Our Blog of the Project "Peddling against Climate Change" taken from our website peddling-against-climate-change.com

Final Summary

We arrived! We survived 8 days of hardship in Sweden! Naaah… to be honest, it wasn’t that bad at all. We were lucky by all means. Weather was pretty good, literally no ice and snow on the roads. Our Couchsurfing hosts were awesome with no exception. All of our bikes made it with some repairs. And finally, individually we finished the journey without any injuries… no, not even a cold. You could say that, basically, a bunch of laymen cycled roughly 750km during winter without any difficulties. How awesome. Some didn’t even know how to change gears at the very beginning, which makes us even more proud. We all agreed that we would do it again.

Our objectives have been met in every regard. Firstly, we made it. Secondly, we raised awareness and inspired people, as we got into the media to make a statement about the cause. We were in the largest newspapers in Denmark and New Zealand and will be in Korea. In Sweden and Canada we got into local newspapers and two radio stations. We were also interviewed by a journalist from the UNEP quarterly magazine, where we’re gonna appear at some point. Some kind of journal in Pakistan may also be interested in reporting on our story, as Nosh, who’s Pakistani participated. Finally, we can say that there has been quite a bit of group bonding. People got along well with each other., while learning about the others. It was a pleasant experience to see how everyone ticks outside the usual Uni hectic.

We hope this inspired you to take action yourself about a cause that you are concerned with. Don’t wait for others to do things, take it in your own hand. Regarding climate change this could be lethal. If we all hesitate to act and no one takes responsibility, humanity is doomed. But let’s assume that humanity is willing to do that when faced with a crisis of such proportions. We have done our part and will continue to fight for sustainability in innovative ways.

DAY FOUR AND FIVE!!!!

Two more days under the belt. Still a full team, and we are all now nearly certain that we will all make it. We are well over half way.

Day four (yesterday) was a second consecutive long day, and our longest on record with us racking up 117km from Motala to Jönköping. But without meaning to sound arrogant, we made it seem easy, arriving for the first time before the sun went down (already noticeably later than Uppsala). A solid performance all round, and a little help from Mother Nature’s free energy – having the wind at our back for most of the day – giving us a good average speed and we all arrived safe and sound to meet Marcus, an industrial design student – our host for the night. All equipment issues seem to have passed, with a day free of hassle, and the view along the way was spectacular, spending most of the day alongside lakeVättern, the route of the legendary 300km cycle ride around the lake each summer.

Day five was a short one, just 80km and the one hour sleep in (until 7am!) was well appreciated. Our luck with the weather finally ran out a little, with morning rain and a slight head wind, but a little rain never hurt anyone and at least it was rain and not ice and snow. Our day started with a pretty decent hill climb, and there aredefinately some tired and sore legs but pretty soon it was again a memory and we were arriving in Värnamo early afternoon to meet tonight’s host Jakob, who had been so thoughtful to cook up a massive batch of spaghetti bolegnaise, always very appreciated by hungry cyclists. It is true we are eating a lot.

But really, it is the spread through the media that is making us happy. Over the last two days we have had numerous contacts with various media outlets in various towns. This evening we met with a local journalist and photographer and expect to grace the paper with our presence early this week. We have been booked for 2 or 3 radio interviews which is great, and we are right now preparing to record a video message to pass to Kim Nguyen, the Australian who has biked all the way from Australia (with a short boat ride you’d assume), and is arriving in Copenhagen tomorrow. He has access to some delegates within the conference and with luck he will pass on our message to them and share it with his supporters too.

Well, that’s about all for now, we have another early start and perhaps our final real challenge with around 115km tomorrow again (to Halmstad).

The Team

THE FIRST THREE DAYS ARE OVER…

Well, what can we say, our dreams are becoming reality and so far all challenges have been overcome – there has been several. Thank you for all those supporters who came out and braved the cold to see us off. How kind it was. And how awesome that the press came to give us some publicity, we have heard we have had quite a bit of coverage on a couple of papers, but we are still just the same down to earth people despite being famous haha.

But seriously, the ride has been amazing in so many ways, and we have luck when we need it. Day one was basically a night ride after a late start but once the traffic died away (south of enköping) the full moon came out and lit the road ahead and made it a surreal and peaceful experience, which stayed with us through the night after arriving at an organic tomato farm and staying in a cozy country cottage by the lake, sauna and all. But the moonlight wasn’t enough light to find the missing bolt from Phils bike trailer after the wheel fell off in the middle of nowhere; for a while things were looking bleak as we huddled on the side of the road feeling a bit glum until phil realised he had a spare bolt of exactly the right size in his bag – a complete coincidence really, unless our sponsor Magnus new something when he gave it to phil to take along. All ended well.

