Canadian entrepreneur Craig Cohon is on an epic guilt trip that鈥檚 already cost him $1 million and taken him across Europe, not as the jet-setter he once was, but by walking up to 40 kilometres a day, for six months, until he reaches Istanbul.
Cohon is doing the reverse route of climate refugees to talk about CO2 emissions.
鈥淭hey usually walk from Istanbul to London, I wanted to go the opposite way,鈥 he told 麻豆影视, while making his way through southern Bulgaria on day 137 of his journey.
Indeed, Cohon is reversing in more ways than one. He鈥檚 done what no other private citizen has publicly done before: he went back in time and calculated his carbon footprint. And it鈥檚 a big one.
As a former executive who launched Coca Cola in Russia and then co-owned the Cirque du Soleil in that country, he says he flew to and from Moscow at least 250 times. There were also holidays in Palm Beach, Ethiopia, Stockholm, Paris, Argentina, and the list goes on.
鈥淭his issue around CO2, I didn't understand it until two years ago,鈥 he said.
鈥淚 was wondering how much damage I personally have done and then a journalist said, 鈥榃ell why don't you remove your lifetime carbon footprint Craig?鈥 And I said, 鈥榊ou know what? I'm going to do that.鈥欌
Cohon didn鈥檛 just count the executive air miles, he also counted the childhood Big Macs. Twice a week, he would eat at McDonald鈥檚 where his father worked, a routine that lasted years. Add it all up and you鈥檝e got a carbon footprint 28 times bigger than the average Canadian鈥檚, which Cohon decided to offset by draining his pension fund.
鈥淚 took my pension fund of a million dollars and figured out how to remove my historic footprint, not my future footprint, by sucking carbon out of the environment,鈥 he said.
He says he enjoyed all the all the trappings of consumerism and consumption until he understood the unintended consequences. He鈥檚 now going from town to town, to speak to European mayors, 鈥渢rying to get some action on this issue about removing two trillion tons of carbon.鈥
In a promotional video, Cohon鈥檚 friend, writer-producer Leonard Dick said 鈥測ou could call this 鈥楨ntitled rich guy walks across Europe鈥 but to Craig's credit, he owns it, he realises the life he has led.鈥
Cohon is not sleeping in five star hotels during this journey. His nights are spent in a 15-square-metre container he鈥檚 occasionally shared with CEOs of big corporations 鈥渢o make them uncomfortable and shift their minds,鈥 he said.
During a cost-of-living crisis, the unlikely activist admits this is a privileged problem, 鈥渢herefor it鈥檚 my problem to solve鈥 he told 麻豆影视.
Cohon is scheduled to complete his journey in Istanbul on June 5.