Ride Planet Earth

This time last year I was cycling alone through the Gobi Desert if I remember correctly.

Now I live in a West European city, made rich over centuries of exploiting the rest of the world. I live in my girlfriend’s apartment, it’s a comfortable situation. I don’t pay rent, I have a warm bed to sleep in every night with the bonus of a warm person inside it, I have a job, despite the fact I’m just pulling pints, so I have been able to slowly pay off the debt I incurred from my long journey. I just attended the wedding of Ricky Tart, the film-maker who was documenting my journey and traveled the last exciting month with us from Berlin to Copenhagen. Life, it would appear, is back to something resembling normal.

Except that I can’t wait to be out in the wild again, my plans to cycle across Africa, the Middle East and India are slowly simmering, and I am still focused on helping the human community find a way to become sustainable. I’m organising Ride Planet Earth 2010, for 28th November of this year, the day before the COP16 in Cancun. If Copenhagen wasn’t a success then we have to do everything we can to make sure Cancun is.

There is at least one person I know who is going there personally to try to have a positive impact. He is travelling there on his bicycle. From New York City. I think that is something like 6000 kilometres but he’ll be able to tell you exactly once he arrives. His name is Jeffrey Katrencik.

Jeff sets off soon. He is going to be writing blogs of his journey and experiences on a weekly basis as he travels south. He will be travelling through areas where the impacts of climate change are already apparent, where humans have destroyed their environment in search of money and power. But he’ll also be discovering the places where solutions are being developed and utilised, and meeting people who are working out how we can live on this planet in a sustainable way. I for one am really looking forward to finding out what he discovers. If you want to contact Jeff directly you can reach him at Jeff@rideplanetearth.org.

Other people are doing the same things, except they are not heading to Cancun, they are travelling all over this little planet of ours, from Alaska to Tasmania. They are also spreading the message of climate action and going to places a few thousand kilometres off the beaten track. The benefit of travelling by bicycle is that by necessity you travel through places very few other people see or hear about. I will be interviewing these journeymen and women and reporting their experiences. What they are see of climate change and human greed destroying the planet, but also what people are doing to protect it.

I hope that all these people experience a little of what I did. The magic of the universe, the planet and our existence on it. The thrill of meeting people who are inspired to act and have a positive impact on the world around them. The excitement when someone was inspired through our contact and interactions.

Lastly, Chris Keene, who joined the Cycle Change Convoy in Denmark last year, and organised the Zero Carbon Caravan, had instigated the Zero Carbon World Concert initiative which takes place over the weekend of the 27th and 28th November, linking in really well with Ride Planet Earth 2010. Much like Ride Planet Earth people are invited to set up a concert wherever they are in the world to demonstrate what is possible without fossil fuels. In this case, music, entertainment, hope and inspiration. Chris and the team are currently writing the zero carbon concert guidelines which will be available to everyone to put on their own concerts. The details will be available at www.zerocarbonconcert.org.

As always if you’d like to get involved please email me at kim@rideplanetearth.org. Set up your own bicycle rally or zero carbon concert, or do whatever you can think of that’ll make your life and those of the people around you more sustainable. Thanks.

Check out this link to a cool video of a bicycle action in Brasil!