Day two was wrought with problems, first Dawit´s gears not changing (which continues still – they have frozen over), but the day belonged to Farzin, with 2 flat tires and a broken rear wheel, leaving him struggling through the day with a lot of mechanical stops. But the end of the day came and he had little choice but to buy a whole new wheel, leaving us all feeling more positive about today. Thanks to Beatrice in Katrineholm for hosting us all on her floor and introducing us to her friends and making us feel so welcome.

Day three was always going to be the big challenge, but again, things went perfectly and the whole team puled through making it look easy. 115km through the complete backroads of Sweden, in fact most of it on car-less dirt roads and no street signs but Christian´s talent for navigating a maze of frost covered winding streets taking us past a plethora of beautiful, frozen lakes left us all happy to carry on through the pain and arrive safely to a 19th century historic mansion, packed full of leather bound books, chandeliers and musical instruments – our floor for tonight. An almost problem-free day aside from Dawit´s wheel extremely buckled and loosing spokes. We pray for the best and surely our luck will continue.

Stunning clear, blue days and full moon nights, plus todays, fog and frost filled forest. We are truly amateurs in below zero temperature figuring out the best ways at keeping our toes warm, having a load of fun and learning as we go, with a lot of laughs at the same time. Thanks also to the helpful Swede’s we are meeting along the way.

We will keep you posted. Another 115km tomorrow so we better get to bed/floor….

From the Peddling Against Climate Change team

It's all happening!

Sorry for stealing your slogan DJ :)
The past few days have been one of the most, if not the most busy days of my life. However, I gotta admit that it was mostly a pleasent "busy". I had to work hard for my Master course, study for the extra-course at CEMUS, solve organizational issues for "peddling-against-climate-change" and arrange another Discussion Group. So far all of them seem to be turning out well. Especially the latter two have received a significant boost today. What happened? I always ask this rethorical questions, right? Right? Probably. Well, for the the peddling initiative we had the issue of costs. We had to figure out how to reduce the overall cost of the undertaking, as accomodation (if not free) and extra-equipment would add a lot. Fortunately, Farzin, one of our Iranian team members got to know a manager of a bike shop who likes our idea and who's interested in giving away gear for a lower price. We'll visit him next week altogether. Besides that the couchsurf community responds extremely favourable to the idea and is more than willing to accomodate even 5 of us. We got places to stay in Motala, Jönköping, Halmstad, Helsingborg and Lund (not certain if we choose to get to Lund though). What are still in need of is a place in Strängnäs, Katrineholm and Gislaved. Especially the last might represent a problem, as it is a seriously small town. Let's see what's gonna happen. People are so kind and trusting on couchsurfing :)
Pfff... I am dead tired and need to brush teeth, but there's so much more to write about. I have made myself scarce on my blog recently, which is a pity, as I could write pages over pages over pages. I hope to find some time and will to get some more thoughts on the screen. Meanwhile I gotta keep working to keep things up!

Rock'n'Roll from Uppsala!

Cycling to Kopenhagen

So, as promised two blogs ago... something inspiring is on the way. Two weeks ago I had the random idea of organizing a bike ride to the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December. From Uppsala this represents a distance of about 700 to 750 km and takes a week to cycle. First of all I got really excited and had visions on how to turn this into reality. The following few days I was introducing the idea to some of my class mates and a Swedish dude who's just moved into my house. The idea was generally well received, however apart from interest there wasn't much more. I had to get something more substantial together to get people commited. Hence I kept talking to people and found quite a few of them interested while having something to offer such as experience, promotional clip, newspaper articles and plain motivation. Yeah, somehow everything started to fall into place, so I thought "Let's organize a meeting", so everyone would get to know each other. The meeting happened last Monday and was extremely successful. People saw that they're not the only ones interested which made their enthusiasm ballon. Now we're about 8 people who have been divided into subgroups. No specific taks have been allocated so far, but we'll do that next Tuesday (2nd meeting) at Östgöta Nation 7:24pm. I'm extremely happy to work together with such a bunch of inspiring people. It's going to benefit all of us. We'll learn how to create something out of nothing and see that if there's a good idea, it's just the courage that is needed to get things going... everything else will fall into place (at least in Sweden :) ). If you're interested too, but haven't gotten into it yet, here are some info: http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=296886930499
and if you want to contact me personally, here you go: philipperother@gmail.com
We not only need people who want to cycle... everyone who's able to organize, do marketing or provide us with contacts is more than welcome!

