Last night I returned from the 5th International Marine Debris Conference. The conference isn’t over yet, but I have an ocean to row (12 days and counting!) so I had to get back to Fremantle in Australia for final preparations. The conference was eye-opening, in the same uncomfortable and disillusioning way that Copenhagen/COP15 was.

Kamilo Beach, Hawaii

I had thought that plastic pollution was much less contentious than, say, climate change, but it seems that there is no limit to humankind’s ability to find grounds for division rather than cooperation. I was shocked to witness a hostile encounter between two individuals partaking in the conference, culminating in a rather personal attack on academic credentials. Come on, people, let’s focus on the issues!

“Disposable” plastics were also much in evidence at the conference, despite a statement that the use of such items had been minimised. I guess I have a different definition of “minimal”.

And the three main sponsors of the conference were Coca Cola, the American Chemistry Council, and the Ocean Conservancy. This made me raise my eyebrows, and a few questions too.

I don’t know what the final outcome will be, but the draft strategy was not a promising start. It focused mostly on cleanups and recycling, rather than reducing the supply of plastic at source. I had hoped that it would make some bold policy recommendations, but it looks like it will still be down to us, the average consumers, to show the way. If industry and government won’t do it, we will.

If you are interested to know the scale of the problem, here are some interesting figures (mostly gleaned from the Plastic Oceans website):

Chris Jordan states that 1.1 million kgs (2.4 million pounds) of plastic enter our worlds oceans every hour of every day. (This could be a conservative estimate. The Plastic Oceans site suggests that the figure could be closer to 5 million kgs.) In terms of sheer weight, that ends up equal to 3-5 times the hourly flow rate of the Deep Water Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (Thanks to Doug McLean of WWF-Australia for his calculations.)

Over the last 10 years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.

Plastic production uses 8% of the world’s oil.  4% of this is actually used in energy consumption to make the plastic.

More than one million plastic bags are used, worldwide, every minute.

We are currently producing 300 million tonnes of plastic per year – about half of this will be used just once and thrown away.

To read about the tragic impact this is having on marine wildlife, see this article by Dr Wallace J Nicholls. Or if turtles aren’t your thing, how about the impact it is having on us?

So that’s the bad news. Here’s the good news. With ever more plastic flowing into the oceans every day, we all have the opportunity to step up and take responsibility. For starters, I would take it as a huge personal favour if you would please never again use a “disposable” plastic item. I now have quite an arsenal of non-plastic items in my bag that enable me to avoid most “disposable” plastics:

Stainless Steel Drinking Straw

Water bottle

Grocery bag

Coffee mug

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your colleagues. Write to your supermarket and your city mayor and your state governor. Support city bans on plastic bags. If we all pull together, we can make a world of difference!

And if, after all of this, you need a smile, I highly recommend this short video on recycling – Flashmob style. You might not get this kind of reaction every time you do the right thing, but on the inside you’ll know you have done your bit to help save our planet.

Other Stuff:

Another smile: check out the Wipe Out Waste song.

Tomorrow it’s Earth Hour – please turn off your lights at 8pm for an hour, enjoy a candlelit dinner of organic yumminess, and thank your lucky stars that we live on such an amazing planet. You can see my Earth Hour video message here.

Fancy an adventure combined with an eco mission? You don’t have to spend 4 months alone in a rowboat. There are still a couple of crew spots available on OceansWatch sailing expeditions to Melanesia. Contact [email protected] to find out more details. I sailed with them in Papua New Guinea last year. Highly recommended!

Dictated by Roz at 22.07 Tarawa time and transcribed by her mother Rita Savage.

Position:  -06.56893   148.59792

I have several management-type books on the iPod such as Blink, Switch, Drive, and various other one-syllable, one word, one verb titles that seem to be mandatory for the genre.

Half of them seem to be little more than a sales pitch for you to get the author to come and speak at the company conference, but today I have been listening to Switch by Dan Heath and Chip Heath and this has actually been very good and got me thinking about things we could do to create a culture that is anti-plastic in its disposable forms

The book talks some real sense about how to Switch away from poor habits and into good ones, a subject that fascinates me in its environmental applications.

A couple of case studies, particularly struck me. In the first the objective was to introduce the conference to the designated “driver”, originally a Scandinavian idea in order to reduce drunk driving. They recruited the help of various TV show screen writers and suddenly designated drivers were popping up all over TV land, including, appropriately, Cheers.  And now, ta-dah, it is a well established part of our culture.

The second case study took place in Tanzania where the spread of Aids was exacerbated  by the problem of “sugar-daddies”  who would bestow favours on young girls in exchange for sex, usually unprotected. To change the culture they created radio-ads in which the sugar-daddy was depicted as a rather sleazy character who was left looking foolish when a sympathetic waitress helped his young date to escape from his clutches.  The name of the sugar-daddy character entered the national language as synonymous with “pathetic old guy who has to pay girls to keep him company”, and the practice declined.

So this got me thinking about how to do something similar with plastic disposable items. It makes me wince when characters in books are portrayed using plastic bags. Maybe we could write to any authors who commit this sin to ask them to specify reusable bags in their next novel. Or maybe we could coax several soap opera screen writers to drop in a few scenes where people are using reusable bags for their groceries. I am not well up on American soaps but in the UK it would be a cinch to do so.

Any slogans to suggest? Don’t be trashy? Plastic fantastic? I’m sure you can do better than this – after “the save the whale, drink some ale”  suggestion – I have high expectations. Ideas please!

Other Stuff: Looks like my oars are nearing the end of their natural lives.  On one of them the spoon has started to split from the loom and the carbon fibre wrap on all of them is flaking and peeling. They’ve had a hard life with extensive exposure to salt water and intense UV, so it’s not really surprising.  Maybe I’ll cut the spoons off and save them, though.  They are rather beautiful with wood of different colours laid into a feather pattern. They would make nice gifts for some of my sponsors.

Lots more ships today. I’m getting quite used to them now. Tonight as I ate my dinner I divided my attention between some particularly beautiful pink glowing clouds to the north and a procession of three container ships. All part of the scenery.

Some odd conditions today, choppy seas and winds from a strange direction as local squalls passed through. Over all, another day of satisfactory progress.

As of tonight, 186 nautical miles to go.

Nova’s News:

Be on Roz’s Facebook Fan Page and Website:

By the end of this row Roz will have spent over a year alone at sea in a space smaller than a jail cell, more isolated than a Tibetan monk.

Why? Because we can no longer ignore the pollution and environmental damage to our planet.

How can you help? Send us a picture of yourself using a reusable shopping bag to [email protected] and we will post it to Roz’s Facebook Fan Page.

We are aiming for 365 photos symbolizing Roz’s year at sea to let Roz know that she is not alone, that her message is making a difference. Three of the best photos will be drawn and posted onto Roz’s website, so be creative!

Another way you can let Roz know that you are following her journey is by making a contribution in the dollar amount of the days she has been at sea, one month and counting so far. “The energy of your support does reach her out at sea.”

Also take advantage of Roz’s Ebay Store sale. We are offering 10% discount on Roz’s reusable shopping bags until the end of the month. Also available in UK – ask for details through Contact (top line of page)

Dictated by Roz at 22.16 Tarawa time and transcribed by her mother Rita Savage.

Position: -07.55791   150.80957

A river of rubbish being swept out to sea.

I have been trying to ignore it but the ocean around here has a serious hygiene problem. Please forgive me for speaking on an indelicate subject but I feel upset about this and feel the need to swear.

For the last couple of days there has been an intermittent procession of  . .  ahem . . . human excrement passing by my boat. Swimming is most definitely off the agenda. The worst experience was eating my dinner tonight while trying to ignore what was floating past, just inches from my elbow. I felt like I was eating my dinner in an open sewer.

Which is exactly how we seem to regard the ocean – as a sewer. I felt a need to apologise to my fishy entourage for what we have done to their habitat. Like the poor creatures in the Gulf of Mexico, they are unable to escape from the pollution. Water is their element and no matter how dirty and polluted it is they can’t get out of it. How selfish we have been to take all messy waste out of our homes and dump it into theirs.

I am not in a strong position to throw stones on this issue. I don’t have the space or facilities to hold “black water” on board my boat. So I have no choice but to use the “bucket and chuck it” method. But people on dry land do have a choice.

I am not an expert on this but I believe that there are now technologies available that can create “closed loops” so that waste of all kinds is reused close to its source. Anaerobic digesters and similar processes can turn organic waste into sources of energy.  I can’t Google this from here, but you can, so do a bit of quick research (this counts as a green deed at http://Ecoheroes.me) and find out more, and let me know.

Other Stuff: I’ve been rowing my little heart out today, not just in a bid to get into a cleaner bit of ocean, but to make sure that I don’t end up doing that extra lap of the Solomon Sea, which is what could happen if I get caught in the wrong lane when the current splits. Imagine a current as a clock-wise traffic circle – in other words, a British traffic circle – not an American one. I enter the circle in the top right; three quarters of the way around I want to take the exit for Madang. If I miss this exit by being in the wrong lane, I may have to go round the circle again. I think one lap of the Solomon Sea is more than enough.

So today would have looked rather odd if you had seen Brocade from above. She was pointed at 220 degrees to achieve a course of  2__. . . .(sorry, lost in the ether somewhere).

Given the currents, this  . . . .    angle was the only way I could get west without going too far north.

It was slow progress.

(Sorry again, probably a couple more paragraphs were lost, with only the occasional word getting through. I think Roz was talking about Shaklee Energy chews, which she uses when she really needs a burst of energy. The Shaklee Corporation has been very generous to Roz, giving her sponsorship as well as a good supply of the chews and Shaklee Nutriferon to boost her immune system. It would probably be about 20 hours from now before Roz would pick up any message from me to say that I could not complete  the transcribing of  her blog.)

Nova’s News:

Be on Roz’s Facebook Fan Page and Website:

By the end of this row Roz will have spent over a year alone at sea in a space smaller than a jail cell, more isolated than a Tibetan monk.

Why? Because we can no longer ignore the pollution and environmental damage to our planet.

How can you help? Send us a picture of yourself using a reusable shopping bag to [email protected] and we will post it to Roz’s Facebook Fan Page.

We are aiming for 365 photos symbolizing Roz’s year at sea to let Roz know that she is not alone, that her message is making a difference. Three of the best photos will be drawn and posted onto Roz’s website, so be creative!

Another way you can let Roz know that you are following her journey is by making a contribution in the dollar amount of the days she has been at sea, one month and counting so far. “The energy of your support does reach her out at sea.”

Also take advantage of Roz’s Ebay Store sale. We are offering 10% discount on Roz’s reusable shopping bags until the end of the month. Also available in UK – ask for details through Contact (top line of page)

Here is a sneak peek at one of our first entries hope it inspires you!

Dictated by Roz and transcribed by her mother, Rita Savage a few hours later than usual.

Position: As of last night (23^rd May) at 21.22: -08.36666 152.78629

Ahh, if only every day of ocean rowing could be like today, flat ocean, fair weather, regular rhythm, good book, forward progress. Though of course, if every day was like this I wouldn’t appreciate it.

Usually days are more like this: wind coming from wrong direction, curse, row, just get the rudder set right for the conditions when the wind changes. Curse again, change rudder, winds and waves increase making it difficult to get both oars in the water at once; squally downpour, wind dies away. Curse again, change rudder, wind returns as headwind, put out sea anchor etc. etc.

So to have a clear day of good (though hot) weather with calm consistent conditions was very welcome. My mileage wasn’t spectacular with no wind and little current to help but it was very satisfying to set myself a goal (152.8 degrees of longitude) and to achieve it without being thwarted by changing conditions

I especially enjoyed this evening. Last night I was denied my usual daily treat of watching the sunset while eating my dinner when a prolonged downpour resulted in a grey-out and I was forced to eat dinner in the cabin. It was like being all set to watch your favourite TV show only to find that the show had been cancelled. Very disappointing.

So tonight, although the sunset was nothing special, I enjoyed being able to eat out on deck watching the colours changing in the sky, and the little ripples made by my fishy entourage as they sploshed about near the surface. They often do this when I am not rowing enjoying time out from their usual frantic swimming.  As I row I can see them wiggling alongside the Brocade as if their little fishy lives depended on it. Not that I move that fast, but they are very small fishes and have to work hard to keep up.  And then later, it was very peaceful rowing along  under a half moon on the surface of the calm ocean, the only sound the splash of my oars and the rhythm of the oarlocks. The perfect end to a perfect day.

Other Stuff:  apologies for the late appearance of this blog. It was actually an imperfect day. My satphone refused to work last night. SIM card error. I now have very little confidence in this phone. It is a useless piece of kit – or something that rhymes with kit.

Thanks for all the comments about plastic, its use and abuse. I hear there was a question about the worth of recycling plastic. Recycling is better than nothing but not much. Recycling itself has an environmental impact, and it is transported half way round the world to be recycled and the recycling itself also has an environmental cost.

I suppose we can put it this way: reduce, reuse, recycle are in order of preference. Reduction is best and recycling a last resort. Although there is even a fourth option, which should come first: REFUSE. Refuse to accept plastic when you have a choice. Find any way you can to use an alternative, and maybe when you say no to plastic, you say it just a little louder than you need to so that you can be overheard. Let’s spread the message and eventually we will make it socially unacceptable and embarrassing even to accept plastic.

If you want to take it further write a letter. Write to the manufacturer who uses excessive plastic packaging, to restaurants that use plastic take-out containers, to coffee shops that won’t let you bring your own mug. Let them know how you feel.  Then share it with us at http://ecoheroes.me so that others of the ecoheroes community can follow your own example.

Thanks for the suggestions on marine GPS systems. Mum is saving the details for me and I will research them when I get back to dry land.

And finally Happy Birthday to my sister. She is seventeen months younger than me, forty one today. (Eek my little sister is over 40!)  and spare a thought for my mother too, when most of her contemporaries are knitting baby cardigans, my mother has one daughter trekking 500 miles across Spain, and the other bobbing around on the Solomon Sea on a rowboat. Surely she must wonder what she ever did to deserve this  . . . .

Starting the final countdown; as of tonight I have 457 nautical miles to go to Madang.

(Note from Rita: Tanya reported today that she has walked 397 miles, another 86 to do to reach Santiago, then another 46.6 to Finisterre.  Some anxiety most of today when there was no word from Roz due to her phone difficulties.)

Grateful thanks to recent donors: Neil Cheshire and Sandra Dobson.

Please remember the request from Blue Frontier Campaign to vote EVERY DAY for Roz and Margo: http://pep.si/9ZMuai. Many more votes needed and time is running out!

Nova’s News:

Be on Roz’s Website & Fan Page:

“Day 36 today – and Roz has spent a total of 341 days alone at sea.

Starting young!

One year in a space smaller than a jail cell, more isolated than a Tibetan monk.

Why? Because we can no longer ignore the pollution and environmental damage to our planet.

How can you help? Send us a picture of yourself using a reusable shopping bag to [email protected] and we will post it to Roz’s Face book Fan Page.

365 photos would symbolize Roz’s year at sea to let Roz know that she is not alone, that her message is making a difference.

Three of the best photos will be drawn and posted onto Roz’s website, so be creative!

Let Roz know that you are following her journey – make a contribution in the dollar amount of the days she has been at sea, for today it would be $36. “The energy of your support encourages her on.”

