One of the researchers that I worked with is an interesting character and deserves a post of his own. Brian has a Ph.D. in glaciology and now works half-time doing glaciology research. The other half of his time he spends being a good citizen: protesting, writing letters to the newspaper, and taking mining companies to court. At the moment he is working on a campaign to prevent a mining company from working in an area (the only area) where an endangered species of snail lives. The mining company wants to simply relocate the snails, but then, why do the snails only live in this one area? Maybe the snails wouldn't be too happy about being relocated.
Brian and his partner Lynley were living in a bus for several years (they're now working on a building a house), the bath is outside and is heated by fire, and their outhouse consists of a hole in the ground - no roof or seat! Brian built a small hydropower system out of an old washing machine and protected from the elements by covering it with a real estate sign. He also built a wind turbine, but that fell down during the first storm. The car runs on veggie oil, which he picks up from various hotels and restaurants in town. I got to go with him to pick up a load (1000 L) of veggie oil. See photo below - containers of veggie oil pictured with the bus.
Here's a view of the shed where Brian processes the veggie oil before using it in his car. He's still trying to figure out to do with the all of the crud that he's filtered out. He said that he's leaning towards building a flame thrower (why?!?) but that he might also give it to the fat man who ships it to China to be made into lipstick...
It was a little bit funny being in the field with him and Tom (master's student). Tom works at a gear shop and has very fancy clothing and equipment; Brian uses gear that might be older than I am.
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