Despite his fast, Wight looks fit, though his face is splotchy and he habitually tugs at his mustache. Watch video
GREENFIELD – It will be at least another 10 days until Doug Wight bites into a piece of toast or a stalk of celery, but all in all he says he’s doing fine.
Wight, 70, was originally scheduled to wrap up his 30-day hunger strike on Greenfield Common Tuesday, but now he wants to keep going until Aug. 9. That’s 10 more days of juice, water, coffee and broth.
“I definitely feel weaker,” he said Tuesday, as he sat behind a table that supported a cell phone, his reading glasses, envelopes addressed to local legislators and a container of now-cold coffee. “I’ve lost 25 pounds.”
Wight is doing all this to raise consciousness about global warming, an issue he feels is crucial to the planet’s survival. With ice at the north and south poles melting fast, he said, there is no time to waste.
“America needs to wake up now and stop global warming,” Wight insisted.
His fast has lasted through frightening thunder storms and 100-degree heat. Wight is at his spot near the corner of Main and Federal streets at 6 a.m. and stays usually until 8 at night.
Behind him is another table with a stack of cardboard pieces on which he plans to put messages about global warming people that have given him to convey.
If all goes according to plan, Wight will hold a “culminating event” on Aug. 25 with signs and fellow activists that he predicts will be the biggest global warming demonstration in the history of Western Massachusetts.
“This is drawing momentum in leaps and bounds,” he said.
A New Jersey native, Wight is a self-styled “Viking” who has traveled with his dog to 48 states. Sometimes, he said, he would stop and take a job teaching or coaching. Wight has competed in three marathons and claims to have logged enough miles running to circumvent the Earth.
Wight’s pickup truck is often parked at a meter in front of the common. Painted across it is www.ethicalwarrioractivists.org. The website has a photo of Wight in front of the White House under the label "26 year international fraud" and above the sentence, "I'm a legend in my own mind!" There are links to several blog posts, the most recent from February.
The pickup also sports a John Lennon “Give Peace a Chance” bumper sticker.
He said the meter readers give him a break on the truck, but police have come down on him for his display. Wight has been fined $200 for littering and another $25 for wrapping a banner around his truck without a permit, he said.
Despite his fast, Wight looks fit, though his face is splotchy and he habitually tugs at his mustache. Passers-by often stop to chat or encourage him or impart advice. One woman warned, “When you end your fast, you’re not to eat too much.”
Wight figures he has talked to more than 500 people during the fast.
“We need to make this thing go national,” he said.