Ebay Store: offering a 10% discount on Roz’s reusable shopping bags until the end of the month. Also available in UK – ask for details through Contact (top line of page)

Dictated by Roz at 21.07 on May 21^st and transcribed by her mother Rita Savage.

Position: -08.19040S  153.62320E

I had an interesting conversation this morning with Dr Kiki Sanford during our regular weekly podcast at twit.tv/roz and it got me thinking. We were talking about the evils of plastic but I found myself almost defending the horrible stuff. It seems to me the plastic itself is not the problem, but the ways we have chosen to use it.

Like so many other things plastic can be used or it can be abused. You can use your TV to watch fascinating documentaries, to visit places you would never otherwise see, to learn more about all kinds of things, or you can watch reality TV and soap operas. Likewise you can use the internet to connect with on-line communities, to collaborate with colleagues overseas, research any subject under the sun, or you can browse porn sites.

Similarly there are lots of good uses for plastic: for example on my boat I have many invaluable items that would not work so well if made from any other substance: waterproof cases, electronics, life jackets, buckets – but why use just toxic, non-biodegradable substances to make “disposable” items out of it, generating these items by the billion to be used for a few minutes and then dumped. It just doesn’t make sense.

There is a very short-term list of items like plastic bags and bottles. Then there are the longer-term items which are just as bad but harder to avoid: shampoo, conditioner, body lotions, toothbrushes, household cleaning products, food packaging. As no-impact man showed it is really hard to live in the twenty-first century without generating plastic trash.

As consumers we cast our vote every time we buy something. If you have found clever ways to reduce your plastic consumption, please log on at ecoheroes.me and share your tips with the rest of our ecohero community.

The good news, and the bad news:  if all we have to do is change the thinking. It is not the world we need to change, it is human behaviour.

Whale Shark - Roz 2009.

Other Stuff: I was very sad to hear that among the creatures most seriously impacted by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are turtles and whale sharks, my two favourite marine animals. Incidentally oil is used in the production of plastic so if we used less plastic we would need less oil.

And now enough about the environment. Back to me. Today I managed to make some progress west and now getting very close to that diagonal line dividing the Solomon Sea. See maps from a few days ago. In theory, once I cross that line, I should get out of this fast, south-flowing, current (between one and two knots) and into more neutral waters before finding the north west flowing current up the coast of Papua New Guinea.

But I am not getting much cooperation from the elements. The prevailing winds are supposed to be from the south east but I have experienced mostly light westerlies instead. Today I noted with concern that I am less than seventy miles from Woodlark Island, which more or less marks the start of that long chain of islands leading up into Papua New Guinea and I am heading straight for it.

In other words I need to turn the corner of this big hairpin and start heading north west. And soon! But the winds and the currents are not helping. A change in conditions would be very welcome. Any time now would be good. Hello, up there – is anybody listening?

Nova’s News:

Check out the Roz Fundraiser Commercial – find the link in the Twitter box. Then watch for the new contest coming soon!

Please remember the request from Blue Frontier Campaign to vote EVERY DAY for Roz and Margo: http://pep.si/9ZMuai. Many more votes needed!

Dictated by Roz at 21.30 on May 18th and transcribed by her mother Rita Savage.

Position: -06.46732   154.13231

At last a relatively uneventful day. Hallelujah.

Unfortunately the most notable thing about today was the amount of plastic trash I saw littering the ocean. Today was the worst I have ever seen it. I saw about 30 individual recognisable pieces:  plastic bottles, yogurt pots, bits of packaging. There is something deeply upsetting about seeing a beautiful blue ocean glinting in the sunshine marred by a plastic bottle bobbing along on the surface.

I would love to see a ban on all plastic drinks bottles. It is easy enough to avoid using plastic water bottles just buy a Brite water filter and keep refilling your own reusable water bottle. But what about the other drinks, even health drinks like  . . . .ies .  which come in plastic bottles?  I hate the hypocrisy of selling a drink that is supposedly good for your body packaged in a substance which is trashing the planet.

For decades, centuries even, we used glass bottles. They can be returned for a deposit or recycled. And even if they end up in landfill or the ocean they are at least inert and don’t leach out nasty chemicals into the environment.  I don’t know the cost benefit analysis of glass vs plastic but if you factor in the REAL cost of plastic, environmental as well as financial I am fairly certain it would sway the argument.

After all, beer comes in glass bottles, so why can’t everything else? Maybe we should

boycott all other drinks and just drink beer and wine. Do you think this would catch on as a campaign? SAVE THE WORLD DRINK BEER.

Other Stuff: conditions today have been very neutral, the slight SSE current and no breeze to speak of so I have been able to claw back some of the eastwards drift inflicted yesterday while I was on the sea anchor. Still a long way to go before I can get into favourable currents, but I’ll just keep taking it one day at a time.

I have an idea today that I would like to run past you. Given the unpredictability of arrival times, it’s impossible to organize any kind of celebration. How about if I organise something in Perth, Australia, before my departure there in March next year? If I can negotiate some kind of a package, say, to cover accommodation and flights from the west coast of the US would anybody be interested in coming out to help with final preparations and joining in with a Bon Voyage party? A few friends came out to Hawaii last year to do just that and we had a great time. Let me know if you might be interested. No commitment at this stage. Just wondering if there might be enough people to make it worthwhile.

I saw the crescent moon tonight at 07.40 UTC. I was at position -06.44647,  154.15331 and the moon was about 60 degrees above the horizon and about 15 degrees east of the setting sun.

Rita: Grateful thanks to recent donors to the Foundation appeal: Anne Monks, Anne-Marie Mills, Bonnie Sterngood, Ellen Smith, Bill Savage, Naomi Durkin, Sierra North, David Snyder, Kenneth Scott, Martin Mari, Brian Phelps.

Where Roz is now.

This blog was dictated by Roz and transcribed by her mother, Rita Savage.
Local time 21.32 on 5th May
Position: 02.70939S 161.71414E
I’d like to tell you about my master plan for a foundation, provisionally called The Ripple Effect. This is what we are currently fundraising for, so I hope everything will make a bit more sense after this blog of introduction.
This idea was born about 15 months ago, soon after Nicole came to work with me, and she and I have discussed it at length. At the moment it is still a pipe dream, but, hey, you have to dream something before you can make it real.
The inspiration for The Ripple Effect came from noticing the power of individuals to inspire, no matter what their field of expertise: a dancer, a speaker, a musician, an artist, a scientist, a thinker, an athlete. Any one of these can make me feel inspired, to see that anything is possible, to see that the world is ripe with potential
As a rising tide lifts a boat so when one person lives out the thing they were born to do the ripples of inspiration spread far and wide and lift everybody up to a higher plane.
Having stumbled onto something that others find inspiring and having figured a few things out along the way, about how to bring a future dream to fruition, I felt that this was a way that I could contribute to making the world a better place, even once my rowing days are over. I could nurture a future generation of individuals with the power to spread ripples of inspiration by providing them with support, logistical assistance, mentoring and a degree of financial support.
Grantees would have to show that they have a particular mission that they wish to pursue and would pledge to share their experience as they go about fulfilling that mission. This sharing would provide a kind of “how to” for other people wanting to achieve something similar, and of course, maximize those ripples of inspiration.
In other words, The Ripple Effect would be exactly the kind of foundation that I wish had existed 6 years ago when I decided to start rowing across oceans to promote a message of environment awareness and personal fulfillment. I have managed to muddle my way through by trial and error, but I would have loved to find a one-stop shop for advice on everything from fund-raising to website design, and a cash grant would have been a welcome bonus.
Over the last couple of years, I have been informally mentoring a few individuals who aspired to change their lives and/or embark on ambitious adventures. I have really enjoyed doing this and I hope that in the future I will have more time to work with such dynamic and purposeful people from the infrastructure to assist them more effectively
And of course I hope that the infrastrucutre will also benefit me to some extent as I pass through these final stages of my ocean rowing career and to other ways of communicating my message.
So there we have it. My grand plan. It is very unusual in that the concept is person-based rather than cause-based but it tallies with my belief in the power of the individual to make a difference.
If you have enjoyed following my adventures whether it be since the Atlantic in 2005 or since yesterday I hope my description of The Ripple Effect resonates with you, and if it does, I hope you will feel that can make a contribution no matter how small. The current fundraising drive is being organized by Nova Lee. She is creating a series of contests and sweepstakes to the “fun” into fundraising. Watch out on this blog for messages from Nova about new challenges and events over the coming weeks. To check out on events already under way, click on the GoRozGo button on the top right of my website and of course a huge thank you to all of you who have already contributed.

Thanks to recent donors: Kenny, Stanley Miller, Doug Grandt, Sam Miller, James van Remmel, Carol Lindsay, Ferit Findik, Cornerstone Fibres and Pauline Appleby.

I am in hiding – from the sun. This might sound a bit pathetic for an intrepid adventurer – but there again I’ve never made any particular pretence at being intrepid, and when it becomes simply too painful to have the sun shining on me, I’m not too proud to hide out in my cabin until sunset. Like a vampire.

I got caught out this morning. There had been a lot of rain overnight (with steady drips from a small leak in my cabin, the source of which I cannot locate) and this morning was still heavily overcast and grey.

Silly me – I know it’s still possible to get sunburned through cloud. But it seemed such substantial cloud. Anyway, by the time I realised what was happening it was too late. I hadn’t put on my lovely organic Green People sunscreen and now I am paying the price. At times like this I curse having had a ginger-haired father. I have many things to thank him for, but my tendency to turn lobster-red in the tropics is not one of them.

Even though it is now nearly 5.30pm and the sun sets in just over an hour, there is still enough strength in it to make my skin feel like red-hot needles are being poked into it. So it seemed a good time to take cover and write a blog.

I’ve thought about going totally nocturnal. Now I have a fan in my cabin, this could in theory work quite well. During the day I have plenty enough solar power to keep the fan going nonstop, so the cabin is comparatively tolerable. And the nights are cooler – with no risk of sunburn.

Trouble is, I am whatever the opposite of a night owl might be. Come the darkness, comes the doziness. My body just wants to shut down and go to sleep. I can stay up all night when sufficiently stimulated by good company and good wine – but neither are available out here.

Any tips from nightshift workers on how to turn my body clock upside down?

Other Stuff:

Today’s audiobook – not so good. Called Blackout. By Connie Wills. I can’t wait for it to end, in fact. Seems like forever the 3 time travellers have been running around trying to figure out how to get back from World War II to 2060. The book could have been a third of the length. And should have been. As one book critic once wrote of another book, “The main problem with this book is that its covers are too far apart.”

And the narrator isn’t much better. She has the most peculiarly affected English accent, so that passengers is pronounced “parsengers”, passages as “parsages”, and she generally sounds like a cross between Sybil Fawlty and a particularly priggish schoolmarm.

But as perseverance is the name of the game, I will grit my teeth and see it through.

Its one redeeming feature is that I am learning a bit more about London during the Blitz – the sustained aerial bombing campaign waged by the Luftwaffe during World War II. Solidarity in the face of adversity became the “spirit of the Blitz” – when Londoners of all social strata united in their determination not to let the ongoing bombardment dent their morale.

Makes me think that environmental issues would be a lot more easily tackled if we had an identifiable enemy to unite against. If my enemy’s enemy is my friend, humanity needs a shared enemy so we can stop pointing fingers at each other and get on with tackling the REAL problem.

Oh but hang on, the problem is us.

Enjoyed this morning’s podcast with Dr Kiki Sanford, with special guest Marcus Eriksen. We enjoyed uninterrupted satphone connection, and a really interesting conversation about plastic pollution. Check it out. Oh, and Marcus, I forgot to ask you to pass along my thanks to Anna’s mum for the cookies. They were yummy!

Amongst other things, we discussed what can be done to clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Probably not much. But we can avoid making it worse. If you’re still using bottled drinking water and accepting plastic bags at the grocery store, please rethink. Add up how many bottles or how many bags you use in a year. Or a lifetime. And then think how much plastic you could save if you invest in a few reusable bags, a water bottle, and a water filter system you keep in your refrigerator. Just because plastic bags don’t cost you anything, doesn’t mean they don’t cost anything at all.

And while you’re at it, sign up for Eco Heroes at ecoheroes.me, and join our merry band of heroes all doing their bit for a greener, cleaner future. Thank you!

And finally – see that button in the top right of my website? Check it out for our fun contest to bet on when I make landfall. Don’t wait – we are only running the contest for a few more weeks. After that it will get too easy so we’ll end it long before the end of my voyage. Carpe diem!

In my last blog I announced that we are launching a new eco initiative, called Eco Heroes. It is a cross between a game, a social media site, and a save-the-world environmental challenge. If you look at my homepage, you’ll see that I now have an extremely attractive Eco Heroes widget settling in nicely over on the right hand side.

I would be incredibly grateful if you could support us by passing the news along. Like all social media applications, Eco Heroes relies on having as many people as possible signed up from the get-go. We already have over 1,200 signups, purely from my announcement at the presentations for National Geographic last week. So we’re off to a good start, but the more the merrier. So please help us spread the word!

There are lots of ways to let your friends and/or  your online community know about Eco Heroes – through a blog, a Tweet, or by adding the Eco Heroes widget to your website. There is also a video that introduces our modest little plan to save the world.

Links:

Website: http://ecoheroes.me

Twitter: http://twitter.com/eco_heroes

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY4zS8cc0Lg

The site is now open for pre-registration, and users will be notified by email when we go fully live around the time I launch the third and final stage of my solo Pacific row, from Kiribati to Australia, around April 17.

Users can also sign up by SMS. This has worked really well for us when giving presentations. All they have to do is to text “Person Name [email protected]” to phone number (360) 262-6062.

Word-of-mouth recommendations are the lifeblood of initiatives like ours. Tweet, blog, email, call, Facebook, write a letter to the editor, post a message on your company’s intranet, stick a poster by the water fountain – even good old-fashioned TALK about Eco Heroes, and help save the world!

(And if you’ve got any great ideas for other ways to get the news out, and if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know by posting a comment on this blog.)

Want to be a super-hero and help save the world? Now’s your chance!

I am delighted to announce a new eco-initiative for this year. In 2008 we tackled the North Pacific Garbage Patch by reducing our use of disposable plastic cups, water bottles, and grocery bags. In 2009 we reduced our carbon footprints by walking more and driving less (or rowing more and flying less, in my case). So how were we going to top that?

We decided to round off the Pacific eco-campaigns by inviting you to become an Eco Hero. All you have to do is to log at least one Green Deed every day. For each Green Deed you’ll get points, and as you move up the points scale you’ll be awarded medals. Do more than one Green Deed a day, and you win more points!

Each week, the greenest of all our Greendoers will receive a special prize, donated by our sponsors SonyEricsson, who are giving away their eco-friendly Green Heart mobile phones, and DaKine, who have donated laptop bags made using their new Re-Gen bag technology. These aren’t available in the shops until the summer – so this is an exclusive offer especially for our Eco Heroes!

Green Deeds can be anything you like – pick up trash from your neighbourhood while you’re out walking, join an eco organization, write a letter to your newspaper or elected representative, start growing your own veg, start composting – whatever you like. Feel free to get ideas and inspiration from other citizens of our Greendom. Your Green Deeds will be scrutinised by the community – thumbs up means you did a great job, thumbs down means your Green Deed needs to go greener.

