Park City High School—This afternoon, about fifty PCH students attended a presentation featuring alumnus Seth Warren. Warren discussed sustainability, our nation’s pressing energy problems, and how he incorporated his love of kayaking with both of the aforementioned issues.
Warren graduated from PCHS in 1995, after which he became a professional kayaker. In 2005, he and a close friend, Tyler Bradt, decided to build a car that ran only on biofuel and drive it across the Pan-American Highway, stopping to kayak along the way. The trip was filmed in an amateurish, “home movie” style, according to Warren. The trip was not originally designed to facilitate the documentary shown to PCHS students today; Warren said that he and Bradt wanted to “set an example of how people can use alternative fuel sources.”
The two presented their vision of a completely petroleum free vehicle to several outdoor companies in what Warren’s documentary described as “high school science fair” style and gained sponsorship in October of 2005.
By January of 2006, the vehicle was built using the bones of a Japanese fire truck. The truck (christened “Baby”) has a 200 gallon tank, gets about 15 to 18 miles to the gallon, and runs solely on biodiesel, made from any type of oil imaginable, including canola, soy, fish, palm, and pig oil.
Warren and Bradt set out from Deadhorse Alaska on July 1st, 2006. Throughout their 34,000 kilometer, 275 day journey, they collaborated with US Embassies and local government and research centers to bring the message of alternative fuel to small villages and large cites in 16 countries, emphasizing that “the future has not yet been created,” and "planting the seeds of a revolution."
After showing the film, Warren addressed students, telling them that “burning coal is creating an imbalance,” and that, though biodiesel is not the ultimate solution to global energy concerns, it is “a stepping stone, part of the solution.”
Warren also discussed his next project, a film he calls Nature Propelled. “It’s about connecting people with the water,” he said. Information about this project can be found at naturepropelled.com
More about the story of Warren and Bradt’s adventure to come.
biodiesel article
Good article Katherine! Thanks. Seth's video should have been titled the "River of Dreams." His message was as much about following dreams, however unconventional they might appear, as sustainability.
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