Mark Gold is President of the environmental group Heal the Bay, and was Executive Director from 1994 to 2006. Gold created Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card, and has authored or co-authored numerous California coastal protection, water quality and environmental education bills. Below, Gold takes our In The Green Room Q&A.

Q. What’s the last habit you tried to kick?

A. Eating hamburgers. Aren’t you going to ask how it went? I did it.

Q. Who was your childhood hero?

A. Jacques Cousteau.

Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?

A. Going to a Dodger game.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?

A. Running on the beach.

Q. What is the last book you read?

A. Dorothy Green’s Managing Water: Avoiding Crisis in California.

Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?

A. Move somewhere else.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. My least favorite’s pollution, I can tell you that.

Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?

A. This is the one I’ve got and I make the most of it.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?

A. Photos of my family.

Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?

A. Kenya.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. Obama.

To read about Gold’s panel on whether we’re running out of seafood, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.