Welcome To The Homepage Of Earthwalker Paul Coleman
Since 1990 I have walked 47,500 km through 39 nations delivering the environmental message while on a mission to plant 100,000,000 trees, one for every man, woman and child killed in last century of war. 11,350,000 trees have now been planted with the help of friends and supporters from around the world.
I am Co-Founder Of Celebration Earth,
Ambassador to the 'Culture of Peace'UN designated Peace Messenger Initiative and
President of the Wonderful World Tree Planting Festival. Since Oct 2009 my wife Konomi and I have been building an environmental home in Patagonia, Chile.
We're building our home in Patagonia, Chile and it's going to be as environmental as possible. We are in a land of Cowboys and Pioneers and have the most spectacular view of nature.... forests, mountains, snow capped peaks, mighty rivers and more. The air is ever fresh, the waters pure, full of trout and salmon and the people are welcoming. But it's Patagonia and not too far from the Antarctic and because of that, it can rather extreme – so building a home here is definitely on the pioneering side and requires a lot of ingenuity, patience, persistence and stamina. Our home is going to be made largely of Bags filled with the earth beneath our feet, which happens to be the most perfect mix -just dig it up, fill the bags and lay them down. Easier said than done, but the concepts simple and when we're done we should have a highly economical home, saving natural resources, utilizing alternative energies and living off the grid.
You can follow the whole experience on our internet community OUR
LITTLE THING and if you are feeling adventurous you may even consider coming down and joining us for awhile – to practice new and interesting ways of construction that have minimum impact on our planet.
WONDERFUL WORLD REPORT FROM SOUTH AFRICA
1OO Tree planting volunteers from Japan had the time of their lives, while visiting South Africa on a tree planting and garden creating mission co-ordinated by the Wonderful World Tree Planting Festival and Food and Trees For Africa (FTFA). Trees were planted in some of the countries most disenfranchised townships and communities and along with that, were planted permaculture gardens at schools, orphanages and community centres. The volunteers funded the journey themselves and left the people of South Africa with a great impression of Japan. Involved in the activities were thousands of school children, local residents, government officials, the Japanese Embassy, leading Japanese and South African corporations and the Queen Mother of the Bafokeng Tribe.
To see a full report of thier amazing journey and just what was accomplished to make the lives of the people of South Africa better, and to help the naturla environment, read this FTFA OFFICIAL VISIT REPORT. It's heartwarming.
CELEBRATION EARTH INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE PARADE
Photo: Senator Kina Shoukichi Meets The Walking Treeman. Thousands of people from around Okinawa, Japan and the rest of the world witnessed the first ever parade celebrating the International Day of Peace in Okinawa.
The event drew much attention as the pounding of drums reverberated across Naha City as the parade proceeded down Koksai Dori, Okinawa's busiest and most famous street, to the Kencho Mai, the Capital Building of Okinawa, where speeches by CoFounders, Senator KIna Shoukichi and Earthwalker Paul Coleman, inspired the crowds before Senator Shoukichi & his band, Champloose took the stage for a rocking concert. Much more to follow....
Sept. 20th. 2009:
WONDERFUL WORLD TREE PLANTING VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA
Witness the vibration of an African Township choir. Cosmo City, a sprawling township on the edge of Johannesburg was the site of an historic event, a visit by 120 Japanese Tree Planting Volunteers who arrived carrying shovels and trees, wearing big smiles and very funny costumes. The volunteers are a part of the first Japanese Tree Planting Tour to South Africa. The tour was led by Earthwalker Paul Coleman, and coordinated by the Japanese 'Wonderful World Tree Planting Festival' and leading South African 'Greening" NGO 'Food & Trees For Africa'. Here, a school choir welcomes the tree planters before they set off into the township to plant trees at people's freshly built government subsidised homes.
EARTH DAY EARTH
JUMP IN TOKYO
Thousands of people
leapt into the air at the end of a fantastic concert by the
legendary Okinawan Musician, Kina Shoukichi and his band
Champloose. I stood on the stage with Shoukich, who is now a
Senator, at the end and even sang a verse from Hana, which is the
most internationally recorded hit of any Japanese artist. And then
our friend Kyoshi Shikita, Charman of Earthday Tokyo said, "Let's
Earth Jump'. We did two and as you can see by the video, the crowd
was ecstatic. People are now Erath Jumping all over the world. And
all because I joked one day to Shouckichi san "You know if we
all jumped at the same time then when we landed we'd be performing
earth Acupuncture. Everyone liked the idea and now each time we
say "Earth Jump for Earth Acupuncture" and as Shoukichi
likes to say "Let's Jump from a Culture of War to A Culture
of Peace. Earth Jump!!!!"
