Anthony Verlaine, a committed influencer

Anthony Verlaine’s first adventures were in the difficult neighborhoods of Grenoble, where he grew up.

” I think my passion for travel came from a frustration. The frustration of living in Grenoble, surrounded by the mountains, but not being able to go there for lack of means”.

So to compensate, the young adventurer climbs buildings, climbs trees… and spends a lot of time in front of the TV, dreaming in front of Nicolas Hulot and Commandant Cousteau documentaries. When asked what job he wants to do later on, the answer worries his relatives: “Nicolas Hulot”.

For this first great adventure, Anthony has two conditions:

• To use walking, cycling, kayaking, skiing, animal traction and a bit of hitchhiking, instead of using motorized means of transport.
• Talking to all the people met along the way to find out who they are.

In short, to sail to the rythm of meetings, without any particular project.

In 2015, Anthony Verlaine becomes The French Adventurer and starts posting his committed adventures on Instagram.

At the time, the concept of sustainable tourism already existed, but it received far less media coverage than it does today and the vast majority of travel influencers were not involved. Since then, many have evolved and now share more sober adventures.

“I’m not perfect,” nuances Anthony Verlaine. “When you start living from influence, you have more and more sponsorship requirements. I don’t have the same freedom as before, when I could take my time and travel without motorized means. In Europe, I always take the train, but internationally, it’s more complicated.”

If you’re interested in the role of influencers in the ecological transition, we’ve dedicated a podcast episode to it with the Paye Ton Influence Group.

Sin City was founded in the mid-19th century in the middle of the Mojave Desert, the driest of the four American deserts. Paradoxically, between the big hotels, casinos, golf courses, private swimming pools and incessant air conditioning, Las Vegas consumes a lot of water!

“It’s completely dichotomous, there’s this water stress and then there are the lobbies, the economic interests, the conflicts between politicians that prevent the cause from advancing…” explains Anthony, who wrote his thesis on the subject.

Murmuration‘s engineers, (Flockeo’s parent company), have kindly concocted this little gif to give us a better idea of the issues involved in Las Vegas.

Satellite data show that between 2001 and 2019, urbanization increased by 31%. One of the consequences of this expansion is a spike in water requirements, particularly in this desert region. Las Vegas relies on Lake Mead, an artificial lake built on the Colorado River, for around 90% of its water needs. The lake’s resources have been overexploited for several years, leading to its gradual drying-up. This trend can be observed thanks to satellite data: between 2001 and 2019, the lake lost 36% of its water cover.

To ensure its future, Las Vegas needs to rethink its business model. For the past twenty years, measures have been imposed on the population to save water. But will this be enough?

Anthony tells us about his field experience on the border between French Guiana, Suriname and Brazil. “Poachers and gold miners come into the forest to find gold. They take areas measuring 2km by 2km. In 1 month, the area no longer exists. They cut down all the trees, eat everything they can find to eat : toucans, birds, snakes, jaguars. Every form of life is destroyed.“

To amalgamate gold, gold miners use chemicals such as mercury. As it infiltrates rivers, mercury becomes part of aquatic food chains, contaminating local populations who eat the fish.

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At the end of our interview, Anthony tells us a story from the island of Komodo in Indonesia. It’s a particularly revealing anecdote about the role of education and awareness-raising in the fight to preserve our planet. In the early morning, like any self-respecting Instagrammer, Anthony gets up to photograph the sunrise on the beach.

“I see hundreds of women arriving with huge plastic bags on their heads to empty them into the ocean! I run up and ask them why they’re doing that. One of them explains to me that it’s good for the environment because on the plastic plates, there’s a bit of food left for the fish, and the glasses and cans can serve as homes for them. And in fact, when you put yourself in their shoes, it makes sense. That day, I realized that we judge with our eyes as Europeans who have been taught everything. I realized that education is really the thing that could change the world.”

For Anthony, the transition to action is now more likely to take place on a local scale, because “it brings tangible results, changes that we see on a daily basis, and it takes away the frustration of thinking we’re going to change the world when the decision-makers are politicians, big business…”.