Are you new to Roz’s site? Are you a long-time fan?

Either way, you will love Roz’s new “Best of Blogs” section where we present to you some of our favorite blogs that she has written over the past several years. Re-live some of her adventures on the open ocean. Learn about some of the causes that Roz is most passionate about. Read as Roz bares her soul and talks about what makes her tick.

We will be continuously adding to this section from blogs both old and new, so check back occasionally to see if some of your favorites have made Roz’s list. And of course, please add your comments to suggest your own favorites!

Speaking today at London's 350 event. Photo by Mary Kadzielski.

Two phrases you don’t hear every day:

“Can I film your breasts?”

“Are you, like, a coccyx?”

The first was from a guy holding a large video camera, and was prompted by the fact I was wearing a t-shirt with the numbers “350” emblazoned across the front in bold type. “I’m not a pervert or anything,” he went on to say, somewhat less than convincingly, as he aimed his lens at my chest.

The second was from a young woman with a big smile and black dreadlocks. After I’d stood on a chair and bellowed into a megaphone to address the crowd at the London Eye, she came over to say she’d loved my speech. “You had me rolling with laughter.” I think she was referring to my comment that, “If I can row 3,000 miles across an ocean for climate change, then you can remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room.” I’m not quite sure hilarity was the desired effect, but maybe the sustainability movement needs a little humor once in a while.

In turn she made me smile when she doubtfully regarded my petite frame and said, “So are you, like, a coccyx that yells at the other people in the boat to row harder?”

Well, coccyx or coxswain, I suppose I am indeed concerned with getting people to try harder…

350 underwater in the Maldives

And that was the feeling that I took away from today’s 350 event. I am not talking about the organizers trying harder – Abi Edgar and the heroes of the Campaign Against Climate Change could not humanly have given it any more than they did today. And today has on many levels been an amazing success. According to the 350 website, people in 181 countries have staged over 5200 events to express their concern over climate change. I am sure that by the end of these amazing 24 hours, many more people will be aware of the number 350 and what it means.

But as I sat on the train on the way home, I thought about the day and whether it had succeeded. There were a lot of people there – fantastic. But there were also a lot of people NOT there, people whose Saturdays were business as usual – shopping, drinking coffee, hanging out with friends. There are 8 million people in London – why weren’t they ALL here?!

Maybe I’m just in a cup-half-empty mood – the hectic days and short nights of the book tour have finally caught up with me and I spent most of today in bed apart from the couple of hours at the London Eye – but instead of celebrating the numbers that turned up at the rally, my mind was on the absentees. My perception is that there is still too much apathy, fear and denial amongst the general public.

Will today turn out to be just another masturbatory exhibition by those who are already environmentally aware, while most people continue in ignorance of our climate crisis? Climate change affects everybody – how can we get everybody to care?

350 in Sunderbans, India

We need a shared POSITIVE vision of our green future. We need to get away from the language of sacrifice and inconvenience, and towards the language of excitement, opportunity, and potential. I am currently reading “The Great Transition”, a report by the new economics foundation, which presents a powerfully attractive picture of a sustainable world. We need more of the same. At the moment we are still focusing on the problem (climate change) rather than the solution (sustainability). And the majority of people don’t need another problem – they have enough of their own already. The sooner we make this paradigm shift towards the positive, the better.

Other Stuff:

The other speaker today was Bianca Jagger. She arrived late and discombobulated, her driver having been confused by the closure of various nearby roads and bridges, while I smugly arrived by public transport, early and relaxed… The perils of being rich and famous, hey?

My speech (or at least, what I wish I’d said):

I row across oceans to inspire people to take action on climate change. Something the ocean has taught me is that any challenge, no matter how huge, can be tackled if you break it down into little steps. When I rowed across the Atlantic it took me about a million oarstrokes. One stroke doesn’t get me very far, but you take a million tiny actions and you string them all together and you get across 3000 miles of ocean. You can achieve almost anything, if you just take it one stroke at a time.

And it’s the same with climate change. On a day like today, when we feel part of a huge global community, it’s easy to believe we can change the world. But there will be other days when maybe we feel alone, and that anything we do as individuals won’t really make a difference – that it’s just a drop in the ocean.