By playing the game, you’ll be connecting into a worldwide community of aspiring Eco Heroes. We hope that this initiative will take on a life of its own. I am just the first in what we hope will be a long line of Eco Ambassadors, leading the way to a better, healthier, greener future.

We gave a sneak preview to the National Geographic audiences last week, and 1,200 people have already signed up by SMS. The concept has received an enthusiastic response from everyone that we have mentioned it to. We’ll be putting out a press release next week to announce it to the world at large.

So how do you get started? At the moment we’re in the pre-registration phase. You can register your interest by going to the Eco-Heroes website and entering your name and email address. Of course we promise that we won’t pass these details on to anybody else.

Or you can register by SMS, by sending a message to 360-202-6062. Add +1 to the front if you are outside the US. Please use this standard format, to save Brennan from a lot of manual corrections:

Your Name, [email protected]

Please note the comma and space between your name and your email address.

This doesn’t commit you to anything at this stage. It just means that you will get an email from us when we go fully live around the time of my launch. You won’t have to register again. As soon as we go live, you can start logging your Green Deeds, and start saving the world!

Huge kudos to Brennan Novak for all his hard work in making this happen. The Earth thanks you, Brennan!

Private Property: an oxymoron?

These words of Chief Seattle, sent to me by cherished member of the Rozling community – Naomi of New York, who found them whilst browsing for a beginner’s yoga class – resonated deeply with me. Some of you might already have seen them when she posted them in a comment on my blog, but I wanted to make sure that they were also seen by those who get my blog by email rather than checking in at rozsavage.com.

These words seemed to appear at precisely the right moment. During the last couple of months I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship that humans have with the Earth. My cogitations have been given sharp focus by my two major upcoming speaking engagements, for National Geographic and at a one-off ocean-themed TED conference in the Galapagos. The latter, especially, has become a kind of existential quest. 18 minutes to present my message to the world. So who am I? What am I here for? What is the point of being me? Deep stuff. Important and energising, but also ever-so-slightly mind-boggling. This is part of the reason that my blogs have been rare and superficial. There has been a lot going on in my head, but during this formative period I’ve needed to keep myself to myself, until my thoughts are more fully formed.

And a lot of my thoughts have revolved around the interconnectedness of everything. No matter what your stance on climate change (and I become more and more reluctant to engage with that politically-loaded pair of words) there can be little doubt that we are changing the face of this planet as we resort to ever more extreme methods to extract the natural resources laid down many millennia ago. I am no scientist, but from a purely common-sense standpoint I cannot see how our current path can be sustained for more than a few decades – at most.

Two key questions are:

Do we have unique status?

Or are we just another animal?

My belief is that the answer to both is YES.

Yes, we are unique. We have free will. We have the ability to see into the future. We have amazing minds – and the ability to change the entire appearance of our habitat, in ways that are visible even from space.

But yes, we are also just another animal. When I am on the ocean I am keenly aware of this. Sure, I have GPS, satellite phone, and a supposedly unsinkable boat. But the ocean has no respect for my hopes, dreams, and schedules. Out there I am completely subject to the laws of physics and/or nature. There is no “conquering” of oceans – if the ocean is gracious enough to allow me to pass safely, then I am grateful. But it cares no more that I am a human than if I were a piece of plastic trash.

Anyway, enough of my existential angst. Over to Chief Seattle, who allegedly spoke thus in 1854 (and no matter the provenance of the speech – see notes at end – see if it resonates with you):

A contemporary photograph

“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water how can you buy them?

“Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

“We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man, all belong to the same family.

“The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

“The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

“If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.

“Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

“This we know the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

“One thing we know our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

“Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

“When the last Red Man has vanished with his wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirits of my people left?

“We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it, as God loves us all.

“As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know there is only one God. No man, be he Red Man or White Man, can be apart. We are brothers after all.”

[Another version, with cautionary notes, is online here]

[Wikipedia link]

Never buy a coffee from a coffee shop called Insomnia. I mean, really, how much more obvious could it be that it was going to lead to a poor night’s sleep? Sometimes the obvious is so obvious that it gets hidden by its own obviousness.

But insomnia has its compensations. As I lay awake in the wee small hours, I was buzzing with insights as well as caffeine. Some of them even still made sense when I played back my voicenotes this morning. Here is one. Some people, especially around this early part of the New Year, are asking themselves if they are heading in the right direction, if they are on track for the life that they want. Are they living out their life purpose? And how would they know if they are?

Far be it from me to offer advice. I just do what feels right to me. If head and heart agree, then chances are I’m doing the “right” thing. I think that these three are fairly reliable indicators.

1. Does your “purpose” absolutely chime with your personal values, the things that you hold dear?

2. Does it feel like everything that has happened in your life so far has been leading you up to this point? Every skill, experience, and/or attribute that you have acquired – has it all helped to equip you for this project?

3. Does it make you bounce out of bed in the mornings, eager to do what you can to pursue your purpose and move a bit closer to your goal?

If you answer “yes” to all of these, you probably already know that you’ve found your purpose, and you don’t need me to tell you that. If you answer “no” to any of these, would you like to be able to say “yes” instead? If so, then maybe you want to think about asking a few more questions, trying out a few more options.

But no need to stress about it too much – in fact, stressing or striving too hard can complicate matters unnecessarily. Sometimes you just need to get yourself out of the way and allow the answer to come. Relax – there really isn’t any such thing as a “wrong” thing – it’s all a learning experience, even if only to eliminate some options. Thomas Edison once said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” So what if you try one “purpose” on for size, only to find it doesn’t fit? No worries. 9,999 more chances to succeed await you!

I’d been thinking about this quite a bit recently, in connection with planetary rights lawyer Polly Higgins’s Emergency Application in the case of People of the Planet vs The Politicians. I have been privileged enough to see some of Polly’s early drafts in connection with the application, which have exercised long-dormant parts of my intellect. Many, many years ago, I allegedly studied for an undergraduate law degree – although as I recall, most of my hours in the law library were spent researching the surprising ability of law books to serve as very adequate pillows after early morning crew outings on the river. But somewhere in between the snoozes a few smidgeons of law must have permeated my skull – possibly by some kind of osmosis as my head lay on the pages of dense legal text. Anyway, I find that I am just about able to follow Polly’s lines of legal argument.

There is a kind of satisfying closure in this discovery – “A-ha. So THAT is why I needed to study law all those years ago. I always wondered, and now it makes sense.” Still trying to figure out the point of my O-level French, but maybe in time all will become clear….!

[Photos: another random life skill picked up along the way - taking pretty pictures. These from the Big Island of Hawaii a couple of days ago.]

For those yearning for a change of scenery – either literally, if you’re sick of the sight of snow – or figuratively – if you’re tired of hearing about environmental issues… here is some light relief. A few days ago I arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii, where I am staying at a friend’s glorious ranch halfway up a mountain, with spectacular views of the distant ocean. Without wanting to make you too jealous (well, okay, just a little bit) here are some photos of a few plants from the garden.

You may notice that these piccies are a major step up from my usual dodgy old iPhone photos. This is thanks to Joan in Atlanta, who has arranged to loan me an Olympus EP-1. My little photo retrospective of 2009, mostly photographed by me, but with the final few slides by my talented photographer friend Jules, had borne silent witness to the shortcomings of an iPhone camera. The contrast between his shots and mine was too stark to be ignored. Having been a pro photographer for a few years (2000 to 2003 approx) I was embarrassed by the inferior quality of my pictures. Joan came to the rescue, on the strict proviso that this camera does NOT go to sea.

I’m quite impressed with the EP-1. Intuitive and easy to use, with most of the capabilities of an SLR but a lot smaller, it saves the extra weight and bulk by not having a viewfinder other than the LCD screen. I also love the optional square format. I used to have a pre-digital medium format camera – showing my age, here. Mine was a Mamiya 645, but now I can pretend I have a top-of-the-range Hasselblad, as used on the Apollo space missions.

Today it has been great fun strolling around the ranch, looking out for things to photograph, as a kind of meditation on nature and a therapeutic contrast to the ongoing fallout from the Copenhagen theft (still no replacement driver’s licence, so I can’t drive, credit card and SIM card also still in transit, and this morning the USB ports on my brand new laptop went belly-up – sigh! This too will pass….).

While we’re on the tech stuff, a couple of other recommendations for the geekily-minded iPhone and/or Mac user.

Favourite new apps:

- Things, for managing To Do lists on iPhone and Mac. Dead simple to use. Does all it needs to do, and nothing more. Has been used frequently recently when brain starts buzzing during jetlag-affected nights. Sync brain to iPhone, sync iPhone to Mac. Wake up in morning (or whenever) to well-organized To Do list. Easy!

- iStayFit for the iPhone, for managing workouts and monitoring weight. I’m having a much-needed post-Christmas detox, and this has really helped keep me motivated. Cute little demos for each exercise. And as I have my iPhone with me in the gym anyway, so I can listen to inspirational podcasts, it’s ideal!

- Nearest Tube for the iPhone, for finding your nearest tube station in London. Admittedly of limited use in Hawaii (!) but I’m just loving the new “Augmented Reality” concept generally. The way of the future, methinks. I could try to describe it, but I think you have to try it to really get it. Or try watching the video.

- 1Password for iPhone and Mac, for managing website logins and recording details of credit cards, drivers licence, etc. Allows you to log in to websites with just one click – ID and password are automatically entered. Can also be used to generate highly secure passwords.

- TextExpander for iPhone and Mac, for those commonly used words, phrases and paragraphs – or even a whole page. e.g. I’ve set mine up so that SF automatically expands to San Francisco, with a satisfying little popping noise.

- Tetris for iPhone, a dangerous waste of time, but great fun. I originally only bought it as a tribute to my Hawaii host, who owns the worldwide rights to the game, but it is amazing how satisfying it can be to plop small geometric objects into an interlocking pattern…

- Distant Shore, gorgeous graphics and very therapeutic for the jetlagged insomniac. You walk along a virtual beach, with gentle surf sounds to soothe you, beachcombing for seashells. Gather 5 shells and you get to write a message in a (virtual) bottle and throw it into the (virtual) sea. And occasionally you receive a message, at random, from another Distant Shore player. While I would be the last person in the world to endorse throwing anything at all into the sea, I deem this acceptable.

- Green Calculator. Okay, sorry, I almost made it to the end of the blog without mentioning matters green. But I just can’t help myself. This is a cute calculator, with some good tips on reducing your environmental impact, but like any other calculator I’ve seen it doesn’t factor in what you buy and what you eat, which for many people will boost their footprint substantially. I suspect that our world is now so incredibly complex, with foods and goods whizzing every which way across the planet, these calculations are simply incalculable, but if anybody knows otherwise….?

I hope you enjoy these apps as much as I do – and remember, you can always choose to uninstall Tetris. “Yeah, man, I can give it up any time I want….”!

Thanks for all the positive comments about my pictorial retrospective on 2009. Now that I’ve looked at the past – I’m now looking to the future. If you want to find out if I’m coming to a city near you in the next few months, read on.

Changing the world, one plastic bag at a time. Holland & Barrett healthfood store in London bans the bag

My overriding goal for this year is to figure out how I can be of most use. No unkind comments about removing myself from the gene pool, thank you very much! I hope there are actions of a more positive kind that I can take. In Copenhagen, I had hoped to spread some inspiration, and maybe even show some moral leadership on the virtues of leading a less materialistic, more experiential, life.

Yick, yick, yick – you’re probably making gagging noises at this point. Maybe this all sounds very holier-than-thou, in which case please excuse me. But really, what else do I have to offer? I’m not a scientist, politician, or experienced activist. So as far as I could see, my most convincing contribution was to BE the change I wanted to see in the world, by showing that the pursuit of excessive amounts of “stuff” – with all the collateral damage to the environment – is not necessary to have a happy, fulfilling life.

Do I feel like I made a difference in Copenhagen? Yes, I do, but to a very limited extent.

Do I feel my strategy was on the right lines? For a while I doubted this, and wondered if I should get more involved in political activism. But I don’t have the appetite or the inclination for it. I think I was on the right lines, and should stick with the same strategy, but crank up the energy, the urgency, and the outreach by several notches, and build on the new relationships and alliances I forged in Copenhagen to take the strategy to a new level.

So how does this overall strategy look in terms of what I do and where I go? Well, unfortunately it looks like a certain amount of air travel is going to be involved yet again, but less than last year. Although my travels are offset, I completely acknowledge that it is better not to incur the carbon debt in the first place. No doubt some will argue that I only travel as much as I choose to, but my experience has been that having meetings and giving presentations in person is enormously more impactful than through electronic means. So I could sit at home (if I had one) and do all my work over the internet, but that doesn’t seem the right course for me at this stage in my life. I will just ensure that I make every journey pay its way in terms of people met and messages delivered – to the max.

So… here is my approximate itinerary, still extremely subject to change:

Seagulls standing on the frozen boating lake in Regents Park. And yes, global warming IS a reality - but it's about average temperatures, not individual instances of hot or cold weather.

Jan 11 San Francisco

Jan 11-Feb 3 Hawaii – working on book and fundraising

Feb 3-5 Vail, Colorado – Vail Symposium

Feb 5-10 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival – film of “Rowing The Atlantic” being screened (finalist in Banff Film Festival)

Feb 10-28 Hood River, Oregon – working on book (Feb 22-26 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland)

Mar 1-18 Kiribati – as guest of President of Kiribati – TBC

Mar 18-23 Seattle – to speak at National Geographic Live! presentation series

Mar 24-Apr 2 TBC

Apr 3-10 TED Galapagos – I am speaking at this prestigious event. One-off ocean-themed TED in honour of Sylvia Earle

Apr 10-15 Kiribati – to prepare for launch

April 15 to late July or early August – Pacific III: final stage to Australia (fingers crossed!)

Until October or November – in Australia and/or Southeast Asia

December – Mexico City for COP16

So – another quiet, boring year – NOT! Of course you can follow it all here on the blog. I’m excited about the next 12 months, and I hope you’ll be interested enough to follow along through the power of the internet – most of the enjoyment with none of the carbon emissions!

This will be my last blog from Copenhagen before I catch the train back to London tonight. What can I say? It has been an experience. Not always enjoyable, but definitely instructive. 

President Anote Tong of Kiribati

One of my abiding memories will be of the dinner I had on Friday night with the President of Kiribati and his delegation. The mood was bittersweet, poignant in its defiant optimism in the face of enormous disappointment – if “disappointment” can be a word adequate to describe a country’s reaction to its own death sentence.

The woman who had danced at the Kiribati side-event made a speech in which she declared, “We still still be here, we will not go down.” The irony was almost too much to bear. The President was open about his feelings, “We are trying to maintain our composure, but I am very sad… We were naive and vulnerable… I wish I was so much more ruthless.”

He acknowledged that he would face criticism at home for not having achieved more, but really, what more could they have done? They came. They presented their case to the assembly. They gave a side event demonstrating the scientists’ projections for their future – or lack of it. But they were ignored. Their voices were not heard, drowned out by the booming baritone of Big Money.

In a veiled criticism of the process that had let them down by excluding them and most of the world’s smaller and still developing nations, the President commented, “There is no exclusion in our society.” And he issued me a personal invitation to spend time with him and his family on one of the outer islands, to witness firsthand the multiple layers of their culture, to its deepest spiritual core.

