A man who walks over 42500 kilometers to plant trees
Resume:
Name:Paul Coleman
Gender: male
Date of birth: March, 1954
Home place:Manchester, England
Belief:in everything nice in the world
Marriage Status:has a nice Japanese wife named Konomi
Previous Occupations:
1979-1989
Chauffeur to Mrs. J.A. McDougald. Duties included the care of thirty priceless cars, organizing tours around Europe and the United States and advising on personal and business related matters.
1971-1977
Served in the British Merchant Navy and on luxury yachts in the Mediterranean and the United States as a chef.
Occupation: Full time earthwalker. Also a tree planter, author, lyricist, narrator, singer, and ambassador to the "We the Peoples" Initiative, a United Nations Peace Messenger Initiative.
Countries he has walked include:（旁边配图）
How many kilometers has he covered:over 42500 kilometers
How many trees has he planted: because of him, over 6 million have been planted.
Early Life
Before becoming an environmentalist, Paul traveled around the world as a sailor. Inspired by his grandfather, a seaman who served in the British Royal Navy during WWⅠ, he joined the British Merchant Navy when he was seventeen. He began his seagoing career as a Catering Boy, the one who washes pots, and progressed rapidly through the ranks to become Chief Cook.
Six years later, in 1977, he left the Merchant Navy and went to work on private yachts in the south of France. Life on a luxury yacht was quite different to the Merchant Navy. He worked as a chef, and got a nice wage and a fabulous expense account.
In 1978 he left the south of France on the M.Y. Les Amis, a fifty-one meter multi-million dollar yacht owned, apparently, by a mafia family. Thanks to them, he sailed to Florida via Marseilles, Gibraltar, and the islands of the Azores and Bermuda. That was the end of his seagoing career.
He gave up his work as a sailor a year later, and moved from Florida to Canada. In Canada, he got a wonderful job he never could have expected.
He worked as a private chauffeur for a Mrs. JA McDougald, whowas very rich; her palatial estates were in Canada, England and the United States. She employed a large household staff working for her to keep her life in comfort, elegance and sophistication. Mrs. Mc Dougald had a large number of cars. There was an assortment of American Lincolns, Cadillacs, convertibles and limousines, plus a very formal '61 Rolls Royce Phantom V, for use in Canada and the United States, and, for use in Great Britain, a luxurious '69 Rolls Royce Phantom VI painted in the Queen's color of Garnet Red and on occasion used by her friend Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. His job was maintaining the cars and chauffeuring not only the lady and guests, but also her dogs. The relationship between him and Mrs. JA McDougald was a classic Chauffeur - Madam one. Sometimes, when she sought advice, he would give it to her.
On one hand, he enjoyed his luxury life very much but on the other hand he felt rather bored. He was driving the best brands of car, traveling all around the world, taking part in a lot of parties with the upper crust but he felt he wasn't having fun. Just at that time, he noticed a large amount of forest always in flame on the television. He began to think about what he himself could do for the world.
Amid the parties and traveling he was given a five-week vacation. He chose to travel around Iceland by bicycle, because he wanted to get a chance to find out what he really wanted. The journey was a difficult and exhausting experience, but he enjoyed the beautiful land. It was there that he had an awakening. After he returned, he quit his wonderful job and decided from then on he would devote himself to protecting the world.
From 1990, he began his walking expeditions. In this way, he hopes he can inspire more and more people to do something for the environment. He decided to encourage individuals, organizations and governments to plant 100,000,000 trees before 2010. Now, according to Paul, he has had more than 60,000,000 trees planted.
The Journey Through China
Recently, the earthwalker has been walking through China and will now walk through Korea in the second section of the Earthday/Earthwalker Friendship Walk. The Earth Day Walk will end in Tokyo on April 22nd 2006. Walking with Paul is his wife Konomi, who wrote a book about his life that was published by Kawakawa, one of Japan's leading publishers. Konomi fell in love with Paul when they walked around Okinawa, and they married shortly after that walk was finished. Before this, Konomi was an author; she wrote a lot of stories about her life.
On January the.15th, they began their walk in Badaling, Beijing. One day they lost their way in the Fangshan area. It was nighttime and they felt puzzled. Just at that moment they met a young Chinese lady named Yang Yang, who was driving a car on her way home. She stopped and asked "do you need any help?" Yang Yang took them to her aunt's hotel, providing them with a room for free. On the Chinese Spring Festival, Yang Yang invited them to visit her family. This was the first time Paul had celebrated the Chinese Spring Festival; he said it was wonderful. On February the 9th, he and his wife came to plant the first tree of this year. On February the 11th, Paul and his wife started their walk to Tianjin. Some people came to send them off; they walked with them for several hours.