THE DAY THE EARTH
LAUGHS The Official Opening Ceremony Of Celebration
Earth April 1st: Shuri Castle, Okinawa
Seven
Happy Gods Arrive On A Treasure Ship This event is now
over. It was fantastic and culminated with the arrival of
the Happy Gods to a tremendous reception.
The
Official Closing CeremonySeptember 21st 2009, The Earth´s
Garden, Okinawa A World Peace Prayer/UN Flags of the World
Ceremony, tree planting and dedication of the Scarecrow of Peace
Statue (In the middle of a Japanese Military Base!!!)
UNVEILING
THE NEW EARTH GARDEN SIGN(April 1st 2009)
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Major
Concerts September 21st:
Okinawa Starring
Japanese Senator/Musician Kina Shoukichi and Champloose
KINA
SHOUKICHI ROCKS AS THE FINAL ACT AT EARTHDAY TOKYO 2009
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Major
Celebration Earth Walks Koichi Nakatani's Celebration Earth Walk
Through Japan March 20th 2009 Hokkaido - September 21st 2009
Okinawa
THE
NAKATANI EARTHWALKING TREE PLANTING FAMILY (APRIL 2009)
This is bound to be a
very high profile event as Koichi has earned himself a solid
repution for his previous tree planting journeys walks from the
north to the south of Japan. Since the birth of his son last year
has become widely known as the 'Tree Planting Father.' Already
Koichi is generating a lot of support and attention and will soon
be featrued in a five part special on Japan's Asahi TV Network.
---------------------------
Yuji
Miyata's' Greening The Olympics' Walk To LondonBegan: January 1st
2009 in Korea - Completed Korea & OkinawaNext
leg: April 22nd Taiwan. Will Finish: July 2012 in London
Yuji, who participated
in the Earthwalker Paul Coleman's 'Greening The Olympics walk from
Hong Kong to Beijing continues the mission all the way to London
YUJI
MIYATA (MIDDLE) HOLDING THE CELEBRATION EARTH BANNER
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Celebration Earth Jumps Earthday Tokyo Earth Jump 2009
OPENING
EARTH JUMP AT EARTHDAY TOKYO 2009Fantastic: From
center stage thousands of people were inspired to Earth Jump, by
Okinawan Musician/Japanese Senator Kina Shoukichi and Earthwalker
Paul Coleman.
WEDDING
EARTH JUMP (APRIL 2009) Earth Jumps have been happening around
the world since December 2008, when the first one held at Shuri
Castle, Okinawa. Jumps have taken place in Hawaii, California,
Scotland, Korea, Chile, Hokkaido, Tokyo, Taiwan and more. Check
the many Earth Jump video´s on this site.
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Major
Celebration Earth Talk Shows IncludeMay 20th – June
10th 2009: Japan Tour of Jeunesse Park, Paul Coleman and Konomi
Kikuchi Jeunesse Park is the Founder and Executive
Director of Food and Trees For Africa won the 2007 UNEP Sasakawa
Prize, which is considered to be the world's foremost
environmental prize. Talks shows with feature Japanese activist
and comedian, Tentsukuman Earthwalker Paul Coleman and his wife
author Konomi Kikuchi. In partnership with the Wonderful World
Tree Planting Festival(WWTPF) and The New Alliance for Humanity
The
Celebration Earth Garden's Scarecrow of Peace One the
Celebration Earth Executive Committee has a garden in the middle
of a Japanese Military base to which all can freely enter. We are
in the creation search for a Scarecrow of Peace Statue, which can
be built to a hieght of 33 feet. On September 21st (IDP) the
gardeners will plant a tree to formally recognise IDP and the
offial closing of Celebration Earth events.
Celebration
Earth Monorail Clean Ups:Half of Okinawa's mono rail
stations have already been cleaned, by Celebration Earth
along with partner 'Roots and Shoots' (Jane Goodalls organisation)
are doing weekly clean ups around the Naha (Okinawa's capital)
Monorail stations.
