Dear Shayne,

Congratulations on lowering your carbon footprint! I am curious how you are doing it – did you become a vegetarian or vegan, did you switch to a different mode of transportation, change some buying habits?

At this point, I am a firm believer that the only folks who can save the world are… all of us. Together. Each person doing their part by lowering their carbon footprint , thus inspiring and educating others. The number one most important issue that must be dealt with if the human race is going to survive is global overpopulation. Unless we lower our population to at least half what it is now, there is no way there are going to be enough resources for everyone in the coming decades, And when I say resources, I dont mean luxury things like oil, I mean WATER and open space to grow food. At over 6.7 billion, world population is approximately 3 times higher in 2009 than it was 70 years ago, in 1939. That is just crazy! I hear stories about countries with declining populations, and the media always focuses on the economic stress less people will cause, without once mentioning the real stress of not having enough water to drink if the number of humans just keeps going up! Yes, there will be economic hardship, but it will pass when Society adjusts to the new reality of less growth. So, unless everyone really lowers their carbon footprint by committing to having just one child per couple, I believe our survival is in grave doubt.

Keep up the great work!

Alexandra

Dear Igor,

You are from Serbia! I have never been there, but I did film Death Train with Pierce Brosnan in Slovenia and in Croatia, just as the war was starting there. We went back to Croatia to shoot a sequel, Nightwatch, in 1994. I recall seeing Baywatch on tv there.

Marlee Matlin, the Oscar winning actress who has worked alot, has just written her autobiography, I’ll Scream Later, and I recommend you reading it as it may give you more tips about being a hearing impaired actor than I can. I know there is a National Theater of the Deaf and this is an interesting article to read for background on deaf theatre: http://deafness.about.com/od/deafculture/a/deaftheatre.htm

I can give you advice as a actor: get into acting class! Auditions come later! There are good books on acting at the Samuel French bookshop website: www.samuelfrench.com. If you live somewhere were there is not alot of theater or where little filming is done, you will need to eventually move, but for now it is important for you to see if acting is something you want to commit to.

I, too, am thrilled to hear from you, Igor. Best of luck to you,

Alexandra

I am so glad you enjoyed my reels. My friend Ashley Ayre created the athletic and activism reels (ashley_ayre@hotmail.com) from footage and photos I gave her.

You are a runner! I am envious, as I have had to stop all running, since my knee surgery 5 years ago. Because of that, I no longer do marathons nor triathlons. I do, however, still do an occasional swim race, and Ian and I are currently training for an 11 mile ocean swim in Fiji this summer. I am trying to improve my speed, for although I am very comfortable in the water, I generally work out at an easy lope and that is not going to improve my race times! So Ian, who coaches swimmers, gives me sets to do in the pool and in a couple months I will start ocean training. My left shoulder is weak, so that is my biggest challenge: to keep it healthy enough to last through the training and the race. With exercises, I managed to keep it strong during the 10 mile swim I did a few years ago, so I am optimistic it will be fine.

Have nice, easy run for me. Thank you for writing.

Alexandra