Dear Friends,

Given yesterday’s intense circumstances, you’ll receive two messages from me today: this and my final blog from the Walk to Paris for Climate Action, including the events that unfolded on the streets of Paris yesterday and my first-ever taste of pepper spray. Yum.

I hope you’ll tune-in to today’s Fallon Forum, either live at 11:00 a.m. or later via podcast. Dr. Charles Goldman again hosts the show, and writes:

“We’ll have Dr. Dennis Goldford, Professor of Political Science at Drake University and a sought-after political commentator, with us on the Fallon Forum to discuss whether the seeming rise of candidates Cruz and Rubio represents a ‘breakout moment’ in the Republican Presidential primary. We will also look at how the war on ISIS is likely to influence the 2016 Presidential election and its eventual winner.

“In the second half of Monday’s Forum, despite the almost universal blathering from Presidential candidates of both parties about the US leading a coalition into Syria and elsewhere, the American electorate had best get used to the idea that any solution to the ISIS problem is going to involve both Russia and Iran. We’ll take a look at the arc of America’s relationship with Iran, from the 1980’s trans-shipping of American weapons to Iran through Israel (yes, Israel) under the Reagan administration, through the first Persian Gulf War it engendered, right up to our present problems with ISIS.”

Hear the Fallon Forum live 11:00-12:00 noon CST on KDLF 1260 AM (Des Moines) and online. Call (515) 528-8122 to add your voice to the conversation. The program re-broadcasts Wednesday on KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames) at 4:00 p.m. and Monday at 6:00 a.m. on WHIV 102.3 FM (New Orleans).

Thanks! – Ed Fallon

Thursday, November 26, 2015 – Issy-les-Moulineaux to Paris

I am shocked at how many people smoke in Paris. I see no active campaigns against smoking, although there is a campaign encouraging people not to throw their cigarette butts on the ground. The billboard announces that Parisians toss 350 tons of cigarette butts a year. I wonder how many municipal workers are thus ensured full employment? And I wonder about the global carbon footprint of cigarette consumption?

It is Thanksgiving, and the day is cool but sunny. I have an easy 5-mile trek to central Paris, crossing the Seine River where my end point today is L’Arc de Triomphe. My final day’s walk will be from there to the UN Climate Summit’s conference site in the northeast suburb of Le Bourget.

I see on the streets of Paris all the preparations relevant to the summit, and it strikes me that this event is as important to Paris as the Olympics would be to any major city in the world. But unlike the Olympics, we should hardly expect 24/7 coverage on U.S. television, and perhaps very little coverage at all.

I’m excited to see a windmill being erected in the middle of the Champs-Elysées. Behind that, two large solar arrays are being constructed. Paris seems on board for climate action.

But can it be fully on board if the voices of the average person are silenced? On Sunday, I will finish the last six miles of this 200+ mile walk, despite the French government’s decision to ban protests, marches and other “outdoor activities.”

In the wake of the November 13 terrorist attacks, caution and vigilance are essential. I get that. I support that. But squashing public participation is wrong and unjustified.

It’s really a question of priorities. The French government allows Christmas events to continue. The crowded markets I saw yesterday along the Champs-Elysées weren’t canceled. Sporting events will go on. The actual Summit continues as planned.

What I hear some people in Paris saying is that this is an intentional effort to silence the grassroots and the voices of those most affected by climate change. And since President Obama has not raised any objections with French President Hollande, I can only assume that the Obama administration supports the French government in this silencing of the public’s voice in the climate debate.

It will be interesting to see what happens on Sunday, with the march that anticipated hundreds of thousands of people being cancelled. I hear more and more rumblings that something will happen, that people will not be silent, even though many of the established grassroots organizations that were behind the march have meekly complied with the government’s request. I am not sure I’ll be able to walk to the summit, to conclude my journey as planned. We’ll see. I’ll give it my best.

