A Check-in With Chuck Leavell

HANK GILMAN , EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Chuck Leavell has been the greatest at a lot of things. One of rock's greatest keyboard players ever ever. ( See "Jessica" with The Allman Brothers Band.) The musical director of arguably the greatest rock band ever, The Rolling Stones. And one of the greatest studio/touring musicians on the planet Earth. (Performing with folks like Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, John Mayer and Miranda Lambert.) But the greatest thing about Leavell may be his work on the environment. He is an award-winning, environmentally-friendly tree farmer in Georgia, for one thing. He also also written books on the topic including Growing a Better America: Smart, Strong and Sustainable. Just before Thanksgiving I talked briefly with Leavell, who is the subject of a new documentary, Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man, which can be seen on video-on-demand services like Amazon Prime and Apple iTunes. Our topic: what President-elect Biden could do in the short term to reverse the time lost on battling climate change. In other words, what's doable? "It's been one step forward and two steps back" when it comes to environmental policy, depending on who is in the White House, says Leavell. His recommendations: re-join the Paris Climate Agreement; revisit recycling programs, "which are dead right now"; push harder for hybrid and fully electric vehicles; create more community parks; plant more trees; and "develop with environmentally smart and sustainable techniques." He adds: "My hope is that the American public will (then) look at the successes and realize this is the path we need to be on." (For more Leavell, visit here.) Meanwhile, fingers crossed.