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Jim Channon: Mobilizing the military to clean up the earth

Actor Jeff Bridges nominates Jim Channon, who wants to mobilize the military to plant trees, clean up freshwater reserves and restore reefs.

Jim Channon, Creator, First Earth Battalion manual. Hawi, Hawai

Photo: Monica Schwartz (Channon)

It’s a cold winter day in Kansas, with the windchill driving temperatures well below zero. Why would anyone leave a tropical home in Hawaii to come here?

Jim Channon’s luggage is filled with puppets, masks, storytelling gear, musical soundtracks and a colorful set of magic markers. He stands at the podium of Fort Leavenworth’s Command and General Staff College to address 100 select military officers who have gathered from 11 nations and all branches of the service. His orders from the chief of staff are to “clean off their hard drives and reboot their imaginations.” It’s an opportunity this social architect relishes, even in the dead of winter.

On large white boards he illustrates a myriad of tactical and strategic ideas, many coming in live from the group. He then turns on a compelling soundtrack and in tandem with the music, launches into an animated story designed to enroll these future leaders in their higher purpose and the deeper meaning of service. “You are the recovery team for the Earth’s biosphere,” Channon says with gusto. “The true battle in the future is not between nations; it’s about repairing the damage we’re doing to our planet. We need a Marshall Plan for the Earth. And you are it.”

Often referred to as “The Fastest Magic Marker in the West,” retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon is a strategic visionary, shamanistic storyteller and highspeed graphic illustrator. His unique combination of imagination, wit and intellect has been likened to that of producer Walt Disney, Muppets creator Jim Henson and architect Buckminster Fuller combined. Channon’s career of 50 years spans the military and corporate worlds, where he developed farreaching ideas and conceptual tools to make Earth a better place for us all. Thirty years ago, Channon dared to dream about how a group of soldiers called The First Earth Battalion could save the world. Now, he wants to deploy that mythical military force.

In the intervening decades, Channon has been creatively heralding this message: The world’s militaries will one day administer first aid to an ailing planet. In his vision, the army must set about reforesting the Earth, planting billions of trees and cleaning up the fresh water reserves. The Marines will protect and restore the dying coral reefs and coastal wetlands while the Air Force monitors carbon emissions, ozone depletion and air pollution. The Navy, Channon says, should be tasked with measuring rising ocean temperatures and melting polar ice as well as policing illegal dumping and overfishing of the seas.

To abate rising sea levels and the flooding of coastal cities and ports, Channon sees all branches of the military teaming up to undertake one of the biggest plumbing feats in history. They will siphon excess water from the oceans and channel it into the desert basins of the planet to create enormous salt water lakes. The Air Force will then transport thousands of refugees from the Pacific Islands to these areas, where they may tend giant new fishponds. “Climateinduced crises have the power to topple governments, fuel terrorism and destabilize entire regions,” says Channon. “The military must respond to the failure of sustainability—whether that be political, social, economic or environmental—and it must do so peacefully.”

Experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies are taking a serious look at the global security implications of climate change. The U.S. Navy recently created a task force to monitor rapidly diminishing sea ice, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and increased storm severity. “Because the Arctic is changing faster than any other place on the planet, our first deliverable will be a strategic road map proposing actions for the Navy regarding the Arctic region,” says Rear Admiral David Titley, the Navy’s senior oceanographer.

Back home in Hawaii, Channon has his own game plan. He lives on the remote northwest coast of the Big Island on a threeacre ecohomestead with a team of individuals dedicated to creating selfsufficiency. In the neighboring towns of Hawi and Kapa’au, community members regularly assess water resources and emergency response, and have formed a sustainability network made up of small farms, seed banks and alternative energy resources.

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