But every action counts. We all have it in our power to make a difference. In fact, we’re already making a difference – it’s just up to us to decide if it’s a good one or a bad one. Every time we switch the lights off, or choose to walk instead of drive, or say no to a plastic bag, it matters.

So we’re leading the way. Thank you all for making a difference for the better. Keep up the good work, have a fantastic 350 day, and together we’ll keep changing the world, heading towards a greener future, one stroke at a time.

Me with the UK's Secretary of State for the Environment and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, in London last night.

Watch the video – 350.org – In Every Corner Of The Globe

Saturday, Oct 24 is a global day of action on climate change organized by 350.org. The event is turning into a phenomenon – their website is already showing an amazing outpouring of positive action all around the world since the day of action started in the mid-Pacific several hours ago.

I am a 350.org Athlete, so this is a big day for me – so what will I be doing? I shall be in London for the Bigger Picture – Festival of Interdependence, and in Jubilee Gardens underneath the London Eye for the main 350 event, speaking alongside Bianca Jagger. After she and I have delivered our words I will join the assembled hordes to form a giant figure “5” to go with the “3” and the “0” in other major cities around the world.

The weather forecast isn’t great (I mean for London for tomorrow, as well as for the world for the foreseeable future…), but hopefully our intrepid eco-warriors will not be deterred by a little drizzle – after all, if I can row across oceans for climate change, there are no excuses! If you’re in town, come and join us!

And if you’re not in town, then sign the online petition here.

I’m also quite proud that I was instrumental in the last-minute addition of Kiribati to the list of 175 nations taking part. Thank you to John and Linda Anderson of Kiribati Video for making it happen.

Here’s what 350.org founder Bill McKibben has to say about tomorrow…

“Saturday’s the day — October 24, the International Day of Climate Action. So join the nearest 350 action knowing you’ll be part of something big. 

Very big, in fact. This campaign has gone viral–there will be over four thousand events taking place simultaneously in over 175 nations. As far as we can tell, you’ll be part of the single most widespread day of political action about any issue that our planet has ever seen.

There are too many incredible events to list in one place, but here are some of the highlights:

In Cambodia, citizens from across the country will gather at the famous Angkor Wat to take a giant 350 action photo.

In Hungary, hundreds of bathers will jump into the public baths in Budapest and do a 350 synchronized swimming performance.

In Nepal, over a thousand young people and monks will march to the Swayambhunath world heritage site temple where they will form a large 350 with traditional lanterns.

In the United States, 350 people will dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller in Seattle — because if we don’t stop global warming, we might as well be undead.

In Panama, indigenous youth will lead a moonlight vigil in Kuna Yala, their vulnerable low-lying islands off the coast of Panama, forming a 350 at sunrise.

When you’re out there marching or rallying, biking or kite-flying, singing or taking part in whatever is going on in your community, take a minute and try to imagine all the other people doing the same kind of things all around the world–every one taking the same basic scientific fact and driving it into the public consciousness.

350 is the most important number in the world–scientists have told us that it’s the most carbon dioxide we can have in the atmosphere, and now we’re making sure everyone knows.  We’ll be taking photos from all the events, projecting them on the big screens in New York’s Times Square, and delivering them to major media outlets and  hundreds of world leaders in the coming weeks.  The combined noise from these events will ensure that world leaders who gather next month at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen to create the world’s new plan on climate change will hear our call.  They will know that when negotiating the fate of our planet, there is a passionate movement out there which will hold them accountable.

After your event on Saturday, check out www.350.org, where we will show a glorious slideshow of photos from events in every corner of the earth. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished.

And if you have any doubts about where the fun in your neighborhood is on Saturday, check out this link to find an event near you.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben for the 350.org crew”

Arriving in Tarawa on Sept 6. In 40 years these islands will be uninhabitable thanks to climate change.

Thursday is Blog Action Day, and this year’s theme is climate change. So given that I am a passionate blogger and passionate about sustainability, how could I possibly resist the urge to contribute?!

Some people love the ocean. Some people fear it. Me? I love it, hate it, fear it, respect it, resent it, cherish it, loathe it, and frequently curse it. It brings out the best in me – and sometimes the worst. Its sheer vastness and deepness never cease to amaze me, and yet my focus is often reduced to the wave ahead.

