About Bagonaut

Bagonaut Egan Sanders is not exactly a hippie, not exactly a Republican; he’s just a guy trying to make some sense of a world in environmental chaos. Armed with enthusiasm, chutzpah, and a crazy idea to do his part to inspire all sentient beings on Earth to shop safely with reusable shopping bags, Bagonaut has set out on a journey of eco-discovery, as he traverses the bagoverse in BIGBAG1, the world’s largest canvas shopping bag. Bagonaut Sanders takes responsibility for his own contribution to Global Warming and pollution.

An admitted former plastic baggist - as a teenage bag boy he gleefully packed groceries in paper and plastic for numerous people, unaware of the danger of his actions to the environment. Although Sanders has been using canvas shopping bags for his trips to the supermarket for the last 14 years, he felt the need to make amends for his distant past and has committed himself to a life of prayer, devotion and canvas. He hopes that others will join him by kicking the plastic bag addiction of consumer driven 21st century and reduce, reuse and recycle.

Bagonaut is pleased with the maiden launch of BIGBAG1 which was skillfully constructed by the people at the West Texas Lighthouse for the Blind - a sheltered facility providing employment for blind and visually impaired individuals. It is located in San Angelo, Texas and is dedicated to the highest principles of professionalism in the field of blind care. It is chartered in the State of Texas as a private, non-profit corporation. Bagonaut worked long hours with BIGBAG1 design engineer Doyle Bell on this project. Unusual stitches, Velcro, magnets, and other tools and techniques were used to complete BIGBAG1 in time for the first Big Bag Event. Luckily there was no damage to BIGBAG1 during it's first mission, although Bagonaut did lose contact with Mission Control when battery power to his walkie talkie died 16 hours into the mission.

The Bag Safely Program promotes the use of reusable shopping bags through education. The first mission was the San Angelo Big Bag Event where Bagonaut Sanders sat in the world’s largest reusable canvas shopping bag – BIGBAG1 - for 24 hours non-stop. Bagonaut orbited the ecosphere of the parking lot of Sam’s Club in San Angelo to educate the public about the importance of recycling and increase awareness of how our actions affect the environment. It began at noon on Saturday, September 8, 2007. People who attended the Big Bag Event and brought food items to donate to the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank received FREE reusable shopping bags generously donated by local, national, and international businesses. A series of speakers made short presentations throughout the day about environmental issues that affect the Concho Valley and what sensible things can be done to solve them.

Originally a monkey named Melvin was going to be sent into the ecoverse in the first BIGBAG1 mission, however due to the environmental emergency and lack of funds to supply Melvin with a large supply of fresh bananas, Sanders – a human being (We think?) was chosen because he likes canvas bags, listens well to instructions, and does not need a fresh supply of bananas. A variety of bugs, ants, beetles and UCO's (Unidentifiable Canvas Objects) did join Bagonaut on his maiden voyage in BIGBAG1, especially when he was trying to sleep at night. Apparently Bagonaut and his Bago-suit are very tasty - which may account for all the bites he received.

Bagonaut Sanders undergoes rigorous training for his missions at the West Texas Lighthouse for the Blind Training Center. He must be able to withstand the harsh elements of the ecoverse, Global Warming naysayers, and potential claustrophobia induced by remaining within BIGBAG1 for extended periods of time. Logging many hours in the BIGBAG1 simulator has been helpful. In addition, more unorthodox training has been employed. Sanders has spent hours zipped up in a dark duffle bag while being suspended from a cable from the ceiling to recreate car sickness and to confront claustrophobia. He has also fasted, watched many hours of Desperate Housewives television show repeats in order to desensitize himself to human melodrama, and been repeatedly fonged, rolfed and dowsed. In addition, a rabid group of Global Warming naysayers have been called in to help in his specialized training. These naysayers refuse to acknowledge all the evidence of climate change;

1. The 2 degree warming of the earth's atmosphere in the last 100 years 
2. The doubling of Greenhouse gases in the last 30 years 
3. The 3 degree increase in Alaska's temperature since 1949  
4. The West Antarctic and Greenland glaciers that are in decline
5. Unusual weather patterns
6. Increased pollution
7. Rapid population growth
8. Increasing oil and electricity prices
9. Diminishing natural resources

Mobs of naysayers are brought into the training facility on a daily basis to barrage Sanders with insults, condemnation, and reams of evidence that everything is copasetic with planet Earth and that Global Warming is a hippie, liberal conspiracy to get people to do nice things for the environment.  While Sanders understands this viewpoint, he also knows that with more information naysayers may change their tune - just as he did in his own education process. Here Plastosis Bagosis attempts to ram BIGBAG1 with an electric cart as Bagonaut watches him through the porthole.
 
Now that he has survived the first voyage of BIGBAG1, Bagonaut Sanders hopes to return to civilian life and continue to apply a sustainable philosophy in his personal and work lives. As the organizer of the Wholistic Rodeo: Health – Mind – Spirit Expos, www.wholisticrodeo.com, his intention is to produce sustainable events that are kind to the environment. Future BIGBAG1 missions are being planned.

Go with God – and bag safely with reusable bags!

"What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can."
    -- Henry David Thoreau


Home     Our Global Footprint     30 Day Plastic Bag Diet     About     Contact
 


Copyright (c) 2007 Bagonaut