Have you noticed the rash of books featuring "eco-stunts" as Elizabeth Kolbert writes in the New Yorker? You know what I'm talking about. Books that combine "projects" or "challenges" (Julie/Julia anyone?) with green themes like not buying any plastic at all for a year, or not using any fuel. Kolbert exposes just how silly the whole trend is in an interesting and short read:
"Renunciation sets them apart and organizes their lives in the name of some higher purpose. The trouble—or, at least, a trouble—is that it’s hard to say exactly what that purpose is."
13-year-old Laura Dekker is trying to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo after 17-year-old Mike Perham just finished the trip today. However Dutch authorities where she lives do not want to allow her to make the trip. At first I thought good for them, what the hell is wrong with this girl's parents? But her parents fully support her and feel confident that she can do it since she was born on a sail boat while they were sailing around the world and lived the first four years of her life on a boat. She recently sailed by herself from the Netherlands to England, where she was taken into custody and her father was called. Her father didn't want to come get her, stating that she was perfectly capable of sailing back home herself (he did, eventually, fly to England and sail back home with her). I kind of think that she should be allowed to do it ... why the hell not?
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Honestly, if someone has some sort of suicidal but awesome crazy goal that accomplishes nothing but makes them famous, why should anyone stop them? If it doesn't work out and she, like, deydrates halfway through the Pacific, you can always go like: "WELL, she kind of had it coming, no?"
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