deficiencies.

The reality...

Show me a wholefood vegan that is deficient in any of the above - there simply isn't any. Give me any human being that hasn't already destroyed their bodies irreparably by eating cooked-carrion, dairy, eggs and junk and if they follow a wholefood vegan diet properly they will become more healthy, less diseased and live longer and have no deficiencies whatsoever. The same can't be said for cooked-carrion, dairy, egg and junk food feeders.
 
Yeah, right.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/142427.php
http://www.pravdareport.com/news/science/mysteries/30-03-2016/133997-vegetarians_colon_cancer-0/
http://news.sky.com/story/vegetarian-gene-linked-to-colon-cancer-10222889

No human society anywhere, anytime, ever ate a vegan diet prior to cheap food processing technology. Given the wide range of environments colonized by humans, the odds that the diet is optimal are tiny. Can some people thrive on a vegan diet? Certainly. Can all? Don't be silly. The stereotype of the emaciated angry vegan exists for a reason. People are not all identical. I know one person who did well on a vegan diet so long as he stayed very active and quite a few who had serious problems. Please don't encourage others to engage in disordered eating, there's enough of that going around as it is.
 
No human society anywhere, anytime, ever ate a vegan diet prior to cheap food processing technology.
This just shows your utter ignorance. Wholefood vegans have always existed and still do, wholefood vegans do not consume processed food - that's what wholefood means. You do understand this don't you?

The reality is...

If humans were meant to eat carrion then why do you need to cook it?

If human beings were meant to suck on the nipples of other animals then name a natural animal that will let you suck on it's nipples.

If human beings were meant to eat bird periods then name a bird that sheds periods (unfertilised eggs) naturally in nature.

Keep going to the corporate bs websites. They know absolutely nothing about wholefood plant based diets and you obviously know even less.

Eating cooked carrion, refusing to be weaned and eating bird periods is disordered eating. That's why it causes cancer, heart attacks, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, flu, dementia, Alzheimer's, motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, stroke, IBS, diverticulitis, appendicitis, and many other health issues, illnesses and diseases. And all population studies throughout history have shown this to be true, that those eating the most wholefood vegan diets live the healthiest, fittest and longest and those eating the most carrion, dairy and bird periods are the unhealthiest and live the shortest.

A wholefood vegan diet is not disordered eating and it only shows how ignorant and uninformed you are to declare it as such. Keep listening to your meat head friends because they obviously know everything about wholefood vegan diets.

I will never stop encouraging everyone who cares about their health and the health of the planet to move to a wholefood vegan diet - it's the only natural diet for primates which is why all primates thrive on it.
 
And as to your 3 links to vegetarians having higher risk of ass cancer...

What's that got to do with wholefood vegan diets? If people refuse to wean themselves and insist on sucking on other animals nipples then it's hardly surprising that they will become ill. As i say this has nothing to do with wholefood vegan diets.

And you managed to find one single study that showed this effect. Wow! Not that i care. Wholefood vegans do not get ass cancer - carrion feeders do and dairy feeders do and bird period feeders do and to be frankly honest, i don't care which of those diets has the highest risk of ass cancer, i won't get ass cancer so it doesn't bother me or any other wholefood vegan whatsoever. Have at it in your pointless squabble while you have the colostomy bag fitted.

Other than that, whether the study is accurate or not, it fully supports a wholefood vegan diet - we encourage all humans only to be breast fed by wholefood vegan humans and to be weaned early in life because it is totally unnatural for any primate to be still be suckling after 5 years old and only natural until then on the breasts of its own species. Who cares what diseases the weirdos get who refuse to be weaned and chose to suckle from other species into adulthood and beyond?

It seems to me from the links you posted that you are not able to comprehend what this debate is about. Do you actually comprehend the meaning of WHOLEFOOD VEGAN DIET??? Are you actually capable of a reasonable and sensible debate without strawman and ad hominem attacks?

Your earlier link in your earlier post i totally debunked and you haven't been able to refute any of my debunking, just saying 'yeah right' just proves that you cannot dispute my debunking of your myths from pseudo science promoting corporate bullshit websites.

Next link please. I can go on all year debunking anything you wish to post whatsoever. Just be polite and post one thing at a time and please refrain from the ad hominem and strawman attacks in future. I'm specifically discussing wholefood vegan diets so if you can't understand what that means then just say nothing because you are just making yourself look foolish.
 
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Wholefood vegans have always existed and still do, wholefood vegans do not consume processed food - that's what wholefood means.

Even our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzee, goes to great lengths to obtain and eat meat even though their digestive tract is far more adapted to eating vegetation than ours. Name one pre-industrial human society that ate a vegan diet. Just one.

If humans were meant to eat carrion then why do you need to cook it?

So you don't eat cooked food? Or anything that's been ground like flour or blended like a smoothie? I suppose you gather your own food in nature rather than eating those plants we've created that are easier to eat and higher in calories than their natural ancestors ...

Using loaded terms doesn't make meat eating unnatural for humans, it just indicates that your case can't be supported by facts and must rely on emotion.

I will never stop encouraging everyone who cares about their health and the health of the planet to move to a wholefood vegan diet - it's the only natural diet for primates which is why all primates thrive on it.

It's amusing that you started your post by calling me ignorant. Welcome to the club. At least I'm not trying to convince others to follow an unnatural, potentially unhealthy, diet so that I can feel better about my personal decisions. You're not alone, though, I've seen it often with paleos and ketards, not just vegans. It seems the more extreme the diet, the crazier and more dogmatic the adherents. My one healthy vegan friend won't tell anyone he's vegan until he knows them well because it's so common ...
 
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