Thanks for the attention,

Philippe

Genocide

I have just read the chapter about the genocide in Rwanda in the book "The State of Africa - A History of 50 Years of Independence". Hutsi vs. Tutsi. I don't really know what to say or think, apart from "o my god". I have read about it beforehand and even watched a documentary, but the book made the context very clear including citations of participants. Here is one quote:

"A group of soldiers and Interhamive attacked the church. They made holes in the back walls and threw grenades through the holes. Everyone tried to take cover. The Interhamive then came in with their machetes and began massacring. At least one uniformed soldier continued to shoot into the church to protect the Interhamive until they were right inside the church and had begun their "work". The Interhamive included women and young boys, about eleven to fourteen, carrying spears and sharpened sticks. They used these to beat a lot of children to death.
As they macheted, the militia disucssed their work, pointing out wounded people to each other to be finished off. After a while they were arguing as to whether they should continue to machete or if they should start looting. They decided to loot before everyone was dead...
I had fallen under some dead. I couldn't move because there were so many dead bodies on top of me. The Interhamive left, thinking everyone was dead."

This powerlesness against societal forces makes me wonder, what the heck I am thinking when I say "I want to change the world... to make it more sustainable/ equal...". On the one hand it is good to be visionary, as without not much would be gained, due to a lack of goal. However, I think I need to incorporate some more humility in my perspective about the world and its dynamics. Humility, because I believe I can change things, but thinking of all those countless people that have perished throughout history to fight for equality and justice, I feel small and insignificant. Confidence is good, but overconfidence can make you blind. Trust in yourself is also good, but can lead to arrogance. So be careful young man by keeping an conscious eye on your development. It is definitively a good idea for me to go back to developing countries and face another reality. From that perspective religion provides many benefits. Humility, love and hopeful being conscious. There are many reasons for why I disagree with people that want to abolish religion. In secular Western societies it is being focused too much on the negative sides.

These were my thoughts of the day, or rather hour.

Let's be human to one another... that's how we change the world.

A month in Uppsala

By now I think I got used to the town and the daily habit of studying... again. Generally I have to admit that I really enjoy the environment. The people in our course are fun and mostly interested in learning and doing, which is good to start with. When I'm not studying I usually hang out with them, going to pubs, playing football and lately during an extra seminar on Friday. The latter may become a great tool in organizing activities and setting up projects. Regarding the course I'd say that I can only express high satisfaction. Although I have witnessed the most horrible lecture ever, given by an ecofeminist from the WWF, it is by large an extremely valuable experience. Currently we study environmental issues, which I felt pretty ignorant about so far. I have to admit that we're studying only the basics, which I still don't know much about. Thus I got a lot to catch up, but generally think that I do a good job.
Besides going to Uni I try to take other opportunities. I took the chance of joining an extra-course provided by CEMUS (comes pretty close to Open Eduction), which revolves around "Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures." It is every Monday for a few hours during which we get to hear someone talking and discuss the issues afterwards. Another positive feature is that Uppsala seems to be pretty popular in the academic sense, so there are many conferences happening. I have recently been to one about Tibet and another one that was concerned about Africa ("Outsourcing Land for Biofuel Production"). As you can see, I am learning, learning and learning. In the meantime I'm trying to figure out what I wanna do during my internship next year. Somehow, I do not want to limit myself to a specific occupation. There is so much to learn and do, which makes it difficult to say to become this or that. As a result I recently thought that I may try to avoid this reductionist path and try to follow a holistic perspective instead. I may encounter more difficulties, because the Wester world is basically build around reductionism, but I'm sure that I could succeed. I could imagine myself working in the media or as somehow who's got a lot of smart people around himself and simply tries to connect them through his/ her interdisciplinary knowledge. The course I am taking advocates exactly this, so perhaps I will manage to get in somewhere later by on focusing on holism.
The next few weeks will get darker and darker, but better to study I suppose. Who wants to study when the sun is shining haha. We'll have exams in the beginning of October and start taking the course "Man and Society" or something similar afterwards.

That's it. Hope I can come up with a lot of inspiring thoughts, once the course progesses and out of class activities (e.g. trips and projects) start being implemented.

Ahoi!