Activity - Ted Talks - 17 Years of Silcence (John Francis Walks the Earth)

John Francis was a man who removed all motorized vehicles and motorized transportation from his life in order to stop fossil fuel emissions. He was first encouraged to make this drastic change to his life when he saw two oil tankers collide under the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco Bay) in 1971. John Francis traveled around the United States on foot for twenty-two years. Furthermore, just a few years into his travels across the country, John Francis decided to be silent for one day to encourage himself to listen more and talk less. He enjoyed listening and learning from others well being silent so much, that he did not speak from 1973-1990. While along his travels, he attended three different universities, Southern Oregon University, University of Montana and University of Wisconsin-Madison. John studied the environment as well as land management and eventually earned a Ph.D. While finishing his master’s degree in Montana and continuing to be silent, Francis taught classes at the university communicating to his students by hand motions. John spoke for the first time in seventeen years on Earth Day in 1990.

I believe John Francis is a truly significant environmentalist and that his actions showed great courage. However, I believe his decision to give up all forms of motorized transportation hindered his ability to share his knowledge and wisdom with others. John could have given up using motorized transportation for his day to day use and instead limited himself to only use big forms of public transportation like planes and trains when traveling long distances. This would have saved Francis great amounts of time and allowed him to have a place to call home. Johns decision to be quiet for seventeen years seemed more logical to me then his decision to not use motorized transportation, however he took this idea to the extreme. I believe John Francis’ decision to stay silent and focus on listening and learning from others was a great one, and potentially something we should all try for at least one day in our lives. However, seventeen years is an extremely long time to remain silent and like John himself said, “it was an imprisonment”. The experience of only listening was a very important to John, however he took it to such extremes, that it became the only way he could live. Overall, I respect Johns decisions to go against what society considers normal in honour of his beliefs. However, I believe if John Francis had altered his actions slightly he could’ve had a better outcome and a bigger impact on society's views.