Actor Ed Begley Jr. to tout environment

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:00 a.m.

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You can’t run up Mount Everest and you can’t jump into a full “off the grid,” sustainable energy, solar-powered, electric car, environmentally friendly lifestyle without taking the small steps to get there.

After 38 years of taking those small steps, actor and longtime environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. has lived that piece of advice.

“What I did in 1970 is all I’m asking people to try,” Begley said.

Begley will share his message of taking the small steps as keynote speaker Saturday at the Louisiana Environmental Action Network annual conference.

Getting started on living in a more environmentally friendly way is easier than ever, Begley said. A person can start by doing something as simple as changing light bulbs from conventional to the more energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

When he started on the path  of living more simply and more sustainably, Begley said, he was poor and it just made sense to consume less because it saved money.

Begley said he was given the foundation for more frugal living from his conservative Republican father, who, instead of throwing things away, recycled them into new uses and emphasized living with as little waste as possible.

“He’d lived through the Depression, so he learned to live simply,” Begley said.

Then, starting in the 1970s, Begley decided to ride his bike as a means of transportation in Los Angeles. That was harder than it sounds because those were the years before the Clean Air Act helped address some of the major pollution problems  in the city.

“To ride around in the smog in the 1970s, that was hard,” he said. “Back in the 1970s, you had to be dedicated (to ride).”

Each small step he took — from investing in an early version of an electric car to finally getting solar power for his home — all took time, he said.

“It took me 20 years to afford solar electric,” Begley said.

“You don’t run up Mount Everest,” Begley said. “You’ve got to get to the base camp, get acclimated and then continue on.”