Local News

By Dana King
(CBS 5) One local man set about changing the world by changing himself. When John Francis came to west Marin County in 1969, people thought he was just another hippie. It wasn't long before they were wondering if he had lost his mind.

On a misty night in 1971, two tankers collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling more than half a million gallons of crude oil into the bay. When John saw the oozing sludge and dying birds, he had a strange thought: what would happen if people stopped using cars?

"I wanted to walk after I saw this oil spill in San Francisco Bay. I wanted to give up riding in cars," says John. "I just didn't think I had enough money, or had it together."

It took a friend's death to get him moving. With his banjo as his companion, John Francis challenged anyone who would listen to believe in his mission.

"I found myself on the road walking and I said, 'Well, I'm already walking here, I'm just gonna keep walking,'" John says. "I found myself arguing with my friends in town about if one person could make a difference by not riding in an automobile or motorized vehicles."

To stop the arguments he had another idea – he would simply stop talking.

"I would stop speaking just for one day…to give my community a gift," John says.

This is how John looked back in those early times. He was 27 years old on the day he stopped talking. That silence would last 17 years.

Without conversation, John began to listen to himself. He realized he was living a lie.

"I just rediscovered who I was," John says. "I didn't need to lie anymore. I couldn't lie, because I didn't talk...I just couldn't do it."

Francis went from being a know-it-all to someone who wanted to know more. He began a pilgrimage that left his footprints across the country.

"I saw America. I heard America speak to me and I was really taken by what my experience was," John says.

What he didn't know during his journey was that he was ahead of his time, and on the forefront of what would become a movement – environmentalism. When he found that Southern Oregon University offered a new course in environmental studies, he walked to Ashland and enrolled. He then walked to Missoula, Montana to get a Master's Degree. Eventually Francis ended up at the University of Wisconsin for his Ph.D. Along the way, he also taught a discussion class -- still without speaking.

Through his science, Francis and his students began to learn.

"I thought environment was about human-made ugliness and pollution and endangered species," John says. "I started to realize that environment was really much more than that. It involved human rights and civil rights and economic equity and how we treat each other when we meet each other."

And the man who didn't talk was being heard. In the 22 years he spent trekking across America, the once counter-culture concept of environmentalism had become mainstream. By the time he arrived in Washington D.C., the U.S. Coast Guard was inviting him to write pollution regulations for the nation's waterways. The United Nations later named him an Environmental Ambassador.

"When people said, 'One person can't make a difference,' I have to say there were doubts." John says. "Well, 20 years later, there I am in Washington D.C. with a Ph.D. writing oil pollution regulations for the country."

On his journeys, John realized that doing something positive means individual action.

"Once we commit ourselves to doing it, we change. We change ourselves from just sitting on the fence thinking about it to actually jumping in the field making a mad dash or a slow walk," John says. "When we get beyond that bend in the road, we see opportunities that we didn't see while we were sitting on the fence. We see opportunities that we couldn't have imagined."

John Francis has just published a book titled "Planet Walker," and is preparing for another walk across the United States.