ROOTS
& SHOOTS MEMBER, OCEAN, FLIES A DOVE OF PEACE AROUND THE
WALKING TREEMAN AT THE SHURI CASTLE CELEBRATION EARTH OPENING
EVENT
----------------------------------------------------------
Peace
Mediations/Prayer Ceremonies/Candlelight Vigils Are being held
the entire year through Japan and elsewhere Leading Dutch
Meditaion Therapist, Veeresh will be visiting Okinawa to give
sessions round the time of the International Day of Peace Tree
Planting Ceremonies Tree plantings are happy events that draw
a lot of positive PR and major ones are planned throughout the
year. Trees are now being planted throughout Japan, Okinawa and
Taiwan. This list does not incude all events and as the
year proceeds many more are expected.
Photo:
Cover of 2008 International Peace Day Magazine
War,
war everywhere. So what can we do about it? Well we can mobilise
millions of people by hosting global celebrations for peace around
the time of The International day of Peace (September 21st). We
intend to go one step further, by making our celebration a six
month event.
Next year in Okinawa, were going to have an
Earth Celebration, a six month Declaration of Peace that begins on
April 1st with a peace symposium and ends with a tree
planting/concert bash on the INTERNATIONAL
DAY OF PEACE
Celebration
Earth will be promoted throughout Asia and around the world by an
array of activities including the SACRED
RUN organised
and created by Dennis banks founder of the AIM, the American
Indian Movement. Also involved in the organisation of the event is
Shokichi Kina San, Okinawa and Japan's most famous international
musician, who now serves as Senator for Okinawa in the Japanese
Diet. Shokichi San has for decades been a leading activist for
peace and through his music has carried the message of peace
around the world, in 1996 he represented Asia at the Atlanta
Olympic Games and in 2008 at the games of Beijing.
With
Kina Shikitchi At His Naha City Nightclub
Together
with Shokichi San and many Okinawan and mainland Japanese friends
we aim to bring the International Day of Peace into the forefront
of next years global activities. Our friend Yuji Miyata, who has
just finished a walk through Korea promoting the preservation of
wetlands, will start walking again in January, from the place he
left off.
Yuji will walk a little through mainland Korea,
spreading Celebration Earth/Peace Day message, planting trees for
people killed at war and then head onto the island of Jeju, where
many Koreans lost their lives in a purge of people said to be
communists, but most were just unassuming farmers – an act
remembered today as an atrocity. From Jeju, Yuji will journey to
Okinawa, where he around the island and finish at the Peace
Symposium. Through his action it is hoped that people in Korea
will join our activities and further unite the people's of both
lands. Following this Yuji will then walk through the other
islands of Okinawa all the way to Taiwan. In Taiwan he will walk
and continue to spread the Celebration Earth/Peace Day Message
until September 2st when through various activities the people of
Taiwan, Korea and Okinawa and mainland Japan will be spiritually
linked.
On another front Koichi Nakatani, who walked with
me for a few years, and is now known as the tree planting father,
will do a relay walk (beginning April 1st) with his wife Ai and
son Ishi, from Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, all the
way through the mainland down to Okinawa . Expected to join him
are thousands of people, who will be holding a host of activities
including the planting of trees and peace meditations in along the
way. On the meditation side, the folks at the Holland based
Humaniversity will revisit Okinawa to lead meditations and peace
therapy sessions on and around September 21st, the International
Day of Peace.
This is just a brief introduction of the
Celebration Earth events planned for next year. Peace need not be
a vision. Peace can be a reality. Please consider joining with us
in Okinawa. You will find yourself most welcome in a very lovely
land.
This is a part of the This is a part of the 'CULTURE
OF PEACE' a
UN designated Peace Messenger Initiative
Tomorrow
a ceremony will be held in Hong Kong to honour their EARTH
CHAMPIONS,
citizens nominated by the local community for their good work and
actions on behalf of the earth and humanity. Earth Champions
awards have been presented since the year 2000, when Nelson
Mandela gave the first award to a young girl from Australia. Since
then communities around the world have been invited to nominate
their local heroes, people perhaps hitherto unknown by the
community at large, to become a an Earth Champion. The goal of the
EARTH
CHAMPIONS ORGANISATION,
founded by Australian Fiona Matthews, is to show that you don't
need to be a superstar, celebrity or millionaire to make the world
of difference. An ordinary caring person fits the hero category as
well as any other and the Earth Champions Quest is to discover
those little/big people making a difference.