My Thanksgiving dinner tonight is with five strangers. We are crammed together in a packed little restaurant, a place described to me as a “couscous restaurant.” I have vegetables, couscous, and some wonderful conversation with four Parisians and an Algerian. As I have come to expect, they all understand the urgency of climate change. But the Algerian man feels rather hopeless. I tell him I am cautiously optimistic that what comes out of the climate summit will give us all a much-needed dose of hope.

That remains to be seen. For today, I am thankful that we have made it to Paris, that I have met so many wonderful people along the way, and for this delicious variation on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Saturday, November 21, 2015 – La Forêt-du-Parc to La Chaussée-d’Ivry

Dear Friends,

I’ll call-in to my program from France this morning at 11:00 with an update on the situation here. I’d love to have you tune-in at 1260 AM or online. There’ll be a podcast available later, too.

And how about them Hawkeyes going 11 and 0? Well, stay tuned on the Fallon Forum for the epitome of gutsy, as Dr. Charles Goldman lays out his argument for the abolition of football.

Not much urban sprawl in Normandy, with crops growing right up to houses.

Meanwhile, here in Normandy, it was a cool but pleasant 13-mile day on sleepy country roads. Like most days, our path took us through a half dozen quaint, compact villages.

The Normandy countryside is a pastoral slice of paradise. When Steve and I are able to avoid the busier highways, we encounter few cars and fewer people. It is hard to believe that the population density of France is nearly five times that of Iowa.

This is partly because the land-use pattern in France is far more accommodating to human beings than the urban sprawl that has devastated both farm ground and town centers back home. On this account, Iowa can learn much from France.

And we will have to, because by the end of this century, Iowa’s population is likely to explode.

So much local food in France, including direct marketing of beef.

Yes, no one is talking about Iowa’s looming population explosion. But we ought to be. If we don’t plan for it, it could be a disaster. If we prepare intelligently, it could be one of the best things ever to happen to small towns across the state.

As coastal areas of the U.S. are submerged by rising sea levels, and as the West becomes increasingly arid, millions of refugees from within our own country will be forced to relocate. We are likely to experience a migration such as none the North American continent has ever witnessed.

And it won’t just be from within our borders. Climate disruptions across the globe already are causing vast migrations. Take Syria. The political upheaval in Syria is connected to the climate-change induced drought. Doubt me? Search the Internet for “Connection between Syrian civil war and climate change,” for a slew of reputable scientific analyses.

If we are compassionate and wise, we will get to work right away on a plan to accept and manage the inevitable torrent of climate refugees.

Or, we could behave like Governor Branstad. The Governor’s knee-jerk reaction to potential Syrian immigration is shameful, heartless and irrational.

Eleven million Syrians aren’t leaving their homes because they like a long walk through a foreign land. They aren’t coming to Europe to steal people’s jobs or to commit acts of terror. They are victims of war and hunger. Few willingly leave the place they call home. But sometimes, circumstances are such that one has no choice.

Can’t we get that? Can’t we empathize? Can’t we learn to respond from a place of love, not fear?

I have been sustained in this walk through the encouragement I receive from so many people back home, including one who wrote:

“It is important that you keep walking until you either get there or are stopped.  Our fears of terrorism are so much greater than our fears of climate change, which will kill many more people, destroy more livelihoods – and engender more terrorism.”

Friday, November 20, 2015 – Portes to La Forêt-du-Parc

View across the yard at one of our overnight accommodations.

“Though she feels as if she’s in a play, she is anyway.” – from The Beatles “Penny Lane”

I have that feeling today, working my way through a pre-ordained script, walking through the part I’ve rehearsed in my head over and over. I know the beginning, and have some sense of how it ends.

The performance has its improvisational elements, even beyond the tragic terrorist attacks that no one could have predicted. The seasonally warm, sunny weather that has blessed much of our walk was not part of the original script.

A real doorbell, complete with frog.

But today, we’re back on the script with temperatures in the low 40s and a near constant rain.

I did not expect to have maple syrup and pancakes on this trip!