After the President’s speech, the assembled delegation spontaneously burst into song. It was a beautiful sound. The President translated for the non I-Kiribati speakers. The general gist of the words was that no matter how lovely any other islands may be, there is no place so special to them as the islands of Kiribati. Yet those islands seem unlikely to survive the century, if the scientists are right.

Linda Anderson, the filmmaker who with her husband created the short movie “Kiribati – A Call To The World” (available on YouTube) -summed it up. “They play dirty, don’t they?”

They do. We have all learned a lot about the REAL rules of the game during these formative days in Denmark. And next time we will arrive better prepared. The fight for justice does not end here.

Other Notes:

Another video about Kiribati, the President, and climate change on YouTube

Hard-hitting advice from someone who understand the rules of the game: No one is going to save you fools

NGOs combine forces going forward – We’re not done yet

And a final note - Tweet posted by me yesterday, adapted and updated: Post-COPulation syndrome: a feeling of anticlimax, disillusionment, cynicism. Leading to increased fire in the belly.

(To parody the name of an infamous satirical radio show of the 1960s, That Was The Week That Was)

Have you noticed how it’s often the most long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated of events that signally fail to deliver satisfaction (while the really good and memorable things happen serendipitously and unexpectedly)? And you wake up the morning after feeling rather jaded, disappointed, and wondering just what went wrong?

Welcome to my mindset after Copenhagen.

I’ve spent most of the last year planning for this event, trying to figure out how I can be of most service. I have been virtually obsessed by COP15 – my 3 Google Alerts are my name (isn’t yours?!), “copenhagen climate change” and “copenhagen conference 2009″. As Beka of TckTckTck.org put it, “We breathe , eat and sleep this issue. We’re not going to go away on Friday just because COP15 is over.”

This morning my mood as I walked through the cold winter sunshine of central Copenhagen to the Fresh Air Centre was decidedly morning-after-the-night-before. The city squares, which for the last 2 weeks have been full of exhibits, trailers, tents, and people, were almost deserted. Everything had been broken down and removed with almost indecent haste.

National leadership - too big a ship to turn?

So, I asked myself, what was it all for? All that effort, energy, and creativity, not to mention 40,500 tons of CO2 – was it all for nothing? No fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty. No commitment to take bold action on climate change. Not even an improvement in international relationships that might bode well for future negotiations – quite the opposite, in fact, with many developing countries leaving Copenhagen feeling disenfranchised and excluded. Money proved to be the strongest player, the process weak.

I don’t know what the pundits will say, or how COP15 will be viewed by the history books. But here are some positives that I will take away from the last two weeks.

- Devolution of power to elected officials of local communities: while national leaders (well, one in particular) struggle to get a clear mandate from their governments, mayors and governors are taking matters into their own hands. I have long wondered what the ideal unit of government might be – a country of 250 million (US) or even 60 million (UK) seems too big a ship to turn – and now it seems that the answer to my question is emerging, as increasing numbers of local politicians decide to provide recycling services, mandate composting, etc, at local level.

One of the faces of the future: Dominic Frongillo

- Emergence of young leaders: as Bill McKibben said yesterday in a panel discussion at the Klimaforum, it seems patronizing to separate youth from adults. Mike Eckhart went further, and suggested that anyone over 40 should be excluded from climate discussions because they’re probably banking on being dead before the full effects are felt (although they may well be mistaken). In the last two days, two of the people who have impressed me the most have been 26-year-old Dominic Frongillo, an elected official in Caroline, New York, and a 17-year-old schoolboy from London who was helping support the Kiribati delegation. Both were eloquent, intelligent, and committed. If only the same could be said of all of their elders.

- My own evolution as an environmental campaigner: I arrived in Copenhagen naive and idealistic. While I hope I haven’t lost, and never will lose, my idealism, I now see the world more as it is, and less as I would like it to be. This is a much stronger position from which to create change in the future. Having the harsh truth come and clobber you between the eyes is not a pleasant experience, but trying to ignore it, or wishing it were otherwise, is a waste of time.

And now, on a lighter note, here are a selection of things I loved about Copenhagen:

1. Being able to sit right at the front of the Metro train – there is no driver’s cab – as it whizzes along tunnels. Feels a bit like a fairground ride.

Secret Kitchen

2. Secretkitchen.dk – my favourite place for caramel lattes and cakes, just around the corner from the downtown Fresh Air Centre. Also great juices, smoothies, soups and salads.

3. Glugg – Danish mulled wine. Marvellously onomatopoeic. As is “hygge” (pronounced hooger) which means cosy, but also sounds like a big hug.

4. Pyt! – Danish word more or less equivalent to the French “tant pis”. Nearest English equivalent is “it happens”, but this lacks the idea of letting go. Pyt! (pronounced almost with no vowel sound – PT!) is a verbal flick of the hand, surrendering the stress and putting it behind you. As eventually one needs to do about the theft of a backpack full of all cherished worldly goods.

5. Friendly natives – helpful and polite, and mostly very good at English, even when facing a major invasion of COP15 foreigners. I would particularly like to mention the wonderful Gaard family, my hosts arranged by New Life Copenhagen. They invite a total stranger (and a strange ocean-rowing stranger at that!) into their home, give her a key, allow her free run of the house. Then when her bag is stolen, lend her a credit card and laptop. Incredible kindness and generosity, but delivered in a low-key and natural way. By way of thanks I arranged with UncaDoug to have some American goodies shipped over to Denmark. They had enjoyed certain all-American foodstuffs during their year in Chicago while Soren was doing his PhD at Northwestern University. The macaroni cheese mix and Aunt Jemima’s (!!!) pancake mix went down extremely well with the two young Gaards especially.

I leave Copenhagen tomorrow, with my luggage considerably lighter, my heart a little heavier, my head a little wiser. I’ll be pondering on what has happened here, and starting to evolve my environmental mission for 2010. As 2009 draws to a close, I’m looking forward to a period of reflection and rejuvenation, and preparation for challenges of the year ahead.

Bill McKibben made me cry today.

Yesterday there were frequent snow flurries, and this morning I woke up to a white Copenhagen. On my way to the Fresh Air Centre (FAC), the downtown media hangout for COP15, I passed a department store with large cheery penguins singing along to Boney M. All very Christmassy. But I wasn’t feeling festive. I had woken up feeling angry. Last night I had attended an excellent but disturbing event at the FAC, where George Monbiot and Naomi Klein were among the panellists. To a thronged room, the panel gave their view on recent events. Here is my best effort to summarize their comments:

1. The enforced resignation of Connie Hedegaard as President of COP15 was seen as a bad thing. She had urged the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to keep up the pressure on the decision-makers. When she was asked to stand down in favour of the Prime Minister of Denmark, the official reason was that with an unprecedented number of heads of state arriving in Copenhagen, it was more appropriate that the president of the conference should also be a head of state. But some saw a more sinister agenda: the Danish Prime Minister had last week advanced a draft treaty that was close to the weak US position. This was very unpopular with the developing nations, and his succession to the COP Presidency was seen as a negative move.

Kumi Naidoo

2. Despite this bad news, some of the panellists were still urging a last-ditch attempt to seal the deal. Barry Coates, Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand, demanded that the policy-makers “bring their sleeping bags” and not leave the Bella Center until they reach agreement. Kumi Naidoo, the dynamic Chair of TckTckTck, delivered a rousing speech saying that, “It ain’t over till the thin man in Washington signs a fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty… it’s still a Hopenhagen, not a Flopenhagen or a Nopenhagen…”. Click here to see Kumi’s open letter to Barack Obama, and to sign the petition.

Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives

3. Naomi Klein, in a voice cracking and fading after a week of too much talking, stressed the significance of the moral high ground now held by the developing nations. “Let’s get out of our nationalistic boxes and see which countries have the most moral authority, and stand with them.” She commended the work that 350.org have done in bringing the plight of the Maldives to the fore. “We need a human face to this issue.” Using hard-hitting terminology, she likened the ecological recklessness of the developed nations to genocide – if by omission to act they permit the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group by famine, drought, or warfare over diminishing resources.

But the words that hit me hardest came from George Monbiot, a British writer, environmental and political activist. He sees climate change as a symptom of the deeper problem of “sheer bloody selfishness”. The developed countries have prioritized financial growth over our shared humanity, not caring “if I swing my fist and your nose gets in my way.” He concluded a rabble-rousing speech by saying, “Those who urge that human decency is paramount must win, and those who believe we can trash other people’s right must lose.”

As I walked home last night, I reflected on the eloquence and intelligence not just of the speakers, but also of the members of the audience who asked follow-up questions. I noted with interest that the climate change believers tend to be smart people.

Their powerful speeches percolated through my mind as I slept, and I woke up feeling angry – for all the right reasons – rather than the logistical post-theft weariness that has been my first emotion on the last few mornings. I was angry at having my illusions shattered. Angry that Big Money is running the show here. Angry at the global leaders who have been so cheaply bought. Angry that the process seems to be failing, corrupted by the love of money, the root of all evil.

Candlelight vigil - all very lovely, but what have they really achieved?

I felt angry, but also stupid. How could I have been so naive? How could I have believed that we could really make a difference? It seemed to me that the Dobermanns of Big Money was going to win the day, and we were just a bunch of fleas jumping up and down and futilely squeaking our protests.

In this frame of mind it didn’t take much to reduce me to tears.

I was among the first handful of people to arrive at TckTckTck’s Fresh Air Center, and headed for the row of communal computers. Bill McKibben arrived a few minutes later, and sat at the computer next to me. As he greeted me I apologized. I had read his 350.org newsletter yesterday and knew that he was fasting today in a show of solidarity with the poor of the world. And I was sitting with a caramel latte and croissant at my side. Even worse, my latte was in a disposable cup, my lovely Sigg mug having been stolen along with everything else.

“Hey, at this stage, a coffee cup isn’t going to make much difference,” he said. He was in self-confessed bitter mood. As the talks in the Bella Center reach their most intense – and tense – stage yet, he was pessimistic. He opined that the collapse of the talks might be the best outcome we can hope for.

“And do you think there will be another COP in July?” I asked.

“We could have COPs until the end of time, and we still wouldn’t agree anything,” he said.

Bill McKibben at the march on Sunday

I looked at him, stunned and speechless. My eyes misted. I didn’t want to believe that I had just heard him say what he had just said. I have known throughout that my optimism was based on a stubborn refusal to contemplate the consequences of failure in Copenhagen, rather than on any evidence that we might get a positive outcome, but tit was nonetheless a slap in the face to hear it stated so starkly, by a man whose opinion I respect.

Bill went on to tell me his view that COP15 has been a display of naked power. He told me that small countries have been threatened by the IMF that it will withdraw its funding if they don’t toe the line. He gave an example of a small country that had been promised two new hospitals by the Chinese if it would back their position here. Money talks, and here it has been talking the message of business as usual, and continued financial growth at the expense of our poor aching Earth.

I confessed to Bill that I had been naive when I arrived here. I really thought I could make a difference. I thought that the global leaders could surely not remain unmoved by such passionate demonstrations in support of a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal on climate change.

But it seems I was wrong. I will leave Copenhagen more jaded than I arrived, but more realistic too, and hence hopefully more effective. The theft of my backpack has not made me believe that every person is a criminal. Likewise, I’m not going to believe that every international negotiation is hopeless. The truth lies somewhere in between my former idealism and my present cynicism. To see the world as it is, rather than as I wish it was, is no bad thing.

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On a sunnier note… I had a chat with Kim Nguyen, the impressive young man who cycled here from Australia for COP15. We were comparing notes on our respective plans and adventures. He pointed out that even those who represent Big Money are human beings. And human beings can change. Awareness is growing. If we can change the hearts and minds, we can change the system.

And as I’ve been writing this blog, the word is out on Twitter that Hillary Clinton has pledged USD 100 billion (although reading this article it seems less exciting than I first thought), up from the original commitment to USD 10 billion. Definitely a move in the right direction.

So the news isn’t all bad, but personally, I’m feeling despondent and exhausted. I’ve been running nonstop since I arrived back on dry land 3 months ago, and it’s catching up with me. The theft of all my most valued possessions has been quite stressful. My eyes are tired and strained from hours of squinting at a computer screen without my glasses. I haven’t been eating properly, trying to eke out scarce cash resources borrowed from friends, by eating cheaply rather than healthily. A persistent tic in my right eyelid is a clear signal that I’m nearing my limits. Physically, psychologically, and financially, I feel pretty destroyed.

But all this pales into insignificance compared with what we will lose if there is no miracle within the next 36 hours. The loss of my laptop is nothing compared with the loss of the world as we know it.

Bill McKibben of 350.org in serious mood

I was embarrassed to admit to Bill McKibben today that this was the first time I had ever taken part in a march. We were standing in Copenhagen’s Parliament Square, about to embark on our walk to the Bella Center and a candlelight vigil. I say “embark” advisedly -Bill’s organization, 350.org, had chosen to march in the guise of ships, with sails bearing logos and slogans, which seemed almost spookily appropriate given my recent imagery of the COP15 delegations as ships on an ocean.

On my way to the start I had pushed past polar bears, pirates, penguins, and home-made creatures of indeterminate species. It seemed less like a statement of political intent and more like a costume party. There had been fears of troublesome elements turning up. And apparently some “black hoodies” were there and later duly caused trouble, but I didn’t encounter them. I only saw a few punks sporting mohicans, and some people smoking rather interesting-smelling tobacco. Ahem.

As helicopters and birds circled in the wintry blue skies over Parliament Square, I asked Bill what his thoughts were on a likely outcome from the negotiations. He wasn’t optimistic, expecting a watered down treaty. But I remain relentlessly positive – as if by sheer force of will I can push these boats in the right direction. It never works on the ocean, but I’ve nothing to lose by trying.

Roz at the start of the march

Just as we were starting to turn blue with cold, the procession started. I stepped into one of the 350.org boats, along with various others including Garrett from the Climate Ride. As the march progressed slowly and the sun dropped in the sky towards a 3.30 sunset, I had cause to envy the polar bears. At least they looked warm. Being politically active is all very well, but I was starting to wish it involved being more physically active. Eventually I had to make a coffee shop stop to administer to various bodily needs (including, but not limited to, the need for a good hot drink) which at least gave me an excuse for a good brisk walk to catch up with the ships afterwards. I found them cruising majestically a half mile ahead.

The police were maintaining a significant presence – most notably a lineup of six burly officers across the frontage of a McDonalds along the route. They clearly weren’t leaving anything to chance. I was sorry to hear about the arrests later. I’m fairly sure the black hoods were not genuinely supporting the cause. Civil disobedience for a cause you believe in is one thing. Hijacking a genuinely peaceful demonstration with malicious intent to cause trouble is another, and very much to be regretted.

Roz: I'm 350 and I'm proud

Despite the arrests, I very much hope that the march, candlelight vigil, and the parallel events taking place around the world help to influence the decision-makers. Like everything else going on here – the side events, media coverage, op-eds, blogs, art installations and presentations, we just can’t know which ones are making a difference and which aren’t. I’ve heard it said here that there is no “magic bullet” for climate change – it’s more like magic buckshot – a multulitude of partial solutions that, when added together, hit most of the key targets. It seems likely that any successful approach to campaigning will require a similar philosophy. Different governments and different leaders will respond to different strategies.

