Art “Monk” Dwight’s passion for hiking and the environment started early when he went hiking with his father on the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts. While on the trail his father told him, “Artie, this trail stretches north to Maine and all the way south to Georgia.” One day, young Monk promised himself, he would hike the entire Appalachian Trail. And so it was in 2018, Monk, no longer young, hiked the entire 2,197-mile trail from Georgia to Maine in 133 days. 

Monk’s passion for protecting the environment started in school when he learned how industry was polluting the earth and became fearful of what kind of damage that would do over time. That was more than fifty years ago, and since that time the amount of carbon that humans have poured into atmosphere has brought us close to the point where we face the very real reality of having an unlivable planet due to unchecked global warming.