If you go into Google Earth and rotate the globe until it centers on the Pacific, you’ll see that the ocean occupies fully half our world. There is just a sliver of California visible in the top right corner, a glimpse of Australia in the bottom left, and a smattering of islands and atolls strewn across its waters as if cast by a careless giant. From 2008 to 2010, this huge expanse of blue is my home, as I attempt to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, using my adventure to wage a campaign of awareness and action on climate change.

So what does rowing across oceans have to do with the biggest challenge that has ever faced mankind, and which our generation is uniquely cursed and privileged to confront? This year I rowed into Kiribati – one of the small island nations that is in the front line of climate change. Their president told me how their fresh water supply will soon be contaminated by saltwater, as increasingly frequent extreme weather events send waves crashing over their fringing reef. Within 50 years his country will no longer exist, its inhabitants gone, their homes lost. This video makes me cry – the human face of climate change. Since my visit to this innocent victim of climate change, I have done a lot of thinking about the challenge we face, and what needs to be done.

I have learned a lot about myself and about life through my transition from office worker to ocean rower, and during my three long solitary ocean crossings. I have learned about course-setting, about courage, and about commitment. Less than ten years ago I was working in a London office cubicle, dissatisfied and unhappy in my life, but not knowing why I was different when all my friends seemed to find their similar lives quite acceptable. So one day I sat down and I wrote two versions of my own obituary – the one I wanted and the one I was heading for. They were dramatically different, and I knew then that a major course correction was needed. I could see that unless I made some changes, I wasn’t going to end up where I wanted to be at the end of my life.

We as a species already know that our current course is not taking us where we want to go. If we carry on as we are, we are not going to be where we want to be in five years, or ten years, or fifty years. We collectively need to change course. Just as I considered those two alternative visions of my future, and chose a different path, we need to look clearly and courageously at our options. At this fork in the road, what version of our future do we want?

There is nothing in human history that compares with climate change. Never before have we faced the very real threat of human extinction. Because the issue isn’t about saving the planet, it’s about saving humankind. At the moment we’re killing ourselves slowly, by a thousand million cuts. Since the Industrial Revolution we have adopted this crazy consumerist ethos, where we suck the goodness out of the earth, turn it into stuff, and then throw the stuff into landfill. Whether you believe in climate change or not, whichever way you look at our models of manufacture, production and disposal, they just don’t stack up. All it needs is a bit of common sense to see that we are on an unsustainable path.

But human beings are not good at change. We resist it. Our self-preserving ego says to us, you’ve stayed alive this long by keeping things exactly as they are. If you change to something new, it might be dangerous. It might kill you. Let’s stick with the status quo.

And so we continue to fiddle around the issue, pointing fingers of blame at other countries while we all go to hell in a handcart. It comes down to fear – of what will happen if we don’t do something – rising oceans, water shortages, population displacement, desertification, starvation – and there is fear of what will happen if we DO do something – impact on the economy, loss of competitive advantage, effects on standard of living, loss of popularity with the electorate. We need to find the courage to see clearly what is happening, and to take the first steps towards a solution.

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage comes from having such a powerful reason WHY that it overcomes the fear. Courage is having the moral gumption to recognize that the path is going to be hard, but going down that path anyway because you know that in the long run it is the right thing, for the planet, for humankind, for you.

And the good news is that we really only need the courage to take the first step. Once that step has been taken and the commitment made, it only gets easier after that.

So how do we find that courage?

First, we need to face the fact that we have a problem. We need to get our heads out of the sand and open our eyes.

Second, we need to believe that we are worth saving. Yes, we’ve made a right royal mess of things in the very short time we’ve been on this planet, but it’s not too late. There is still everything to play for.

And third, we need to create a SHARED VISION of the future we want – and work steadily towards it. If we are going to be carbon neutral by 2050, what steps do we need to take to get there? The future is the sum of the way we live our todays. There WILL be tough times ahead, when we wonder if it is worth the struggle, but when those times come we will remind ourselves of our shared vision, and it will give us the motivation to keep on going. We CAN do it, if we all pull together to create a better, greener future – one stroke at a time.

Other Stuff:

For the benefit of my regular readers, a quick update. I’m still in the whirlwind of the book tour for Rowing The Atlantic. Having humungous fun, and being spoiled rotten. The book is selling well, with some wonderful reviews on Amazon. Keep up with my whistle-stop progress via Twitter as I enter the final few days of the tour. You still have the chance to catch me in Seattle (if you move VERY quickly!), Boston or at National Geographic in Washington, DC.

