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.