This year it's
Hong Kong's time to nominate their earth Champions and tomorrow,
the people chosen as exemplars of their community will be honoured
at a gala ceremony featuring leading international and local
figures.
Now we come back to the special video we have to
make while on our way to Shodoshima. I have to make an award
acceptance speech, kind of like the Oscars without all the glitz
and glamour. I've been chosen to become the Earth Champions
Ambassador. It's a special position that recognises my
contribution to the global community and the fact that I am a hard
man to peg down. I don't live in in this country or that, yet I
have a home wherever I go. The Earth is my home. So, I've been
chosen to represent the Earth and it's Earth Champions as
Ambassador, to spread the word that we're all heroes when we work
for the common good. I can't be there in person, but I can in
spirit. Congratulations to Hong Kong's Earth Champions.
05/09/08 INTRODUCING
THE WONDERFUL WORLD WORLD TREE PLANTING FESTIVAL
Photo:
Konomi Happy With Trees In Deserts Of Inner Mongolia
I
am now the President of a new organisation dedicated to planting
trees in already desertified, deforested and suffering from the
effects of Global Warming.
In April Konomi and I joined the
NGO Make The Heaven, to help lead a group of 100 volunteers from
Japan on a tree planting mission to Inner Mongolia. The goal was
to plant 105,000 trees with the local people in a desertified
region. The trees planted would help stabilize the sand and reduce
the yellow sandstorms that blow across China, Korea and Japan. We
had a marvellous and happy time planting trees in the desert and
were pleased to see that trees planted on Make The Heaven 's
previous trips were growing well and, according to the locals,
were already reducing the sandstorms.
On the ten hour bus
ride from the deserts back to Beijing, everyone was tired, but we
could not sleep for we were so excited. Tentsukeman, the founder
of Make The Heaven, the other organisers of the trip and ourselves
got together and planned new activities. We would unite our
efforts to spread the tree plantings around the world. We would
create a new entity and call it the Wonderful World Tree Planting
Festival and through this travelling planting festival we would
bring the world trees.
The Wonderful World Tree Planting
Festival aims to plant trees where they are most needed, in
deforested, arid regions already suffering from the impact of
global warming. We in the organisation know that we can make a
difference. Between us we've been responsible for the planting of
millions of trees around the world. We also know that tree
planting is a sacred act. Just placing one hands into the soil
brings you in touch with nature and you cannot help marvel at how
good it feels to give life. So tree planting is good for the earth
and good for the human. I have never been to a tree planting where
people have been unhappy. In fact it's exactly the opposite. I've
seen members of government arrive to plant trees in suits with
long serious faces, but the moment they put a tree in the ground
their faces light up and a smile breaks out.
Tree
plantings help people to feel good and because people feel good
they want to do more for the earth. That's why we created the
Wonderful World Tree Planting Festival. We wanted to expand our
good work and to expand our goodwill, to share the joys of tree
planting and allow everyone to have a jolly good time doing nice
things for the earth and humanity.
Our next activities
include trips to Inner Mongolia and South Africa (April & Sept
2009). These trips will see the planting of many trees and will be
supported by the one yen campaign that begins next month. This one
yen campaign will enable everyone to participate in a big or small
way. That's our goal. To be inclusive. To give everyone an
opportunity to do something nice. And to show that giving to the
earth is like giving to a friend. Joyful.
The Wonderful
World Tree Planting Festival gets launched in November 2008 with
the ONE YEN Campaign – a campaign created to give everyone
an opportunity to participate in the planting of trees and the
re-greening of the planet.
AUGUST 2008 OVER:
THE GREENING THE OLYMPICS WALK THROUGH CHINA.
High
profile tree plantings and extensive media coverage enabled the
3140 km walk from Hong Kong to Beijing, (Sep.2007 - Aug.2008) to
spread the environmental message throughout China. Thank you to
our Chinese and International friends who joined and supported our
walk. Your support was invaluable.
JUNE 2008 SHINING
WORLD LEADERSHIP/PROTECTION AWARD
We
broke off our walk through Mainland China for a while, to fly to
Hong Kong so I could accept the Shining World
/Leadership/Protection Award from the Supreme Master Ching Hai
International Association.
