BY HELEN DIMARAS
Even when he’s not chasing storms, George Kourounis is a busy man. Whether it’s giving a TED Talk in Athens, or being late for our interview because of an impromptu Live webcast with the HuffPo (we forgive you GK!), George is very much in demand. His love of extreme nature has made him a celebrity of sorts — his documentary extreme travel show, Angry Planet, is currently airing in over 100 countries. The show consists of a series of 39 episodes filmed on all 7 continents, covering some of George’s wildest adventures with nature’s fury.
With his ceaseless quest to climb raging volcanoes, experience deadly tornadoes, even traverse lakes of burning sulphuric acid, this begs the question: is George a fearless stormtrooper or reckless madman? You be the judge.
Helen Dimaras: This is an unconventional career choice. How did you get into it?
George Kourounis: It started as a hobby. As a kid I was interested in science and nature; my heroes growing up were Jack Cousteau and Indiana Jones. I studied audio engineering and ended up building recording studios for a living. In 1998 on holiday, I saw my first tornado, and I was hooked for life. The next year I took a bit more time off, and it ended up with me negotiating an additional unpaid month off work to go chase storms, or working overtime and taking it in time away. As I kept doing more, I developed the reputation for the guy who’d be there when all hell is breaking loose. I’d get calls from CBC, CTV, CNN, and I’d sell footage to the Discovery Channel. Then the offer of my own TV show came along; a producer had read about me in the newspaper. We approached OLN to do Angry Planet for 6 episodes. They came back with “Gee, we love the idea, not sure about 6 episodes. Can you do 13?” I quit my job and have done this professionally ever since.
The meaning of life to me is to travel to the most extreme places on earth, document forces of nature, and share what you have seen with people. Every decision I make follows those lines, like a laser beam.
HD: Extreme weather is seemingly becoming more and more common — you’ve experienced first hand the effects of climate change. Can we do anything really to combat climate change or are we trying to boil the ocean, so to speak?
GK: Really, climate change is not the problem. Climate change, pollution, deforestation, they are all symptoms of the real problem. Global human over-population is the problem. Everyone wants the same high quality of life and therefore carbon emissions are going through the roof. It’s a tough uphill battle. Education is key to getting everybody to reduce their carbon footprint. Also, studies have shown that the more education to women get, the fewer children they have, which is more sustainable, and over time can slow the increase in population. It’s not an easy task. The thing that I worry about is that by the time people wake up, it might be a generation too late. Unfortunately, because of everything I’ve seen, I think I’m going to be very busy in the years to come.
HD: Have you had any extreme adventures in Greece?
GK: No, I’ve been there a few times, but nothing I’ve documented. I missed the major forest fires. I did film the forest fires in northern Ontario, hanging out of a helicopter, the flames so strong, my camera was hot to the touch. It was one of the most spectacular days I’ve ever had. Something from an action movie.
HD: Who would win in a fight, Fire or Ice?
GK: Fire’s gonna win. When you have a big raging fire, or a volcano erupting under a glacier, heat is going to win every time.
HD: What are your thoughts on Nature’s Candy: fruit, bacon, marijuana, other?
GK: Bacon, of course — it’s awesome. If you go to my YouTube channel, you’ll see a video where I cooked bacon using molten thermite. It’s amazing stuff: it sparks, it forms puddles and reaches over 4000ËšC. It could melt through an engine block — and I used it to cook bacon in my backyard.
HD: When you’re in the middle of a tornado, on top of an active volcano or in the vicinity of a dangerous predator — are you thrilled, scared out of your wits, or a combination of both? Has there ever been a time when you’ve said to yourself, maybe I’ve gone too far?
GK: Absolutely, I get scared out there. Fear is what helps to keep me alive. It puts me in my place, it’s when I know I have to take action — usually evasive action. With fifteen years experience, you get to know the extreme danger line, but nature is hard to predict. Especially with tornadoes or an erupting volcano. There are many times when I dash into a volcano briefly, but I know if I linger I won’t come home. The adventurers math formula is: Danger = Exposure x Time.
When I got caught in the Oklahoma tornado, it was at night, and I knew there was a tornado only because I could see it on the radar screen. The next thing I know, parts of houses are flying in front of me, electric transformers are exploding, and I have to turn steering wheel and floor it with the wind to reduce any impact. I drove as fast as I could and hid the car behind shopping mall as the tornado passed. It was a dark wedge-shaped mass, and afterwards, it took 10 minutes for my legs to stop shaking. But I was with my chase partner. I asked him, “Are you OK?”. He responded, “Yup. You?” I said, “Yes. I’m OK”. So we kept chasing, for another 45 minutes. Moral of the story: avoid chasing tornadoes at night. There is no photo worth dying for. That said, I have a perfect safety record when it comes to storms. I got sick from Dengue fever in Dominica, and was hit by a car in Jamaica, but that’s it. Touch wood.
HD: You’ve previously stated that storm-chasing is a way to explore the last frontiers of this earth. What do you feel you have left to explore?
GK: Tons! There is so much to explore, it’s just a matter of finding the time and money and ways to do it all. I have a map of the world full of pins marking places I’ve been to, and I keep looking at the spots that don’t have pins yet. There are five volcanoes with lakes of lava, and 2 left I have yet to visit: one in Antarctica and another on a small island in the South Pacific. Also, Siberia in winter. The town that is the coldest inhabited place in the world, where it’s common to reach -60ËšC. I’ve never experienced a typhoon in Japan or Phillipines. I typically check one thing off, add two more to the list. I have a goal to visit 100 countries; I’m at 43.
HD: You say, “There is no Art in Nature. Nature doesn’t create Art. Everything has a purpose.” Would a fine artist argue this point?
They might. Nature creates geometry and symmetry, the petals on a flower, seeds on a sunflower. Geometry is there for a reason, for example to aid pollination, and we perceive that as art. If humans don’t exist, art does not exist. Beauty is a term that humans use to describe things we find appealing, therefore beauty and art are human constructs. Nature is very good at doing things for a practical purpose, perceived as art by us.
It’s similar to what I say about disasters: Disasters don’t exist in nature; it’s only a disaster when it affects human populations, sort of alike a tree falling in woods with nobody there to hear it. I find it really fascinating that we humans, once we realized that the molecules that make up our body came from exploded stars from billions of years ago, that is the day the universe became self-aware.
For more from George, visit his website, follow him on Twitter or YouTube, and don’t forget to check your local listings for Angry Planet.
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This piece was cross-posted from Goddess of the Hunt. For more food-for-thought for the contemporary and antsy Greek spirit, follow Goddess of the Hunt on Twitter @GoddessHunt.
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