We scurry through the day’s walk to land at a spacious B & B heated with a wood stove. It’s just what our wet clothes and soggy shoes need!  We can count on dry clothes tomorrow – a very good thing as temperatures are predicted to fall into the thirties.

Des Moines tea!

I think a lot about the connections between terrorism, immigration and climate change. Understanding these links is so important, and I want to talk about it in this blog. But I need more time to process, to discuss the links with French people I meet, and to review some of the thoughtful material friends have sent me.

So, let’s switch to a lighter topic. . . football! Challenging the sanctity of football is as taboo as criticizing motherhood and apple pie. But the guest host of Monday’s Fallon Forum, Dr. Charles Goldman, is girded for battle and prepared to take on America’s golden calf.

Charles writes:

“This Monday, we will take an extended look at that uniquely American sport, football. The sport has never been more popular, even as the professional version of it becomes almost unwatchable, with its laughably inept officiating, the interminable replays, and its Roman Colosseum-like atmosphere as an unending succession of injured players are carried off the field.

“But there are cracks in the façade—the CTE settlement with the former players, all sorts of off-field problems for prominent players, the faux displays of patriotism paid for with taxpayer money, Tom Brady’s ‘middle finger’ tour in the wake of Deflategate.

“For its part, college football has abandoned any pretense of it being about fostering education, either of the athletes or of their respective student bodies.

“And for how much longer are American parents going to allow their children to play high school football, from which about 100 participants die annually, where the question of long-term brain damage has led several well-known former NFL’ers and Lebron James to state their opposition to their children playing the game?

“We’ll discuss these and other topics with Jake Holmes, who played football at UNI, and Dr. Stephen Goldman, a medically-trained psychiatrist familiar with the issue of post-concussive brain injury.”

Hear the Fallon Forum live 11:00-12:00 noon CST on KDLF 1260 AM (Des Moines) and online. Call (515) 528-8122 to add your voice to the conversation. The program re-broadcasts Wednesday on KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames) at 4:00 p.m. and Monday at 6:00 a.m. on WHIV 102.3 FM (New Orleans).

Thanks! – Ed Fallon

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 – Bernay to Beaumont le Roger

Today’s walk was uneventful. By “uneventful,” I mean pleasant. Temperature in the upper 50’s, partly sunny skies, calm roads. A perfect day for a 10-mile walk.

The eventful part of the day came later, with news that the French government would not allow two big public marches that were planned during the U.N. Climate Summit (COP21).

My first reaction was great surprise and even greater disappointment. Since the attacks, the French people I’ve spoken with were, of course, saddened and shocked by the killings. But they were also universally defiant.

That defiance was best captured by a sign at the march and vigil in Lisieux. It read “Je suis en terrasse,” or literally,  “I am on the terrace.”

In other words, “I’m not going to live in fear. I’m not going to hide. I’ll continue to enjoy my coffee, my food and my friends on the terrace, in the café or at whatever public place I choose.”

I deeply admire that attitude. I am also grateful that the nations participating in COP21 have made it clear that they will attend, that they will not be scared off by terrorist attacks.

So what gives when it comes to the public component of COP21? I understand the risks, that terrorists might see a march of hundreds of thousands of people as a perfect opportunity for another attack. But couldn’t terrorists do just as much damage at a conference site where thousands of people – including world leaders and dignitaries – are gathered?

Maybe French authorities know things the rest of us don’t. Perhaps they have reconnaissance on plans by terrorists to stage attacks during one of the marches. But in the ongoing tension between liberty and security, it concerns me when the former is sacrificed for the latter – in this case, in a really big way.

On a related note . . . Could the terrorists have decided to stage the attacks in Paris specifically because of COP21? Much terrorist activity is funded by oil money, and a significant climate change agreement could kill that cash cow. If there is credence to this theory, it could help strengthen the resolve of COP21 participants to do something big, meaningful and lasting.

Terrorists have been successful at uniting most of the world against them. Perhaps they’ll inadvertently succeed at helping unite the world to get serious on climate action.