(This article was first published in Havana Magazine in Amsterdam, in November and December 2010.)

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Breaking out of the monotony and predictability of conventional urban life is a dream to many. But fear and expectation connive to keep most people safely locked in. Turning the dream into reality can be hard and risky, but the potential reward is so great that I want to know, how can you not do it?

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In 2008 I was working in an office in Sydney, Australia. Nice office, good pay, boring job. I was sitting in front of a computer, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. I was getting pains in my back from all the sitting, and headaches from staring at the computer screen. It didn’t feel right. I was sure this wasn’t what evolution was supposed to lead to. Millions of years developing the human body and mind, the best procreating with the best, to produce office cubicle workers. I wanted something different. And I got it.

 

In August 2008 I set off on my bicycle from Brisbane Australia to cycle to Copenhagen Denmark. Part of it was a desire to reject my boring office job and predictable life, part of it a desire for adventure - to test myself - and part of it a desire to save the planet from climate change.

 

Politics plays a very important part in all of our lives, whether we like it or not. The laws that determine what we can and cannot do, the education we receive, the health care we are entitled to. I’ve always had an interest in politics, although I haven’t always done anything about it. But what struck me about all this politics, about our economic models, our social systems, the left and the right, is that it will all be meaningless if we don’t have a planet we can live on.

 

So the environment, the planet and climate change are what motivated me to get political. I like the sound of getting political, of having an impact on the people around you and changing the direction of your community, your society. But in reality trying to do that is incredibly hard.

 

There are so many forces against change, forces that benefit from the status quo, the rich and the powerful, that will do anything to keep things the way they are. Just look at Barack Obama, a very intelligent, ambitious, well connected man, who swept into power saying “Yes We Can,” with a mandate to tackle climate change. Two years trying to force through health care reforms, no discernible action on climate change, and his ability to make any further changes has been severely shackled by the mid-term election loss. And he is the American President.

 

It shows the challenge the rest of us are up against. But I figured I could have a little impact, and that’s better than no impact, and change has got to start somewhere right? Luckily there are lots of people who think like me, having lots of little impacts, some are having big impacts, and change is starting all over the place.

 

I set up the Ride Planet Earth campaign, to promote simple action against climate change, like using sustainable transport. By cycling across 3 continents I thought I could raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on the Developing World, and help inspire people to do something about it.

 

I arrived in Copenhagen in December 2009, in time for the COP15 UN Climate Change Summit. In many ways the campaign was a big success. There was an international Ride Planet Earth action, the day before the summit began. Fifty different events were held across the planet, where people demonstrated their capacity and willingness to do something about climate change.

 

I had collected plenty of messages from people I met whilst travelling that I presented to the Australian Prime Minister and the UN. I had left Brisbane alone, but arrived in Copenhagen with a group of seventy.

 

My journey had taken me through some of the most beautiful and harsh environments on the planet. I had cycled through the deserts of Northern Australia where I had been hospitalised for heat exhaustion. I cycled through the tropical monsoons of South East Asia, where I was hospitalised again in East Timor. Again it was heat exhaustion, this time I collapsed whilst cycling, landing on my face. I needed 10 stitches that I received without painkillers from the dirty little hospital in Dili. The needle going in and out millimetres from my eye was the scariest and most painful thing I think I’ve ever experienced.

 

The far eastern slopes of the Himalayas were tough, crossing from Laos into China but Mongolia was by far the toughest. I spent 32 days cycling through the Gobi Desert and Mongolian steppes. I fought constant head-winds, dust storms, sand and rocks for roads, I got lost and ran out of food and water. I would never do it again but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

 

After that it was plain sailing through Russia, Central Asia and Europe, although last winter was a bit cold to be cycling and camping in Scandinavia. It was a personal achievement, but ultimately the Copenhagen Summit was a failure. We didn’t convince our leaders to take the action necessary to stop climate change. After the summit they went back to their countries and back to business as usual. Which leads me to now.

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If you care about something you can’t stop until it’s right. It would have been easy to fly back to Australia, to go back to my old job, back to my regular pay check, maybe even my ex-girlfriend. I had devoted one and a half years to this, devoted myself entirely, worn down my body, made a tent my home, the road my companion. I could have said “I’ve done my bit.” But I hadn’t. There is still so much to do.

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