And so we all carry on doing what we can, adding our breath and our energy to the invisible wind of change that needs to blow through COP15, and get all these ships of nations moving together towards a common goal.

If you can find polar bears tucking into chocolate cake, then surely anything is possible in Copenhagen....

As we enter the final and most crucial week of the conference, everything is still very much up for grabs. The swingometer needle continues to fluctuate with bewildering rapidity. In such a fluid situation anything could still change. It might only need one country, one leader, to step forward and show some moral courage to do what is right rather than what is politically expedient, for the chemistry of the whole assembly to change. With the future of humanity hanging in the balance, it still ain’t over till it’s over.

The other day during my videotaped interview with visual artist Frans Jacobi I was asked a rather awkward question: “So what access do you have to the decision-makers here in Copenhagen?”

I had to confess that my access, truth be told, is more on a spiritual level than on a direct level. Of course I would welcome an opportunity to have a chat with my mate Obama about our need for him to show strong leadership on a global move towards sustainability – but in the real world, it isn’t going to happen.

Much hilarity in the Fresh Air Center yesterday when this reporter, livestreaming from the Bella Center, was upstaged by a 350-toting polar bear

No doubt the decision-makers are aware that there is a multitude of NGOs, campaigners, scientists, bloggers, economists, activists, artists and random eco-adventurers assembled in Copenhagen, and all making a great deal of noise – demonstrations, exhibitions, side events, art installations and so on. But how much of this noise filters through the heavy doors and tight security of the Bella Center to the delegates within? Not so much, I suspect.

So what are we all doing here? Is there any point to all this frenzied activity (and all the tons of CO2 generated to get here) or is this just lots of sound and fury, signifying nothing? How open are the delegates to persuasion at this stage? Have their minds already been made up – possibly after extensive consultation with ministers, advisors, lobbyists, and captains of industry?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. I’ve been asking them for over a year now, trying to figure out what I can do to make a few waves, spread a few ripples, without being completely engulfed by the tsunami of activity around COP15. And after all this thinking I still don’t have an answer.

The Copenhagen Metro plugs Hopenhagen

All I know is that I felt an irresistible compulsion to be here. I couldn’t stand on the sidelines. I had to be here, to do what I can to make a difference. And so I write and I present and I talk to cameras and journalists and bloggers.

But most of all I am contributing my energy and intention to the cause. I might be just one of many thousands, but I have to believe that the accumulated effect of our desire for a greener future will have some influence on the politicians. To use the metaphor of the million oarstrokes it takes me to get across an ocean, one stroke doesn’t get me very far, but a million strokes carries me 3,000 miles. Likewise, my voice here may be small, but when you take the combined forces of the thousands of people in Copenhagen, and millions around the world, who are all focused on this one city and this one history-making event, and maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference.

Or to take my more recent theme that “he who controls the wind, controls all the ships” - I might just be one person standing on the shore, cheeks puffed out and blowing for all I’m worth, but if there are enough of us doing the same thing, standing on the shore and huffing and puffing, maybe we can get those ships of nations pointing the same way, moving in the same direction towards the same goal, instead of meandering around slowly on collision courses with each other.

If we all pull together, we CAN save the world!

Here's something you don't see every day. The Angry Mermaid travels home by Metro last night.

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I realize here that I am veering into climate change territory – no doubt to the delight of Christopher Schmidt and the derision of the deniers. So to reassure myself, and others, that I’m standing on firm factual ground, here are 10 Facts on Climate Science – issued by the UK Government’s Act on Copenhagen team.

This afternoon I am joining in with the march from central Copenhagen to the Bella Center, followed by a candlelit vigil. I have never been on a march before – the closest I have come was the bike rally on Capitol Hill at the end of the Climate Ride in September. There have been some predictions that this afternoon could turn violent (ooh, and look -there’s a mention of my ships!) but I sincerely hope that these fears are unfounded. I am sure that most of the activists want a peaceful demonstration, and will not be happy if the event is hijacked by a small handful of troublemakers. Violence has never solved anything.

I’ll be walking with the gang from 350.org. Details of candlelight vigils around the world are on their website. It will be wonderful to imagine a global community showing solidarity with the campaigners here in Copenhagen.

Long hours anticipated next week

There has been talk of a COP15.5, taking place next summer, in case no binding treaty is achieved by the end of next week at COP15 – no matter how long the hours the delegates work.

At one stage, about a month ago, I thought this might be a good thing. It seemed to me that not enough countries were moving fast enough in the right direction, so that if something were to be set in stone in Copenhagen, it was unlikely to be the right thing. Despite the urgent need for legislation to stop the rape of the planet, I thought it would be more damaging to enact a weak agreement than to enact nothing at all. I hoped that by the time COP15.5 rolled around, growing awareness and increasing public pressure might have persuaded the global leaders to commit to the kind of treaty that the world needs.

However, what I have seen and heard in Copenhagen has persuaded me otherwise. There is such a huge amount of energy and commitment here on the part of the non-governmental organizations and the heavy hitters of the environmental world that it has generated a formidable momentum. If no decision is reached, that momentum would dissipate, and it is hard to imagine that a similar head of steam could be recreated in 6 months.

There would almost inevitably be a feeling of disappointment and deflated hopes, and to recover from that and once again muster the forces within the space of half a year would be more than most human hearts could bear.

So is it now or never?

A ton of CO2 spotted as I was walking to TckTckTck's Fresh Air Center today

That sounds pretty drastic, but so is our situation. The rate at which we are losing acres of rainforest and diversity of species, the rate at which we are using up our reserves of oil, the rate at which our population and our demand for consumer goods is expanding – time IS running out. If the climate scientists are to be believed, certain timings have already run out, tipping points reached, boundaries crossed. We are now in the last gasp of existence, the dying days of a civilization, the end of an era. The best we can hope for now is damage limitation. Are we going to be utterly extinct, or only partially.

Sorry, but that’s the truth, and I can’t sugar-coat it.

That’s the bad news. Now for the good news – and it’s very good. Even in the last few days I have seen a growing momentum towards sealing a deal.

Todd Stern, the chief negotiator for the US, says that Washington is determined to get the ‘strongest possible agreement’ in Copenhagen.

Ed Miliband, leader of the UK delegation, said: ‘I will do my damnedest to get the best possible agreement I can at Copenhagen.’

A leading UK climate scientist says Capping temperatures is ‘achievable’.

Let’s keep on hoping, praying, and pushing. The negotiations, and the future of the world, hang in the balance. All it will take is for one influential leader to step forwards and take a courageous stance and the whole chemistry of COP15 could change for the best.

And finally, just in case that hasn’t cheered you up enough already, here is my fun little video (2:21 mins) of our BB2B walk. The comment has already been made (thanks, Anthony!) that it was rather fitting that the soundtrack should be by a band called Madness….!

Yesterday afternoon I attended a side event hosted by the delegation from Kiribati, to issue their Call To The World (watch the video here). I was a few minutes late, having dashed to the Bella Center from an earlier meeting at the Klimaforum in central Copenhagen, and it was with a slight sense of trepidation that I pushed open the door to the meeting room. Would they have a good attendance, or would this tiniest of countries (pop. 100,000) have failed to register on the COP15 radar?

An I-Kiribati dancer cheering up the proceedings

So I was relieved to see the rows of seats almost full, and many more people standing around the sides of the room. But the presentation got off to a slow start as two members of the delegation ran through rather dry Powerpoint presentations on the effects of climate change and their planned defence measures. Then some light relief – an I-Kiribati dancer in traditional dress, beaming broadly, strutted her hip-waggling stuff onstage to a toe-tapping beat that got the crowd clapping and the cameras flashing.

So after this display of wonderful Pacific joie de vivre the contrast was all the greater when Dr Robert Kay got up to show a computer-generated simulation of what will happen by the year 2100 to the islands of Kiribati – the home of this joyful dancer, the members of the delegation, and their compatriots. The satellite image on the projector screen showed the capital island, Tarawa, at first blemished by a few small outbreaks of blue around the edges of the atoll, representing localized areas of inundation in 2020. As the decades passed the isolated patches grew and merged, until by 2100 not much of South Tarawa was left. The island where my boat currently resides would have become a shadow of its former self, its freshwater lens long since rendered brackish and undrinkable.

Then, as if the news were not already bad enough – an outbreak of pink blotches, showing the areas that would be vulnerable to flooding in the kind of storm that might hit once in 10 years. The island of South Tarawa, with a population of around 40,000, now disappeared under an almost continuous patchwork of blue and pink.

Dr Robert Kay presents the 2100 scenario - bad news for Kiribati

[Important note: I need to emphasize that this simulation reflected the worst case scenario projected by the UNFCCC. Also I heard no mention of coral growth, which has the potential to mitigate the effects of rising oceans if the rate of growth can outpace the rate of sea level rise – provided, of course, that the ability of the coral to grow is not seriously reduced by ocean acidification.]

The simulation had a huge effect on the audience. The high spirits that had accompanied the dancer vanished faster than barbecue partygoers in a rainstorm, leaving the room in stunned silence. When my friend Tessie Lambourne concluded her part of the presentation by saying, “We don’t want to be environmental refugees – we want to relocate on merit, with dignity,” there was an immediate round of heartfelt and sympathetic applause.

How the people of Kiribati feel about their fate

I hope that the Kiribati gets the dramatic cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases that they seek from COP15. But the problem here is that a global problem is being discussed on a nation-by-nation basis.

What is the ideal level for decision-making? National? Local? Global? We have this illusion of separateness, but we are all linked by our shared dependence on this planet.

Physically, the only things that separate countries are manmade borders, or oceans. But the oceans, like the atmosphere, also connect all countries. One country’s pollution will affect its neighbours, near and far.

Economically, too, we are all linked. Britain may have reduced its carbon emissions, but largely by exporting much of its manufacturing processes to China. Same goes for the United States. So there is a kind of karmic justice in the fact that 25% of the air pollution in Los Angeles originates in China – environmental chickens coming home to roost.

Unfortunately this example of instant karma is rare. Most of the effects of environmental evils are felt far from their point of origin. At his presentation to the Climate Riders in September, Dr Ben Strauss gave this example: if climate change was local to each country depending on its own emissions, 20th century America would have seen a rise in temperature of a dramatic 22.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This would give Boston similar July temperatures to Phoenix (95-96 degrees) and would make Phoenix practically uninhabitable. This would no doubt focus the American mind marvellously.

However, in the real world, the effects of environmental abuse are distributed globally – although not equally. In fact, it will be primarily the world’s poorest countries that will feel the effects first, while the developed countries are able to “export” much of their impact.

Long hours evidently anticipated as the negotiations move into their final stages next week

So we have a situation where the developed countries have limited incentive to change, many of the fast-developing countries prioritize a short-term increase in standard of living over long-term sustainability, and the slow-developing countries – like Kiribati – are left to foot the environmental bill.

What is to be done? We have organized our human society around strong national identities that discourage global thinking. And our dominant system of electing governments is democracy, which discourages long-term thinking. Yet here we are faced with a global, long-term problem. Have we set ourselves up for disaster, or can we quickly switch to a new way of thinking, more appropriate to the challenge we now face?

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Pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but I can’t help feeling a bit cranky about being listed among the Daily Telegraph’s “Misadventures” of the last decade for my failed attempt on the Pacific in 2007. Of course they utterly fail to mention my successes on the Atlantic in 2006, and on the Pacific in 2008 and 2009. Please feel free to post your comments on this omission on their website!

Yesterday morning – my first morning in the Bella Center, the main conference venue at Copenhagen – I ran into my good friends from Kiribati, the Solicitor General David Lambourne and his wife Tessie, who is the Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Immigration. After an hour chatting with this amazing power couple, my brain was ready to explode with new insights and ideas which have formed the basis for my next few blogs.

I’d like to emphasize that the ideas about to be expounded are mine and mine alone. Although inspired by this morning’s conversation, they do not in any way claim to be the views of David and Tessie, nor the government that they represent.

So, here is our current situation. One planet, 195 countries – all with different cultures, economies, industries, geographies, and political landscapes. But for the purposes of this discussion, let’s over-simplify and categorize them as developed, fast-developing (China, India, Brazil, Russia), and slow-developing.

A blur of activity at the Bella Center

The developed countries got there first. They took the earth’s finite resources of fossil fuels and used them to build big economies and a high standard of living. Now the fast-developing countries want the same, but the developed countries are telling them that fossil fuel usage has to be cut, and in any case the fossil fuels are about to run out. Meanwhile the slow-developing countries are about to bear the brunt of potential climactic changes, and are asking for help from the chief culprits to help mitigate the effects.

I’d like to offer my perspective on this. It is human nature to aspire to improve. That is what has led us from being just another animal to being the dominant species on Earth. But at some point along the way, improvement became synonymous with monetary wealth and conspicuous consumption. I would like to suggest that these are not truly conducive to human happiness.

Clean water, healthy food, shelter, sanitation, medicine, education – these things matter. With sensible allocation of resources we can provide these fundamental rights to a much higher proportion of the world’s population.

Huge houses, multi-car households, frequent air travel and the accumulation of possessions – these things are not necessary, and the provision of such luxuries is using up our finite resources at an unacceptable rate. And the chief point to grasp here is that there is no causal link between these commodities and health or happiness.

The world in our hands - photo at the Bella Center

Not only do the developed countries need to radically cut their demand for such things, but somehow the developing countries need to be convinced that we have been sold a myth by advertisers and corporations in search of enrichment through infinite economic growth – and we don’t need to buy the lie. We need to embrace a new simplicity, either voluntarily or, if necessary, through legislation.

It made my heart sink when I visited Peru in 2003, and I would see the humblest of shacks with a TV aerial stuck on the roof. I knew that inside they would most likely be watching Baywatch on a grainy black and white TV set, and dreaming of the California lifestyle. I wanted to run inside and beg them not to believe it, as I had done.

Coming from a family that, by the standards of a developed country, was relatively poor, I was desperately aspirational as a young adult. I really believed that money would buy me happiness – and was lucky enough to get just wealthy enough to discover what a treadmill materialism can become. More is more, and enough is never enough.

So having realized this, I shed all the trappings of a “successful” western lifestyle and bought an ocean rowboat. I fitted it out with a view to keeping it as light as possible to maximize my speed across the ocean. I thought I had the bare minimum on board. Then the ocean came along and took away half of it. Things broke, got lost overboard, or were found to be superfluous. My original “minimum” turned out to be far more than I actually needed, and I learned the lesson of simplicity. I have found that the less stuff I have, the more time and energy I have to focus on the important things in life.

I’m not saying that rich people can’t be happy, or that poor people can’t be miserable – I’m just saying that your position on the happiness spectrum has much more to do with the state of your mind than the state of your bank balance.

Latest News from Copenhagen – via today’s Rapid Response Dispatch issued by Fission Strategy

1) Danish text – has been very detrimental to the talks, deepening divisions between developed and developing countries. The story has gained traction in mainstream media. Fission Strategy suggest to media and bloggers that this is an opportunity to:
a) spank the US, UK, and Denmark for this – calling on them to support a strong and *fair* deal
b) call for a more transparent process: sharing documents, making the process clear, who they’re consulting with, reporting back

2) Japan finance issue – this Friday the Japanese Prime Minister will meet with his senior team to determine their position on long-term financing and targets. Japan has demonstrated some positive leadership on climate change, the outcome of these meetings is very important, and positive encouragement would be constructive.

