Possibly no one has been more committed to bringing the danger of oil spills to public awareness than Planetwalker John Francis, PhD. When two oil tankers collided in the San Francisco Bay in 1971, right where Francis lived, the experience rocked him to the core. He vowed to eschew all motorized transport from that day forward, a commitment he kept for the next 22 years, until he realized not riding was hindering his work in the world.
Perhaps more amazingly, once he started walking everywhere Francis also realized that speaking was “fast”, like cars, and took a vow of silence that lasted 17 years during which he earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees, taught students without words, and founded Planetwalk, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising environmental consciousness and promoting earth stewardship and world peace through pilgrimage. To hear him talk about his global walking adventures now is to realize oil spill clean up isn’t only vital for water which is the essence of life it’s also indicative of a deeper issue: how we treat each other is how we treat the Earth.
Toward this end, Francis is launching Planetlines, a K-12 environmental curriculum to help children embrace the Earth as themselves.
We think John Francis would be pleased to know how Impact Absorbents is doing our part to clean up oil spills. From complete Spill Kits to XSORB Oil Absorbent Booms, FiberDuck Oil Absorbent Pads, ColdForm Oil Absorbent Rolls, XSORB Select Oil Absorbent Socks and FiberDuck Oil Absorbent Pillows and, of course, XSORB granular absorbent we offer 43 different products dedicated to oil spill containment and oil spill clean up that happens quickly, safely and easily, using non-toxic materials to protect the environment as they remove offending oil from our waterways.
Francis has described the aggregating and interpreting of student information as groundtruthing: a method of translating symbolic reference data into meaningful results, much like translating day-to-day behaviors into environmental outcomes. Our groundtruth is to serve as your resource for Earth-friendly spill clean up solutions so that, like Francis, you can always walk your talk.
