This morning I received a call from the Huffington Post letting me know I was chosen to be the Hopenhagen ambassador and citizen journalist. I was overjoyed, and felt incredibly thankful for the many friends who helped me in the contest. I also feel honored, as I know many of the other contestants were very deserving and would have done an excellent job in Copenhagen.

More information will be coming soon. If you have a question about Copenhagen that you want me to answer while I’m there (working as a “citizen journalist”) add a comment below and I will try to answer.

I entered the Huffington Post’s Hopenhagen.org ambassador contest about two weeks ago, and on Monday the winner will be announced. Some of the videos in the competition were very good, and a number of contestants would do an excellent job of representing Hopenhagen.

Yesterday, I found the video below. Jim Killingsworth entered the contest, but withdrew his video after a few days. I thought that was strange, as I liked his video. Then, yesterday, I learned that he had dropped out because he had decided to endorse me. I have never met Jim, and the fact that he saw my video and decided he should endorse me . . . well, I’m taken aback and honored. Thank you Jim. If I’m chosen, I’ll do my best.

Here is his video endorsement:

Also, a big thank you to the following websites / organizations that “endorsed” me. Even if I’m not chosen, I hope I can live up to this praise!

Ciudad Humana — Ride350 — 350.org — WattHead — Fairer Globalization — The Atkinson Diet — Ride for Climate — Bike to Brazil — Gregg Bleakney — The Alliance for Climate Education — It’s Getting Hot in Here — Roz Savage — Focus the Nation — The Lazy Environmentalist

During Climate Ride, I had the opportunity to bike with Roz Savage, an Englishwoman who rowed solo across the Atlantic. Wow. My journey looks like like a cakewalk by comparison. Roz was alone for over a hundred days and would row for twelve hours a day. I had one day where I didn’t see another person, and I rarely pedaled more than six hours.

She has written a book about this journey, and is using her ability to draw crowds to raise awareness of environmental issues. Now she is walking with a team from London to Brussels to draw attention to the upcoming climate negotiations. You can follow her walk on her website.

Here is the planed route:

I am now working part time with 350.org. I’ve been helping send out emails in six different languages to people all over the world to help coordinate the International Day of Action. (The other day I made an error and forgot to email all the people in the former Soviet republics. Oops! I promise I won’t forget again!)

350 stands for 350 parts per million carbon dioxide, which is likely the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Above this level, it is likely that the ice caps will melt. Here is a scientific paper arguing for this number, and a qualifying discussion on realclimate.org.

Very few economists or policy makers believe that 350 ppm is possible. Concentrations of CO2 are almost at 390 ppm and they are climbing. Most policy makers think that keeping concentrations under 450 will require herculean efforts.

Perhaps that’s why I find the 350.org call to action so inspiring. People around the world are calling for an ambitious target. They aren’t saying “let’s do our best.” They’re saying “lets do what needs to be done.” They’re saying that we can do the nearly impossible. The question is, will we inspire our leaders to act?

Here are images of people around the world calling for an ambitious goal:

I recently remade the video for this website’s homepage. I’ve improved the audio and also had a designer edit the book’s cover photo. The working title is The Road to Tierra del Fuego: my 21,000-mile ride for the climate. Take a look:

In other news, I’m now in New York City after taking a direct flight from San Francisco to JFK. (Actually, I’m writing this on the plane itself, but I I’ll have to wait to post it when I reach the east coast.)

I spent the past few weeks fundraising for Climate Ride, and I was amazed by how these efforts went. I raised $2421 ($21 more than my goal!). Sixty individuals donated on-line, and then another 10 or so contributed at a party I held last week. Almost all of the fundraising was accomplished in the past two weeks. You can look at my Twitter feed to see how quickly the final $900 went. It became a bit of a game, as I posted my remaining fundraising on Facebook, on my gchat status, and on Twitter. People I hadn’t talked to in years saw my “fundraising left” amount slowly decrease and they chipped in $25 or $50. One friend donated $7.50 just because he wanted to see me change my gchat status. I ended up spending the majority of the day writing thank you notes to donors and then updating gchat, Facebook, and Twitter. The money will go to Focus the Nation, Clean Air – Cool Planet, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, as well as to Climate Ride’s direct outreach.

Thank you to those of you who contributed. I’ll be sending all of you emails from the road.

Now it’s time for the ride—five days of activism, exhaustion, and fun. I am helping run the Live Blog, www.climateridelive.org. Check out this site to see updates.

I know some people say it is hypocritical to fly across the country to then ride a bicycle for the climate. I will be responsible for perhaps 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide because of my round trip flight, more carbon dioxide than the average world citizen pollutes in an entire year.

Partially through some of my own encouragement and negotiation, Clif Bar is going to offset the carbon footprint of all Climate Riders traveling to the event. These offsets definitely make me feel better about my trip. But even if the carbon was not offset, I believe the flight would still be worth it. We are going to solve climate change not because we stop using planes, but instead because we figure out how to make planes that don’t pollute. And to accomplish that end, we need our legislators to promote enormous investment in green technology. Next Thursday, the day after we arrive, I will physically go to the offices of my Senators in Washington and ask them to do everything they can to pass meaningful climate legislation.

Until then, I will bike.

Over the past two years, I’ve worked as an outreach coordinator for the Brita Climate Ride.

Last year, a hundred cyclists biked from New York City to Washington DC, raising money for Focus the Nation and Clean Air – Cool Planet. The ride ended with a rally by the steps of the Capitol building, and over half of the riders then visited their elected officials and lobbied for action on climate change. I spoke with aids to Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Diane Feinstein, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Climate Ride will be back this year this year, and so will I. I am fundraising for the ride, and you can donate here. Every little bit helps.

I was planning to name my book The Bicycle Diaries, but sadly, David Bryne has just published a book with that title, so I am searching for a new title. I had to add an “annotation” to the promotional video I just made for my book.

I’ve decided that a core theme of my book is the connections that I’m able to make with people living along the road. Through being vulnerable on a bike and traveling without a windshield, I was able to meet countless people and be invited into their houses. I stayed at well over a hundred different people’s homes during my two years of travel. A friend who read my book said that one of the main messages of the book was about the “basic goodness of humanity.”

On a larger level, I am saying how we are all connected–in this global age, what we do at one end of the world affects people at the far end of the Earth. Through my journey, I physically connected people by bicycling from one house to the next, and I made personal connections by sharing meals or homes.

I want a title that somehow emphasizes these connections and our shared humanity, but of course which does so poetically and subtlety. Maybe it will use the word “chain” to also reference a bicycle. Or “links.” Perhaps something about linking us to the far end of the earth, maybe using the island Tierra del Fuego in the title. Maybe something like “Links to del Fuego,” as I like the idea of linking us to the far end of the Earth, and my bike’s name was “del Fuego.”

The subtitle would still be “A 21,000-Mile Ride for the Climate.”

I’m probably violating some writing ethic by posting a request for book titles, but groups of people usually have better ideas than individuals. Send me an email at david AT rideforclimate DOT com, or post a comment! If you propose the winning title, you will get some type of prize, to be determined.

And here’s the video I talked about before:

Welcome to the new RideforClimate.com! I have recently combined the old “Ride for Climate The Americas” and “Ride for Climate USA” into this one site.

I have spent much of the past two years working on a book about my (and Bill’s) 21,000 miles journey. You can read the book’s introduction here, but I also recommend poking through the blog entries from the trips. Use the sidebar on the right to explore entries for the trip from California to Argentina and the ride from Massachusetts to California.

Check this blog for news on the book (title still to be determined) and other climate or bicycle related musings.
24