3) Breaking news: there was just a rapid response demonstration inside the Bella Center by the main plenary hall. A delegate from the island nation of Tuvalu was blocked from speaking up and calling for a real deal.

300 people assembled outside of the hall for a spontaneous and passionate rally in support of the Tuvalu delegate. The UN security closed off the area temporarily, initial footage (brief clips) here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdhh-GOQvCM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR8mEp9K9K4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTesidvZd8c

[Blog written on iphone while waiting in line to pick up badge at the Bella Center this morning.]

The multitudes today at the Bella Center - and it's only going to get busier...

All the talk of cap-and-trade, cap-and-share, carbon taxes etc – if you are looking for enlightenment on what all this means, look elsewhere. I have to confess that it does my head in. While I was a management consultant working on financial settlements systems for investment banks I was sent on various accounting courses. Despite having been good at maths when I was at school, double entry bookkeeping always sent me to sleep, and the intricacies of environmental accountancy have much the same effect.

No doubt this is evidence of some character flaw on my part – laziness, or lack of diligence. But we can’t all be experts at everything, and there are plenty of people who seem to relish the economics of environmentalism, so I shall gladly leave it to them.

I suspect I am not alone in my wilful ignorance. Like most busy people, I just want to know: what’s the least I need to know, and what am I supposed to do about it?

Here is what I know: If we carry on as we are, we as a species don’t have much time left. Business as usual will leave us up the creek without any oil. The plastics and other toxins we are pumping into the land, sea and air will poison us. Destruction of the rainforests will lead to desertification and soil erosion. Billions of people will go hungry and thirsty. These scenarios do not even assume the reality of climate change. They are based simply on the incontrovertible truths of environmental pollution and habitat destruction. Simply put, we are in deep s**t. That’s a technical term.

What are we supposed to do about it? Well, that is up to each of us to decide. Personally, I would rather avoid this version of the future, or at least minimise the damage as much as possible at this belated stage. So I look at it as I would look at planning an adventure. Same principles – this is just an adventure into the future rather than across an ocean. These are the steps:

The Bella Computer Center - about 30 ranks of desks like this one

a) What is the end goal? A clean, healthy sustainable earth, ideally with people still on it, although in reduced numbers, as our current population level is probably unsustainable (see Thom Hartmann’s excellent book,The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late).

b) When do we want to reach our goal? The sooner the better, but let’s be realistic. We have seen in times of war and crisis just how amazingly innovative and productive humans can be when the chips are down. So let’s shoot for 2050, by which time we will probably be out of oil anyway. It would be less stressful to kick our addiction to fossil fuel by proactive choice rather than having it thrust upon us.

c) Now start at the end and work backwards. What do we need to do so we can arrive at our goal by our desired end date? What technologies do we need? What will it cost? How will we find the money? What are the top priorities and what can be relegated to the nice-to-have list?

This is not rocket science. As with most expeditions, it is unlikely that we will be 100% ready by our end date. But if we aim high, 90% of a high target is hugely preferable to 90% of a low one. As the saying goes, the best way to achieve something is to aim to achieve twice as much.

A man with the world on his mind

I do realize that this framework is very simple, maybe even simplistic. I don’t claim to be an economist, or a scientist, or even more than averagely intelligent. The only credentials I can claim are that I spend more time thinking about these things than many people, and my isolation on the ocean does give me a certain sense of perspective.

And it is that perspective that I am urging. We need to see the big picture. We keep getting sidetracked into time-wasting debates such as Climategate, petty politicking, and international disputes, fiddling while Rome burns. Imagine how an alien would see us – squabbling amongst ourselves while imminent extinction looms.

So come on, people, let’s get our collective act together, before it’s too late!

With Gender CC

Gender and Climate Change. Hmm. I was puzzled. What does gender have to do with the environment? Surely climate change doesn’t discriminate between men and women.

I was also rather sceptical. My general view – which I realize may be unpopular with many liberals – is that positive discrimination can appear patronizing, and can actually undermine the equality that it attempts to foster – by unfairly penalizing deserving members of the dominant group. I’m thinking here of the recent tendency of Oxford and Cambridge to favour state school applicants over private school students, resulting in selections that occasionally appear anomalous or even downright bizarre. I managed to get into Oxford, having been educated at zero cost to my parents, in the days before positive discrimination. So my bias – rightly or wrongly – is that individuals can create their own destinies regardless of background.

So it was with a piqued sense of curiosity and that I turned up today for my meeting with Marion Rolle and Minu Hemmati of GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice. I can report that I am now better informed – and even possible a convert to their cause.

First of all, “gender” does not mean exclusively women. If men were the under-represented half of the world’s population, we agreed, we would stand up for their rights as much as we would stand up for our own. And that it would be very nice to be in the happy position of offering such magnanimity after many years of the opposite.

Second, climate change DOES discriminate between men and women – as an example, with increasing desertification and the retreat of the glaciers in developing countries, the burden would typically fall to the women to walk the extra distance to fetch water.

Third, the factors that contribute to climate change are also gender-differentiated. Men tend to choose bigger cars and drive them faster, while women influence decisions around the home such as what foods to buy (think of those food miles) and how many children to have. So different considerations apply to different genders.

Gender CC is seeking to get a specific reference to gender included in any treaty emerging from COP15. It was apparently included in an early draft of the statement, but was subsequently removed when the draft was downsized from its original 200 pages. I wondered out loud why this had happened. Was it possibly because:

1. a) The document was just too big, and something had to go
2. b) It was felt that women were adequately represented, so the reference was superfluous
3. c) Some countries would refuse to sign up to such an agreement due to a cultural or religious bias against female representation
4. d) All of the above
5. e) None of the above – something else instead?

Electric cars in Copenhagen at a recharging station

For me, the most convincing argument was that, if such a reference to gender were included, women who might normally be denied a voice – as in (c) – would be able to point to the treaty and insist on involvement, e.g. to have a say in how any international grants for mitigation measures might be allocated. Developing countries (where women are often under-represented) may receive substantial funding from developed countries to help mitigate the effects of climate change. Kiribati is a prime example.

In a perfect world, all sectors of society would have some say in how international funding should be allocated. Big money is potentially at stake, and there may be gender-based differences of opinion as to how it should be used.

I tried thinking of this on a micro scale, which is the easiest way for my poor limited brain to ponder such questions. Based on my own experience of men, and to make some utterly sweeping assumptions based on sexual stereotypes (!), supposing a married household received a sudden windfall – maybe a small lottery win. How might the husband choose to spend it? Maybe:

1. a) new sports car
2. b) set of golf clubs
3. c) big party?

How might the wife choose to spend it? Maybe:

1. a) new clothes for the children
2. b) new clothes for herself
3. c) a week in a health spa?

Now please don’t come down on me like a ton of bricks. I am not a girlie girl myself (you knew that) so I would be more likely to spend a lottery win on creating a foundation or buying a smallholding in the Outer Hebrides. And many men would no doubt choose to treat the children and/or the wife to something really special. But I think you get my gist. Men and women, although equally able and intelligent, have different priorities. And it is a fact of 21^st century life that women, for whatever reasons, comprise far less than 50% of national decision-makers.

So I think the concept of a reference to gender has some merit. My true preference would be to see the issue remedied at its roots – by having fairer representation for ALL at the decision-making level, so that all issues were addressed by a truly representative body (and whether that government takes place at a national or sub-national level is a question for another day, another blog).

Look familiar? Not the London Eye, but let's hope some eyes are opened here in Copenhagen this week

But change on that scale is not going to happen in the next 2 weeks. So for now what is the best way to go? I’d like to throw this open to debate. Do you agree that there should be a specific reference to gender in any climate treaty? Are there any other under-represented groups who should also be specifically mentioned (maybe indigenous peoples)? Is there an opportunity here to set a precedent for future international treaties?

Comments, please!

Other Stuff:

First meeting today was with Frans Jacobi, a visual artist from Copenhagen. He is starting an exploration of the field of activism surrounding the COP15 in Copenhagen. He will be blogging about this here. Each person he speaks with is then supposed to send him on to another person and this ‘chain’ will be the itinerary for his exploration. The blog and this trip will form a part of his PhD: ‘Aesthetics of Resistance’. So we had a very interesting chat and I then passed him along to Polly Higgins. Watch that space!

This evening I went to a Rotary Club presentation by a British explorer – the magnificently named Ripley Davenport. The evening ended with dinner at the Radisson Blu. I sat between two guys from Shelterbox, who know my friend Sally Kettle, veteran of 3 Atlantic rows. Her final row was with the Rowgirls in 2005, the same year I rowed the Atlantic, and they were raising funds for Shelterbox. A very worthwhile cause, and I have volunteered to join their Shelterbox Response Team to help deploy their aid boxes to disaster zones. As extreme weather events increase in frequency and severity, these life support boxes and the response teams will become even more vitally important, and I’d love the chance to help on the practical level as well as the inspirational level.

A final image from BB2B - Roz with rose from Frank

One chapter ends, another begins…. Hobbled out of BB2B and plunged straight into COP15.

Today, my first full day in Copenhagen, got off to a slightly late start. The Climate Express arrived in the Danish capital around 11pm last night, and we were directed straight up the green carpet to a welcoming party at a bar/restaurant within the station.  So what can you do when faced with free champagne and delicious-looking canapés but say “thank you very much” and partake freely? It would have been rude not to….

So it was a slightly tipsy Roz that first met Rikke Gaard, the lovely woman who has volunteered her family’s spare bedroom to a complete stranger through New Life Copenhagen. Generous householders like Rikke are accommodating thousands of visitors to COP15 – for which we are extremely grateful. It was about 1am by the time we got back to her home in the suburbs, near the airport, and I gratefully tottered off to my bedroom on the lower ground floor.

This morning I was able to get online for the first time in 36 hours, to face the resulting avalanche of emails. Buried in the morass was a message letting me know that the camera crew from the Will Steger Foundation would be ready to interview me at 10.30 this morning. I read their message at 10.25. Eeek! After firing off a quick email to let them know I would be horrendously late I got some quick directions from my hosts and headed off to the Metro stop.

Will Steger and friends

Arriving in central Copenhagen, I realized I really didn’t know where I was going. No iPhone Google Maps (due to extortionate data roaming charges) and no paper map in hand. After utterly failing to find a map shop, and getting contradictory directions from various people, I finally stumbled across a crowd of people and spotted my good friend Will Steger in their midst. Aha! And only one and a half hours late….

As it turned out, my timing was perfect. Any earlier would have been too early for them. So this is now my philosophy on COP15. There is SO much going on here, between the high level conference and the multitude of side events, that it would be impossible to come up with the perfect master plan – and I could drive myself insane even trying.

So I will go with the flow, and trust to gut feel, fate and serendipity to steer me in the “right” direction. In the midst of so much frenzied jockeying for position, these guides are as good as any.

Alison Gannett - never off duty when it comes to Saving Our Snow from the effects of climate change

And so far, the strategy is working well. After my video interview I joined UNEP for the opening of the Climate Maze and Hard Rain photo exhibition in Kongens Nytorv Square. The Mayor of Copenhagen and Achim Steiner gave rousing speeches, emphasizing the incredible importance of this historic summit. The photos, played to the accompaniment of Bob Dylan’s Hard Rain, moved me almost to tears. And I accidentally got into conversation with Achim Steiner – possibly one of the most influential, and certainly one of the most personable, people at the climate change conference.

Moving on from the freezing square into the relative warmth of the Radisson, I joined fellow BB2Been Alison Gannet for a final filmed interview with our BB2B filmmaker, Nora McDevitt, and caught up on a few emails by freeloading off the Radisson Hotel WiFii. And went for an early supper with Earth rights lawyer Polly Higgins – definitely one to watch at this conference.

But as I boarded the Metro to head home I realized I had only the haziest idea where “home” was. I had been in such a hurry in the morning that I hadn’t even noticed the name of the Metro stop where Rikke had dropped me. Eeek! This was one set of directions that gut feel wasn’t going to help me with. How embarrassing! Most people expect ocean rowers to be able to navigate their way out of anything, but there is a world of difference between navigating across an ocean and navigating an unfamiliar metro system. Eventually I had to admit defeat and with much wincing turned on the data roaming on my iPhone for the 3 minutes it took me to enter Rikke’s address and figure out the nearest metro stop. At £3 per MB I hope not to make a habit of this!

So it was with a sense of relief that I arrived at Rikke’s house tonight to be greeted by a very welcome mug of glogg (pronounced gluck, more or less) – the Danish version of mulled wine. It was a much-appreciated nightcap after a long day navigating the tricky terrains of a new city and a global summit.

Ideally I would stay up for another couple of hours to edit together a video of our BB2B walk for our sponsors Keen Footwear, but there is another busy day tomorrow and it’s already 11pm, so it may just have to wait. Sigh. It’s not easy saving the world!

Notes from today:

I have now downloaded two new apps for my iPhone that work offline, so don’t incur data charges: Metro Copenhagen and Copenhagen Offline Street Map. And also obtained a paper map of each. Phew! Now I feel more secure and less prone to navigational embarrassment!

Nice supper tonight, and probably not a bad price as Copenhagen goes – apparently recently deemed 3rd most expensive city in the world. I can recommend La Vecchia Gastronomia, Falkoner Alle 17, 2000 Frederiksberg. The mussels were especially good!

To buy Hard Rain on Amazon, here’s the link:

It’s early in a dark winter’s morning here in Grimbergen, and in a couple of hours we will set out to walk the final 10 miles into Brussels. Here are a few final details of how you can follow us online.

Roz in Belgium - entering the last few miles

Our friendly local techie, Baldwin Hopmans, has created a blog especially for the final day of BB2B. His email says: “From the moment I will join tomorrow I can make pictures and movies with a mobile phone. Then post them “live” on the picture blog (delay of 30 sec).” He aims to leave work at noon local time to come and join us, so look out for the pics and vids from about 1pm Central European Time (noon GMT, 7am EST or 4am PST).

Last night I uploaded a whole load of BB2B photos to Flickr. I haven’t had time to finish labelling them yet – that will have to wait until Copenhagen – but wanted to at least let you know they are there for your delectation.

I also created a slideshow of my favourite pictures, available now on YouTube. It’s a little rough and ready, but please make allowances for a hectic schedule on the road.

Must run – time to pack up and hit the road for the last time. This time tomorrow I will be boarding the UN’s Climate Express train from Brussels Midi station – but still a few more miles of human powered transport to go between now and then. See you in Brussels!

Laura, Jane and Roz - and lots of mud

We have just arrived in Grimbergen, which is much nicer than it sounds. And most importantly from our perspective is that it lies a mere 10 miles from Brussels. Tomorrow will be a relatively short stroll to our final destination. Funny how your perspective changes after getting used to 15-18 miles a day!

We are now sitting at our hotel hatching plans for our arrival. We have put the word out to anyone we know in Brussels, and our new best friend Frank has also notified the local media. He is here now – having handed out photocopied maps to show us exactly where we need to be and when, he and Alison are now engaged in a major debate on a whole spectrum of environmental issues, while Nora and Todd capture their animated discussion on camera.