Today is a very special occasion for me – it’s the official publication day of my first book, Rowing The Atlantic, Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean. It also signals the start of my US book tour, with two radio interviews and a book signing.

The book signing is tonight, at Barnes & Noble on New York’s Upper West Side at 2289 Broadway @ 82nd St, from 7:00-8:30 pm.

If you’re not in the New York area, you might still be able to catch me on one of these radio shows:

West Coast: I’ll be joining Kelly Fuller by telephone on KVON-AM “Kellie in the Morning” at 7.15am Pacific Time – DOH! UPDATE! No sooner had I posted this blog than my publicist from Simon & Schuster called to say that this interview has been rescheduled to Oct 12 so I can get a longer timeslot on air. So no need to tune in today. Sorry! All very hectic here, with new opportunities opening up and other ones being upgraded. I’ll keep you abreast of developments as they happen!

East Coast: I’ll be in the studio with Leonard Lapate of WNYC-FM for the “Leonard Lopate Show” between 12:40-1:00 pm Eastern Time. This is a PBS affiliate, so hopefully the interview may be more widely broadcast.

Must run – the West Coast interview is about half an hour from now – and I still need to have my post-workout shower! Not that you can tell on the radio, of course, but it’s going to be a busy day, and I want to be ready and raring to go and feeling on tippy top form!

Just before I go – if you have already received your copy from Amazon or bought it from your local bookstore, please do post a review on Amazon. It really helps to boost sales, so I’d hugely appreciate it.

And thanks for your patience in waiting for your limited edition Larabar bookmarks. The empty Larabar wrappers are now on their way to my dear mother in England, and she will be getting busy assembling and laminating. But she’s a one-woman operation so it may take a bit of time. I know you’ll be understanding – and rest assured we’ll get them to you just as soon as we can!

With just 2 days to go before the publication of “Rowing The Atlantic”, we are finalizing the details of the book tour. 14 days, 7 cities, 12 book signings and 15 interviews – and hopefully many copies sold! I’ve never done a book tour before, but have been very impressed with Simon & Schuster’s organizational abilities. In each city I have an “escort” (!) to make sure that I am on time for all my appearances.

If I could change one thing, it would be to spend more time in each city. I have friends all over the US – both personal friends and online friends – and it would be lovely to have a week in each location to chill out and catch up, in a kind of lap of honor around the country. But the idea behind a book tour is to have a veritable media blitz, which requires hitting them hard and hitting them fast to keep the momentum going, so alas it is rather a whirlwind of a schedule!

We have entered all my appearances in the Events Calendar on this website, but it is a feature of the calendar widget that all events have to be entered in a single time zone, which currently is set to Hawaii time. Personally, I find this rather confusing, so fearing that you might similarly be confused, I’m taking this opportunity to present a definitive list of the details. The information is also presented more clearly on the Events page of this site.

Book signing in New York

Book signing in Los Angeles

Book signing in Portland, OR

Today has been amazing. the final 68 miles passed like a dream. We brought it on home – all the way to the Capitol. 150 riders all cycling into Washington DC to deliver a message on climate change.

Much more to come, but right now it’s gone midnight and I’ve been up since 6am and it’s been a big day. In short summary, 5 incredible days, many new friends, many miles crossed, many hills climbed. Although I don’t have the energy left for a full post (had 2 meetings this evening as soon as the Climate Ride finished) then check out the official website for today’s news. Tons of photos, blogs, and all-round entertainment. I wish I could keep my eyes open long enough to check it out, but from my quick skim it looks like a fun and rich overview of our incredible final day.

A West Coast Climate Ride is happening next May. I will be on the ocean, but if you can make it, please do! I just wish I could be there. San Francisco to Sacramento – important cause, and your chance to make a difference. Just seeing the calibre and the reactions of the politicians and diplomats who embraced our cause today made me realize just what we had achieved. I can’t tell you what a buzz it was to be a part of this. Do it if you can!

And incidentally, it’s great for your body too – I have eaten for England these last 5 days and have still lost weight. And my thighs have totally changed shape – for the better. This Climate Ride just scores on all counts – good for your body, and good for the planet!