62-year-old skateboarding from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas to mobilize people to fight climate change
ST. GEORGE — To draw attention to the issue of climate change, 62-year-old Laughlin Artz is skateboarding the 400 miles from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas to spread awareness for his “2020 or Bust” campaign to reduce carbon emissions.
Sporting a bright red 2020 or Bust shirt, padded clothing and a skateboard, Artz and his three companions left Salt Lake City Nov. 19 and are scheduled to arrive in Las Vegas by Christmas day. The group travels around 14 miles per day and made it to St. George on Tuesday, stopping for repairs and to plan the next leg of their trip.
Artz is skateboarding all 400 miles, while his companions Sheri Focke, Tom Carson and Mary Tessmann take turns joining him on the trail riding bikes or skateboards and driving a support van.
Artz decided to take up skateboarding again only two months ago. The journey has been rewarding, he said, but at times treacherous, facing snow, rough terrain, falls and close calls with traffic.
“I’m not a good skateboarder, so that’s the daily challenge. Every day is a little bit dicey which is why I’m quite padded,” Artz said.
Artz, who is from Brooklyn, New York, is the executive director of 2020 or Bust, an organization committed to reducing the world’s carbon emissions by 8 gigatons by the end of 2020.
Artz founded the organization three years ago after learning that government attempts to reduce carbon emissions won’t be enough to bridge the emission gap by 2030.
According to a United Nations Environment Programme report, even if the nations meet their emission reduction pledges made in the Paris Agreement, it is predicted that in 2020 the world will be producing CO2 emissions of eight to 12 gigatons more than the level required to keep global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2030.
“It really is amazing to me that more people aren’t talking about this,” Focke said, “because it’s going to affect everybody. … I hate to say it but it’s kind of like a gloom and doom future if we don’t do something for the people that we care about.
“I want to live on this planet and I want them to have a future too, and I think that’s what this is all about.”
2020 or Bust wants to reduce the world’s carbon emissions, not by looking to government agencies or businesses, but by encouraging individuals to reduce their personal carbon footprint.
Artz, along with his six-person advisory board of environmentalists, including Juan Elias Chebly from the United Nations Environment Programme, have calculated that if 500 million people were to take simple carbon reducing steps in their lives over the next two years, the world could reduce global emissions by 8 gigatons and bridge the climate change gap.
“The next two years is really our shot,” Artz said. “And we just want people to wake up to the fact that it’s not the government that’s going to do it, it’s not the UN that’s going to do it, it’s not the Paris Agreement that’s going to do it. All those things are great, but there’s a huge gap in terms of the work that those people are doing and what it’s going to take, and that gap can be filled by individuals. That’s what we want to wake people up to, that they’ve got that kind of power.”
Artz chose to make the skateboarding trip in order to increase awareness and raise money for a two-year blitz to mobilize the 500 million people needed to reach their goals starting Jan. 1.
People can join Artz’s efforts by downloading the 2020 or Bust mobile app and logging their location and the steps they will take to reduce emissions. They can then watch the progress and how their individual efforts have made a difference.
“Our mission really is to make the end of climate change simple and accessible to everyone,” Artz said.
They also hope to raise $100,000 from this trip through people pledging a certain amount of money per mile skated to go toward supporting their mobilization, training and planning volunteers around the world, an upgrade to their mobile app and an aggressive global marketing campaign.
“We just want to wake them up. When somebody wakes up to ‘Wow, I’ve got the power to do something,’ they just naturally want to get into action,” Artz said.
Artz has plans to take future cross-country skateboard trips, but is still deciding on when and where. The best part about the trip has been being able to share about the impact that one person can make, he said.
“It’s just great to have that opportunity to be with people when they kind of get their power about it and realize they don’t have to leave it to the government, or the billionaires or the scientists,” Artz said. “It’s like people really get a sense of ‘This is my world, this whole thing is mine.’”
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