While I am writing this blog to put out the word about tomorrow. We’d like to get as much coverage as we can. We’ve walked 250 miles to make a point about our desire for a sustainable future, and to urge global leaders to help enable this dream to come true. The more exposure we can get the better.

Tomorrow we will be walking (or hobbling, or limping!) into the small park at Schuman, proudly wearing our orange jackets and caps, and bearing our signed Earth Balls. We are hoping for a welcoming committee of journalists, TV crews, and people coming out to show their support for our cause.

If you happen to be in Belgium, or know anybody who lives here, please let them know about this happening and urge them to come along. The weather forecast is for dry conditions (phew!) and there will be 5 radiantly sunny (and relieved!) smiles to brighten up even the dullest afternoon.

So we hope to see a good bunch of people there. If we all pull together, we CAN save the world – one step/oarstroke at a time!

Other Stuff:

Please also check out Alison Gannett’s blog. She has loads of photos of our walk – plus an account of BB2B from her own unique perspective. To be honest, I haven’t had time to read it – would be interesting to find out how the view of an extreme skier differs from that of an ocean rower. I know she got a lot more excited about hills than I did!

Alison will be coming on to Copenhagen. We will be doing a joint presentation on the Climate Express on Saturday at 6pm, and have further plans to collaborate once we are at COP15.

Please also consider supporting her Kickstarter project. She is 94% of the way there, with 8 days to go!

Early morning departure from Antwerp

The end is nigh… of the walk, I mean, rather than the world. Although that end might also be nigh if our esteemed leaders don’t get their act together in Copenhagen and set us on the path towards a sustainable future.

But for now let’s focus on the end of the walk – it’s a bit easier on the psyche at this stage of a long day.

Tonight we arrived in Mechelen, Belgium (where we are staying at the Youth Hostel near the train station, UncaDoug) and since we arrived 2.5 hours ago I’ve been sorting out final arrangements for our arrival into Brussels on Friday, and plans for Copenhagen. It’s all shaping up very nicely – with a bit of help from our friends. I have countless reasons to be grateful to the members of the Rozling community. Here are a few examples:

Team BB2B in Antwerp

Baldwin Hopmans, without whom I would not be posting this blog. He loaned us a wonderful little gizmo that gives us high speed internet access for the duration of our stay in Belgium. Also thanks to him that we got some local TV coverage and this nice mention in the local press in Bergen Op Zoom. Not to mention the delicious home-cooked dinner! See also photo for a pic of coverage in an Antwerp newspaper today.

Frank Koelewijn, who I haven’t yet met but who has been spreading the word through Brussels about our imminent arrival – to media and others who hopefully might form a welcoming committee to greet our footsore but triumphant crew. He has also arranged a booking for us at a local restaurant for a celebratory dinner.

Yves Mathieu, presenter for The Climate Project, who heard me speak in Nashville in May and has put his Brussels house at our disposal for accommodation – as well as taking delivery of various parcels to await our arrival.

Plus various friends at the United Nations, UK Department of the Environment and Climate Change, Act on Climate Change, the British Council, and many others who are lining up interviews and presentations for Alison and me in Copenhagen. It looks like our long and winding road through Europe is going to be worth the effort – and I am very much looking forward to seeing what we can achieve.

As with my ocean rows, when the going gets tough (and yesterday was!) it makes it so much easier to keep going when you know that in the end it’s all going to be worthwhile.

Thoughts of a more reflective nature coming soon, I hope, but it’s now 10.20pm and my pillow beckons. Tot ziens!

Hotel Postiljon at dawn this morning

A final note:

Last night’s top tips for places to dine and drink in Antwerp:

Pelgrom: if you love a sense of history, you’d adore this restaurant – vaulted ceilings and candelabra make for a uniquely gothic ambience!

The Eleventh Commandment (Elfde Gebod) – retired here for a nightcap, and spent a happy half hour commenting on the various facial expressions of the religious figurines that adorn every sill, shelf and beam. Endless entertainment!

Thanks again to Baldwin for two great recommendations!

And last but not least, a really great and very clean little hotel, right in the centre of Antwerp, offering excellent value accommodation – the Hotel Postiljon. Also a very decent breakfast to set us up for a good day’s walking – it was so nice to get some fresh fruit, as we’re mostly pretty done with the standard continental breakfast of bread, ham and cheese!

Is 7pm really too early to go to bed?

That was the question uppermost in Team BB2B’s minds when we traipsed into Antwerp today after a long day’s walk. Unfortunately early bed was not an option. After walking about 28km (plenty long enough on Day 12, with packs on backs) we found our hotel in Antwerp, just off the gloriously beautiful central square. Hungry and thirsty, we headed into the square to find refreshment, and were met by a local journalist and a camera crew from the local TV station.

Alison producing the goods for the camera - how does she find the energy?!

Alison is very good at pulling some energy out of the hat when a camera is pointed at her. And I struggle on through too. Media attention is a powerful motivator – after all, it is one of the key objectives of this walk to raise awareness and inspire action, and if that requires obliging local media when body and spirit has other ideas, then so be it.

But it’s not always easy. Team BB2B is still soldiering on, but legs and feet are suffering.

So, let’s talk about walking. It’s how human beings got around for many millennia. Many, many human beings worldwide still do. Without technical walking boots or Nike trainers. Often carrying large loads. Over rough and often hostile terrain. So how come we namby-pamby 21st century Western walkers are finding the going so tough?

A number of theories:

a) We’re just not used to it. Although Jane habitually walks 10 miles a day with her dogs, Alison is an extremely fit extreme skier, and I’ve been known to do a bit of rowing, we’re just not used to walking these distances day after day, carrying loads.

b) Since we arrived in continental Europe we have been walking mostly on paved cycle paths and pavements. This has been noticeably tougher on the joints than walking on the footpaths and trails of Essex.

c) And, errr, I don’t know what else. Maybe we’re just not used to having to tolerate pain. In this era of doctors, dentists, and painkillers, there are so many ways to avoid or medicate pain. We’re not used to just putting up with it. When something hurts, we want it fixed. And fast. Even a hundred years ago this was not possible for most people – even for those who could afford the best medical treatment, aches, pains and illness were a fact of life.

But to be philosophical about it, it is actually part of our mission that this walk should not be easy. Our message to the Copenhagen delegates says that nothing great is ever easy. There ARE obstacles along the way, but when you have a goal that matters to you, you just buckle down and get on with it. Some things are just worth fighting for, no matter what the pain.

And so we plow on. Today I was thinking about Oliver Hicks, whose film Tenacity on the Tasman I went to see the night before I left London (which seems SO long ago now!). During his row across the northern Atlantic in 2005, and again during his attempt on the Southern Ocean this year, he had the letters KBO in front of his rowing position. Attributed to Winston Churchill, it stands for Keep Buggering On. And that is what we will do. No matter what, through thick and thin, wet and dry, urban and rural. Only 3 more days to go. We have come so far already. KBO.

Alison, Jane and Laura checking the map - and note Dutch sign in the background. Both photos thanks to Nora McDevitt.

Other Stuff:

Today we walked across the border into Belgium in pleasant winter sunshine – a welcome change from the rain and cloudy skies that we encountered almost throughout our time in Holland. Several hours were spent walking through pretty woodland and small towns before we entered the outskirts of Antwerp. The industrial outer areas were a bit grim, but the center of the city is absolutely gorgeous – old squares, towering church spires, cosy cafes and characterful bars. I would happily return here to explore further. Recommended!

Would love to write more, but it’s now 9.30pm, and way past my bedtime. I can hear the cathedral bells chiming me to bed. The twin room I’m sharing with Alison is on the 3rd floor, so with my decrepit limbs it may take me some time to get up there. Time I hit the hay!

Laura - and a lot of not very much

When I am on the ocean I dream a lot. On dry land, less so, but last night was an exception. Maybe the monotony of the landscape we have been traversing since we reached Holland has triggered the same dream response that the ocean does.

My dreams are usually not much more than a re-hash of the day’s sensory input, jumbled up into some surreal juxtapositions – but while there is less sensory input, either on the ocean or in flat, grey Dutch landscapes, it takes less time for my sleeping brain to sort and assimilate it, leaving more time and headspace for dreams of a more interesting nature.

Last night’s dream started out in amusing enough fashion. Loosely based on Pirates of the Caribbean (but unfortunately not featuring Johnny Depp – boo!) I was the captain of a ship, breaking some news to the crew. The bad news was that all our booty had been plundered by another crew of pirates. The good news was that our boat had been chartered to make the next film in the Pirates of the Caribbean saga so we were going to have enough money to keep going.

But then a particular phrase popped out, which has been reverberating around my head all day – particularly this morning as we trudged through exceptionally flat and featureless surroundings, heads down into the rain.

The phrase was: He Who Controls The Wind Controls All The Ships.

Now, this might mean nothing, but given my current near-obsession with Copenhagen, and the fact that the phrase did not evaporate with the morning light as most of my dreams do, I had to give it due consideration. It does seem particularly relevant to Copenhagen. My goal in going to the conference is a little nebulous. What do I have to offer that is not already being offered by 350.org, the Climate Project, the Climate Group, WWF, or the multitude of other NGOs and individuals descending on the Danish capital?

Sign spotted by Alison in Essex - You've made the difference!

Yet despite the smallness of my individual voice in all this hubbub, I have a powerful feeling that I do have a message that, provided I get the opportunity to deliver it, might just be the one straw on the back of the one camel that could make a difference. My message may possibly strike a chord with someone, or some people, and end up changing the chemistry of the debate. This might sound big-headed, but you just never know – and for my own satisfaction I needed to know, when I look back on 2009 and this crucial moment in human history, that I did all I could to make a difference for the good.

This phrase from my dream seems to sum up what I hope to achieve. The wind is invisible, yet incredibly powerful (and don’t we know it after walking into or across it for the last few days!). If the wind represents the invisible energy of the Copenhagen conference, and the ships represent the countries which currently are heading every which way – with some on collision course – then if the wind of change can become strong enough to get all the ships moving in the same direction, there may be hope for a satisfactory outcome.

But my next question is, what IS the wind? What is this invisible force that could make all the difference? Is it the attitude of the US? Is it the governments of China and India? Is it the NGOs? Is it public opinion? Or is it something more spiritual – the intangible energy created wherever large numbers of humans congregate, especially when united by a common focus?

I don’t know the answer, but I’d welcome comments and opinions. Given the lead-up to the conference, it might seem impossible that we will see any decisive action. But who knows – if we can generate a sufficiently powerful wind of change, we may yet achieve the miracle we need in order to create a sustainable future for humanity.

Team BB2B with new friends Philip and Melanie in Holland

As we have passed through the countryside of England and Holland it has been interesting to gauge the level of awareness amongst Joe Public. Would a mention of Copenhagen produce blank looks, or an immediate recognition?

Generally it seems that, as marketing professionals would say, the Copenhagen climate change conference enjoys good brand awareness. Most people know what we are talking about. A few examples:

The postman in Dedham not only knew all about Copenhagen, but was planning to do his bit by going to London for the climate change march on December 5th.

A couple of men working in woodland in Essex, thinning out the trees, referred to their wood as a “carbon sink”. It was interesting to find that carbon sinks are now almost as much a part of the English vocabulary as kitchen sinks.

A Dutch chiropractor who got talking with us outside the Spar supermarket in Nieuwe Tonge not only knew about Copenhagen but had his own ideas about what countries should be there and what they should say. He had some interesting things to say about American representation… before realizing that we had two Americans in our party who were listening to his every word.

By definition, the people who have stopped to engage with us have been more than averagely engaged and interested – their curiosity about us probably extends to their attitude to the world at large, so they probably read the serious newspapers and pay attention to what is going on in the world. But even so, it has been heartening to find the level of awareness of the issues, the vocabulary, and what needs to be done to address the problem.

But are people taking action? That is harder to gauge. This is a problem that I have pondered at length. My perception is that awareness and action are both on the rise, but I am also keenly aware that the people I encounter are a self-selecting sample of the more actively engaged. And I have not been in a position (yet) to gauge awareness and action in countries such as India, China and Brazil.

I am sure that much work still remains to be done. There is no time for complacency.

Other Stuff:

Thanks, all, for your lovely comments! I’ve had very intermittent email access (most blogs have been posted by my mother after very hasty turning on of data roaming for just long enough to send her an email via my iPhone – ridiculously expensive otherwise), but whenever I manage to pick up my emails I pass your messages on to the team – and we all appreciate them very much!

(This message originally posted as a comment, but now replicated here to make sure everybody sees it.)

Loads of photos now posted online at our Flickr account – PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR GALLERY!!!

Today was challenging – flat, featureless and windy. But thankfully the rain that poured down throughout the night gave us a break, and we walked in mostly dry conditions. Heads down, chins up, striding out! Now in Oude Tonge, staying at the Hotel Lely.

The Hotel in Goedereede

Holland is flat, flat and low. Most of the land we were walking on today is below sea level, the water kept at bay by dykes and ditches. But today the element most on our minds was not water, but wind. We had to jag southwestwards in order to end up somewhere with accommodation, which took us straight into a headwind across some of the flattest, most exposed terrain that Holland can offer.

This morning we trekked across grey, wintry landscapes, huge vistas of grey clouds sweeping across the skies above us, while we passed humble, unadorned houses and smallholdings of goats, sheep, horses and hens – and even a few deer and rabbits. The terrain was bleak, and we just had to be grateful that it wasn’t raining, as the wind would have hurled the raindrops painfully into our faces. Settlements were few, and lunch was eaten quickly as we hunkered down in the one sheltered spot for miles around, in the lee of a park café closed for the winter.

This afternoon we had to cross a bridge across a dam, a huge feat of hydraulic engineering that left me feeling faintly scared of the gargantuan machinery, and the bridge seemed to go on forever – well, half an hour at least.

After a final stretch alongside a canal lined by leafless poplars we arrived at Goedereede, by far the prettiest place we had been since leaving Breille this morning. Narrow streets lined with old houses led us to our accommodation for the night – the Hotel de Gouden Leeuw, which we recognized by the eponymous golden lion projecting from its front wall.

With relief we dived out of the wind and into its main hall, a double-height room with a minstrels’ gallery, beamed wooden ceiling, iron chandelier, black and white tiled floor, and wooden wainscoting topped by a shelf along which are arranged assorted antique bric-a-brac – paintings of local scenes, a model boat, old-fashioned hotirons, woodcarvings, and a few traditional Dutch tiles. A huge ceramic beer pump dominates the bar. Up the narrow tiled staircase my spartan but clean little room on the top floor has a glorious view across the red roofs of the old town, and I can hear the church clock chiming the quarter hours. I feel like I have walked straight out of the 21st century and into a Vermeer painting.

Other Stuff:

It’s not easy being green….

One of the challenges of this venture from Big Ben to Brussels has been how to reconcile priorities that occasionally conflict. This morning was a good example.

A few days ago the team was falling apart – physically, not figuratively, I mean. Between us we had a list of injuries including blisters, swollen knees, potential stress fractures of the foot, and a couple of dodgy Achilles tendons. As the instigator of this whole crazy enterprise I had to think hard about how best to keep the show on the road.

