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‘As one person with a camera your footprint should be light’. Photograph: Alamy
‘As one person with a camera your footprint should be light’. Photograph: Alamy

Is it possible to be a film-maker in extreme environments without making a big eco impact?

This article is more than 8 years old

A lust for adventure doesn’t necessarily mean leaving a large carbon footprint

At its best, the purpose of your dream job is to capture pristine environments for others who won’t get the chance to witness these landscapes in person. When you put it that way, it sounds quite noble, doesn’t it?

But modern-day adventurers often raise more questions than they answer. Take Bear Grylls. His recent series The Island attracted flak when men and women stranded on separate islands as part of a TV survival experiment slaughtered pigs and filmed it. I thought it was a series that taught us about the reality of surviving without consumer comforts. Others couldn’t get past the “animal cruelty”.

When it comes to filming in a pristine environment, a salutary lesson is provided by the 2000 film, The Beach. Filmed on Koh Phi Phi island in Thailand, this project ended up in a long-running lawsuit when environmental activists accused film makers of removing dozens of coconut trees to give the beach a more tropical feel and altering the contours of the beach. The film company insisted they’d left the beach as they found it.

As one person with a camera your footprint should be light, but don’t expect to go around unchallenged. Across the globe authorities increasingly restrict access to the wilderness. The US Forest Service department recently mooted the idea of permits for journalists. You could say this is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and it’s been successfully challenged under the First Amendment.

Aaron Matthews, who runs Albert+, Bafta’s sustainability drive for the film and TV industry, makes the point that, in the UK, if your filming location is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) you may need to engage a specialist to survey first and then monitor filming. But wherever you are in the world you must avoid disturbing the natural environment.

Yes, your lust for extreme challenge threatens to lead you into tricky eco territory – especially your interest in adventure races. Advice about that comes from another reader, Laurence. Despite being a veteran of the Marathon des Sables, he’s uneasy about the eco footprint of these giant adventure races. Instead, this year Laurence will get his kicks and raise money by completing the Offa’s Dyke Trail (177 miles) in a week. He’s keen to demonstrate to young adventure racers that they can find a low-carbon but full-on challenge closer to home. Consider following in his footsteps.

Green crush

‘A cheery vision of what a cycling city can look like’: the Naked Bike Ride event. Photograph: JJ Waller

A decade has passed since the first organised naked bike ride celebrated ‘bikes, body power and low-carbon living’ and highlighted the joint vulnerability of cyclists and the planet. On 14 June, cyclists around the world will shed their clothes and inhibitions at 50 World Naked Bike Ride events. It may look exposing, but the UK’s organiser Duncan Blinkhorn says: ‘It shows how much less vulnerable you can feel when cycling en masse - even if you’re stark naked - and offers a cheery vision of what a cycling city can look like.’ With that in mind, up to 1,000 riders will assemble in Brighton at noon for the UK event. Participants are invited to ride ‘as bare as you dare’ and to decorate their bikes and bodies with environmental messages. We wish them warm weather.

Greenspeak: the B-Corp {bi:-k o:p} noun

The cool end of ethical certification – over 1,000 businesses across 33 countries now call themselves B corporations, committed to achieving social and environmental goals as well as financial ones.

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