This award has been given to
people such as Al Gore and Dr. Jane Goodall by The Supreme Master
Ching Hai International Association and they seek to empower good
people doing good works. The Taiwan based spritual association has
been actively campaigning to stop global warming.
Since
2000 I have been encouraging the planting of 100,000,000 trees for
the approximately 100,000,000 people killed during the last
century of war. Thanks to the help of friends and supporters at
least 11,000,000 have been planted and dedicated to this cause.
Now that number is 11,312,000, thanks to Make The Heaven and their
supporters. Ten days ago we were in Inner Mongolia with Make
The Heaven, a Japanese NGO and 100 Japanese volunteers planting
trees in the desert to help stop the terrible sandstorms that whip
up every year. This 110,00 trees will be planted in total and the
founder and president of Make The Heaven, retired TV Comedian
Tensukeman has dedicated all these trees and an extra 202,thousand
planted in Inner Mongolia and Cambodia to the 100,000,000 tree
campaign.
This is wonderful news, and more trees are being
added everyday.
By planting and dedicating one hundred
million trees for the victims of war, this shows that many people
around the world support the call for peace.
17.12.2007 BRITISH
PARLIAMENTARY MOTION SUPPORTING GREEN OLYMPICS WALK EDM
601: Green Olympics And The Erathwalker's Campaign
"That
this House welcomes Paul Coleman's walk from Hong Kong to Beijing
to help to encourage China to host an environmentally-friendly
Olympics in Beijing in 2008; supports his effort to raise
awareness of these issues; welcomes the support of the Chinese
Forestry Ministry for his walk; encourages and supports China's
effort to develop sustainability; wishes for a successful Beijing
Olympics; urges all concerned with the 2012 London Olympic games
to ensure that they will be truly sustainable; and acknowledges
that a green London Olympics will advance British environmental
industries and technologies that will ultimately benefit the
global environment." Entered by Walley, Joan MP For
Stoke on Trent North Supported by 17 other Members of
Parliament:
10/11/07 ANTEA
TEA COMPANY ADD 750,000 TREES PLANTED IN VIETNAM
In
2004, during my first walk through Japan, I met up with Mr. Hideo
Kawashima, inventor and founder of ReBran Corporation. Hideo
organised my first tree planting event in Japan, at a secondary
school in the Prefecture of Aichi. The tree was planted was a
lemon and every year I receive a picture from the school of the
tree and the fruit it bears.
A few days later, myself and
then walking companion Koichi Nakatani stayed at Hideo's and
discovered his many eco friendly inventions, marketed through
ReBran, and of his intention to go into business with his friend
who had just purchased land in Vietnam. Their plan was to plant
tea trees on the high mountian plateau to enable the people of
Vietnam to find employment and to market the tea, which they
intended to grow in as natural a manner as possible.
Mr.
Kawashima, asked if the trees that they planted could be in honour
of people killed at war as a way to support to my mission to
encourage the planting of at least 100,000 millions trees; one
tree for every man, woman and child killed in the last century of
war.
Of course this was a most perfect scenario; trees
planted in Vietnam, a place that experienced an horrendous war and
is still suffering from the environmental and human consequences.
Readily I agreed.
We said goodbye and I continued my walks
around the planet, always wondering, how was the Tea Planting in
Vietnam going? How many trees had they planted?
Recently I
found out, when I received a message from Koichi, saying that he
had re-established contact with Mr. Kawashima and the project was
going well. He put us back in touch and I discovered that over
750,000 Tea Trees had been planted since last we met. The goal is
two million. Could he add them to my list? Of course he
could.
This brings the total of trees planted for people
killed at war, at almost 11,000,000. There's still a long way to
go, but the balls rolling and picking up steam.
I have been
asked by Mr. Kawashima to endorse the tea from the plantation
which we be marketed in Japan from the beginnning of next year. I
am just now preparing the endorsement of this tea that will
benefit the people of Vietnam and the people of Japan. This is
what my walking mission is all about. Lets restore the earth
following war and enable the land and the people to flourish.
Through nature there can be continued peace.
Congratulations
to Mr. Kawashima, President of Antea Tea Company and all of its
people for a job well done.