War has a horrendous impact on humanity and the natural environment that we all need to exist

Last century over one hundred million men, women and children died through warfare.

During the siege of Sarajevo, 80% of its trees were destroyed.

Can we afford another century of war?

Some people decide to devote their life to a career, others – to family. Paul Coleman decided to devote his life to walking.

By Rozalia Hristova:

The 47-year-old Englishman is currently (January 2002) walking through Bulgaria on his way from Manchester to China. “I am here because I am planting trees on behalf of people who have been killed in the last century of war,” Coleman explained during his visit to Sofia last week. “By doing this I am drawing attention to the impacts of war on humanity and the natural environment that we all need to exist.”

Sofia is the 42nd city across Europe where Coleman has planted a tree. “The idea is to spread the message out far, and my dream is I want to see a tree planted for every man, woman and child killed in the last century of warfare which will be close to about 100 million,” he said.

His current journey started on November 2, 2000 and is expected to be over around the year 2005 in Beijing, China.

In Sofia, he planted a tree in the yard of the English Language School last Friday. “A tree means life. No trees, no life. And war of course takes life. War is absolutely devastating to humanity and nature,” Coleman said. He explained that by planting trees he was urging people to stop killing each other and start helping each other to survive.

In every town he visits, Coleman speaks in front of large audiences. “I tell people about my life. I speak of the adventures, about going to the tops of mountains, about meeting crocodiles, swimming with barracudas.” He said his whole message was about the beauty of the Earth. “Because I think that if I emphasize the beauty, people will understand why we should not be destroying this beauty because the beauty is life on earth.”

The beginning, according to the traveller who calls himself Earthwalker, was a lifetime impulse. “It was gradual transition but a revelation all at once that made me do it.”

He had been travelling around the world from 1970 to 1988 in different jobs. Over those years, he was watching the Amazon being destroyed from a far. “The Amazon was my reason for being – I always wanted to see it but I never got around to doing it,” Coleman recalled.

He was shaken when, in 1988, NASA took pictures from space and the astronauts described the Amazon as a blazing Christmas tree. From space they could see the fires at night. A few months later they took another picture during the day, but they could not see the entire continent of South America because of the smoke.

“I knew what was happening with the destruction so I wanted to do something,” Coleman said. And he went and cycled around Iceland because he needed to be on his own and think.

Shortly after the journey, Coleman quit his job and went to the Amazon. “In 1990, I began my first walk from Canada to South America,” the Earthwalker recalled. “I began walking because I had no job and ultimately no money. I heard about the UN Earth Summit in Brazil and since I had enough money for a month, I decided that maybe I could walk there. It was a two-year walk, but I figured that if people liked what I was doing they would help me get out there. And along the way there were over a million trees planted because I made the journey.”

According to Coleman, walking is the best way on earth to meet people and that’s why he’s doing it. That way, people grasp that he is serious, they know that he means what he says.

The traveller confessed that sometimes he gets really tired because he walks for days on end. However, he tries not to get involved with the physical pain. “I try not to put myself through extreme pain any more because I want to make sure that I get to where I am going,” he firmly stated.

Even though he always starts his journeys alone, the Earthwalker is often joined by crowds of people, sometimes even thousands of them. He said his journeys were always filled with interesting experiences.

In 1994, he was walking across the U.S. and at that time the movie Forrest Gump came out. “When I saw the actual movies and saw Forrest Gump walking in the desert with all those people with him, I saw myself right there and I couldn’t help laughing,” Coleman said, adding that people often called him the real-life Forrest Gump.

Coleman has been in Bulgaria slightly over two weeks. He came in at Vidin from Romania, then walked down through Montana to Sofia and continued the journey to Plovdiv. His intention is to cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border on New Year’s Eve.

“I received a very nice welcome here,” he said, showing the pages of his diaries devoted to Bulgaria. In these diaries, he wrote about all his impressions and experiences, put photos and business cards of people he had met, as well as newspaper clippings with stories about him.

During his journey from Vidin to Sofia, Coleman decided that as a peace messenger he had to go through Palestine in view of the current escalation of violence there. His intention is to get to Palestine before April 22, 2002. Since that date is Earth Day, Coleman has asked his friends all over the world to plant a tree for peace in the Middle East on this day and begin an international campaign that is already getting a lot of support.

“The Peace Corps volunteers I met in Bulgaria, for example, have all volunteered to plant a tree in their particular cities,” Coleman said with pride. “I think that if politics will not work, maybe the sheer will of people from all over the world will.”

Coleman said he did not consider himself a prophet but rather thinks of himself as a human being, a concerned person who really wants to help preserve life. “But I do see I can do a lot,” the Earthwalker said. He realized he could not plant so many trees but could mobilize others to do so.

However, he does not forget to enjoy himself. “It is all about having a good time, really. Doing something good but not forgetting to have a good time.”