Last night we went to sleep in Harwich, Essex, England. This morning we woke up in the Hook of Holland. After 5 days of having to create every inch of progress through our own efforts, this made a nice change. It was also a relief to the more seasick-prone among us that the crossing of the North Sea took place overnight while we were all safely horizontal – which I have found to be by far the best position to adopt when feeling queasy. But by my standards, last night’s crossing was blessedly calm, the motion of the ferry barely perceptible compared with the extreme tippiness of my little rowboat.

The breakfast was better too. No full English available on the Brocade. We were woken this morning by a tannoy announcement letting us know that food was now being served. Team BB2B has found that we walk best on a good bellyful of breakfast, so we stoked up well on hot eggs, tomatoes, and toast.

We had cause to be glad of the calories. We emerged from the warmth of the ferry into a dark, wet Dutch morning. For the first 3 or 4 hours of our day we walked on an exposed pathway along the top of a dike, through driving rain and gale force winds. The landscape was bleak and industrial. After yesterday’s mellow sunshine and the pretty late autumn landscape of Essex’s Constable country, today seemed especially brutal.

The one bright spot of the morning came when two smiling people caught up with us and introduced themselves as Melanie and Philip. Melanie had been following my blog and they had decided to come and join us for our day’s walk – our first BB2B day guests. They had missed us at the ferry terminal, but had then spotted our orange jackets and caught up with us. Yet another good reason to be glad of our brightly colored waterproofs. They were well field-tested in the worst of conditions today, and came up trumps. Thanks yet again to Marmot!

Aside: 8 reasons why we love our orange Marmot jackets (Palisades model):

1. Resistant to rainwater by the bucketful
2. Sleeve pocket ideal for storing chocolate – not too hot, not too cold
3. Great hood design – hood stays up (even with ponytail) and keeps rain out
4. Top of zip doesn’t rub painfully
5. Snuggly fleece collar
6. Highly visible to day guests and to each other
7. Good for team spirit and cohesiveness – great that we all match
8. Color symbolic of change – what we need to do in Copenhagen if humans are to survive

Although my jacket kept me nice and dry, I hadn’t put enough clothes on before leaving the ferry and started to feel cold. But I was reluctant to take my waterproof off in order to add more layers underneath. Even a couple of minutes of exposure to the elements would have soaked me to the skin. So I plodded on.

I was losing touch with my toes when at last we found the ferry that would take us on the short ride across an inlet from the sea – and to the refuge of a café on the other side. After putting on ALL the clothes from my rucksack, and gulping down a hot chocolate, with a large slice of apple pie on the side, I started to feel better. A bowl of mushroom soup completed my restoration to health and happiness.

We had to do a few more miles through the industrial landscape before at last our path turned towards Brielle, away from the road and into the countryside. The skies cleared and the sun came out, and my perception of Holland started to become more favourable.

After passing many modern wind turbines, we spotted a proper traditional wooden windmill as we took the final turn in the path that would lead us to Brielle. It turned out to be a gorgeous little town, with quaint old Dutch-gabled houses, restaurants and shops lining a canalful of boats. We are now sitting in the hotel bar with Melanie and Philip, drinking tea and munching on biscuits and chocolate. Chocophile Indian Ocean rower Sarah Outen texted me today to insist that we eat “copious amounts of Belgian chocolate” in her honor – so we are gladly obeying orders. The things I have to do for my friends…!

P.S. I have a load of really lovely photos that I want to use to illustrate this post. However… having spent 10 Euros for internet access, this is what happened:

a) I cannot log on from my MacBook – spent 1:30 hrs trying

b) I am now using the hotel PC, which allowed me to copy using the right mouse button, but did not allow paste using the same – 20 mins

c) Now refuses to recognize the photos on my USB drive, even though it was perfectly happy to recognize the text file of the blog – spent 40 mins trying

d) Now about to run out of minutes on my internet access. Now 10pm, and today started at 5am UK time. Have totally lost the will to live.

e) iPhone blogging (used several times in last few days to email blog and photos to Mum for her to post online) is far too expensive from here.

f) Have not been able to access emails. Probably have 100 unread by now – in addition to the existing backlog of 88.

g) So am going to bed in despair. Will try tomorrow to post the photos. Really sorry.

h) Sigh….

High spirits on the walk today-Laura in ebullient mood in the sunshine.

Sailing tonight from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, so abbreviated blog.

Just a swift update: Lovely day’s walking from picturesque Dedham to Harwich after fab breakfast at the Sun Inn. Have decided that humungous breakfast + sunshine = happy walkers.

Fun evening at The Ha’penny Pier bistro in Harwich. Long term blog reader Karen came to join us for dinner. Will be forever grateful to her for her incomparable text messages during Atlantic crossing in 2005. E.g., during especially low moment, “Chin up, tits out!”

Now on board ferry. Comfy bunks, en suite bathroom, all mod cons. Bit more luxurious than my rowboat!

Girls well supplied with ginger, hoping to avoid seasickness. Tomorrow we awake in Holland.

One country down, two to go!

Treading lightly on the earth/mud

It’s not easy to tread lightly upon the earth when you have 10lb of mud on each boot, but we try….

If yesterday was the hump day, maybe today was the clump day. The forecast was for sunshine and rain – but we got very little of either. It was a day of grey skies and grey fields. Thank heavens for our bright orange jackets and baseball caps to brighten up the day. I had the feeling that orange – as well as being symbolic of change – would be just the ray of sunshine we needed to boost our spirits on a drab winter’s day. And as I increasingly find as I tune into my intuition, it has turned out to be a great success.

The only dodgy orange moment was when we entered a field past a sign saying “Beware of the bull”. Laura asked the key question: “So what are we supposed to do about it?” To which I replied, “Not wave any red hankies in its direction?” “And what about bright orange jackets?” came the rather too pertinent response.

Shorthorn bull

Luckily the bulls, although large and funny-faced, were mostly benign. After a few faintly hostile glares they ambled off out of our way.

Today the challenges were less bovine, more medical. Jane has some new boots – alas, not Keens, our sponsor’s footwear not being available in Colchester at short notice – and by swapping between her new boots and Laura’s old boots was able to adjust the pressure points on her feet at regular intervals. Alison’s knee is like a melon, but she soldiers on stoically. We are considering how to make it through the rest of our journey without anyone suffering permanent injury, and have lined up a few environmentally friendly contingency plans.

Ouch! Jane's heel

It is fascinating to think that 200 years ago – even 100 years ago – walking was THE way to travel. Our 20th/21st century bodies are just not used to walking long mileages day after day. What softies we’ve become! Yet, no matter the aches and pains, it still feels pleasantly natural and, well, HUMAN to move at walking pace. When we cross over a motorway or major road, the traffic seems to whizz by at an indecently fast pace, the smell of exhaust fumes unpleasant, and the roar of internal combustion engines displeasing to our ears. By contrast walking, for all its limitations, seems to connect us to our human heritage. We have time to notice trees and wonder at their species, we surprise rabbits by approaching unheard, we send pheasants flapping hectically out of hedgerows as we pass. We see people working in their gardens and have time to say “Good morning” and comment on the weather.

It feels good.

Tomorrow night we take the ferry. Not as environmentally low impact as we’d hoped to be, but we didn’t manage to find a sailboat to take us across – and given the weather conditions the ferry is

probably a more reliable bet than sail. Out of interest, here are the CO2 comparisons:

Options for the outwards journey:

Flying from London to Brussels produces approximately 400 kg of CO2 per person.
Train (Eurostar) produces about 20 kg of CO2.
Our choice: Walking (with ferry across the North Sea to Holland) produces only 12 kg.

And for the return journey:

Flying from Copenhagen to London produces over 360 kg of CO2.
Our choice: A train ride from Copenhagen to London produces approximately 55 kg of CO2 per passenger.

To put this in perspective:

‣ The UK’s total carbon footprint is over 500 million tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of over 420 million flights from New York to Los Angeles. Individuals account for 45% of this.
‣ The average carbon footprint per person in the UK is 10 tonnes. The average Indian is less than 2 tonnes and the average American or Saudi is closer to 20 tonnes.

And Alison is sitting here in the Sun Inn, Dedham (home town of the painter Constable) reminding me that if we want to save our snow – and the planet – we ALL need to get down to 2 tonnes. Wow.

Other Stuff:

Lovely mention by Act on Copenhagen, a subdivision of the UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change – click here to see it.

Please support my friend David Kroodsma, veteran of the Climate Ride (bicycle ride from New York to DC), tech guy for 350.org, long distance cyclist (San Francisco to Tierra del Fuego) and all-round good guy. He is hoping to be selectedby the Huffington Post as their Hopenhagen Ambassador to report back from Copenhagen. I personally would love to see him there, and believe he would make a great correspondent. Please watch his video and vote for him here!

[All photos today: credit to Alison Gannett and her trusty iPhone!]

The World's Most Confusing Signpost

We had wondered in advance which would be our “hump day”, as the Americans call it. This might possibly have rather different connotations in the UK, but in the context of an all-female hiking group it means the toughest day, when the aches and pains have kicked in but the new fitness levels haven’t.

I’m rather hoping that today was the hump day, because if we get much more decrepit than this we might be in trouble. We were not helped today by some very muddy sections, that in mere minutes added pounds of clodded earth to our boots and further slowed our weary legs.
Jane’s feet were causing her some problems, even though her boots are very well worn in, so she decided to start a new trend – hiking loafers. Her evening shoes provided a welcome break for her feet. They did the trick surprisingly well, at least until we were able to stop at a garden centre for our lunch break and she bought some very fetching pink wellies. Of course, what she REALLY needs is some Keen boots, but we tried phoning around nearby outdoor shops, to no avail, alas.
Dodgy knees are an occupational hazard of the extreme skier, and Alison’s have undergone 8 surgeries in their lifetime. She calls them her Frankenstein knees. Today she was finding it more comfortable to jog gently rather than walk, as jogging brought into play her well-developed skier’s thighs and took the pressure off her calves.

I’m feeling a little bit of general tiredness in my ankles and hips, but otherwise not too bad. And Laura is still fit as a fiddle.

We’re all generally holding it together, and spirits are good as ever, but we are lining up a few contingency plans just in case – possibly renting a couple of bicycles for a few days when we get to Holland. We just hope that our navigator, Jane, stays the course. She might get a lot of abuse during the final “Jane miles” of the day, but we’d be lost – literally! – without her.

Tonight we are staying in Marks Tey, at the home of Laura’s brother. Luckily he wasn’t here to see 4 bedraggled, mud-coated women traipse up his driveway just before dusk.

As I sit here typing this, Jane has gone into Colchester to seek better footwear. Alison is hobbling around getting organized. Laura, as the most able-bodied member of the team and at least a near relative of the homeowner, is on cooking duties. And Mary is on her way back to her studies at the University of Essex. We are hoping her absence is only temporarily, as we’re trying to press-gang her into coming over to Holland to help us out with logistics. She has proved herself so indispensable that we will drug and abduct her if need be.

It is quite amazing how the team has already gelled. For a very random assortment of distant acquaintances, we are getting along famously. Even our various decrepitudes have not caused tempers to fray. What a team – BB2B, or not 2B…. boom, boom!

Team BB2B: Laura, Jane and Roz

Today we finally got into the groove. Days 1 and 2 were a bit stoppy-starty, but today we had no time for delay. 18 miles planned, so after stoking ourselves up with a magnificent full English breakfast at Ivy Cottage (Greensted Green) we departed promptly at 8.15am.

Last night I had woken several times to the sound of torrential rain, so had been suitably apprehensive about what kind of day would greet us, but we set out under clear blue rainwashed skies, and the first few hours of walking were a sheer joy.

The film crew also got into their groove today – largely thanks to Mary, an American student at the University of Essex and an unofficial addition to our core team. She had had to drop out of walking after Day 1 due to an old sporting injury. But for the rest of us this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Last night she carefully plotted out our route, and figured out places where our film crew car could intercept our walk. Repeatedly today we would round a corner to be greeted by the sight of a bright orange Marmot jacket on the far side of a field, camera pointed in our direction. We were able to forge on without frequent phone calls between the two halves of our team trying to arrange rendezvous points.

[Note: the carbon emissions of the camera car are being offset by Carbon Foresight, as are our ferry journeys across the North Sea to the Hook of Holland.]

Roz clambering over a stile - in style. Note the Keen boots - stood up well to the ultimate wet test today!

But the mellow late autumn weather of the morning did not last. Gradually the clouds gathered and by lunchtime we had our heads down and hoods up, battling through torrential rain and hail, our boots growing heavy with accumulated mud. I started counting paces, just as I count strokes on the ocean when the going gets tough. The difference this time was having the rest of a team around me. When the going gets tough, it’s great to have partners in grime!

Luckily we had a welcome refuge to look forward to. Some good friends live in a house rejoicing in the name of Fridays, which lay directly on our route if we took a shortcut by diverging from the Essex Way. At 1pm, just as the rain stopped, we reached the home of the Cherrys. We were able to dry ourselves out in front of their Aga stove, and gorge ourselves on hot coffee and chocolate cake. After a blissful 30 minutes in their kitchen we hit the road again feeling restored, dry, and happy, leaving little evidence of our visit but a pile of cake crumbs and a few dollops of mud.

More good news – Jane our navigator discovered that 1 mile of the route repeated itself on the other side of the map, so what had looked like 5 miles turned out to be closer to 4. Happy days! So after a shorter than expected time we entered Chatham Green and saw a sign saying “Windmill Inn 100 yds”.

Checking the map: is that a statute mile, a nautical mile, a country mile, or a Jane mile?!

So we all had to eat our words. The last couple of days we had been getting tired and looking forward to reaching our destination, and had been reassured by our esteemed navigator that we had just one more mile to go. 20 minutes later, it would appear that we STILL had one more mile to go. And et cetera. So we had started to joke that there are statute miles, nautical miles, country miles, and Jane miles.

But today we were set up to expect 18 miles, and the final tally after the Fridays shortcut and the overlap mile between one side of the map and the other was a mere (!) 16 miles, or 31,648 steps.

Just goes to show, when you aim really high, to achieve even a little less is a major achievement.

Other Stuff:

We passed through another verb-ish sounding town today: Chipping Ongar. We thought of several possible meanings for Chipping:

a)    to feel chipper, cheerful
b)    to chip away at a long journey, one step or one mile at a time
c)    to eat lots of chips to restore carbohydrates after a long day’s walking
d)    to walk briskly in an attempt to keep up with the turbo-charged Jane.

Chipping along the Essex Way - Go Team BB2B!

So we have now Wapped, Epped and Chipped our way through East London and Essex. Oh, and walked a bit too. About 45 miles down, 205ish to go. But when you’re having as much fun as we are, who’s counting?!

Nora, our American filmmaker, left us this evening after dinner. She has to go back to the US for a few days to work on another project, but plans to return by Dec 1 at the latest. She recorded our dinnertime conversation tonight as we discussed sustainability, energy security, environmental messaging, politics, business, and financial strategies for a greener – and more prosperous – future. And the great thing was that the conversation was not at all contrived. These are just the things we care about and talk about in a genuine exchange of ideas and a search for solutions.

Team BB2B is putting the world to rights, one idea and one mile at a time!

Alison - Epping

Much of today has been spent walking through lovely woods of oak and beech as we headed out of London through Epping Forest. According to our navigator Jane, King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth 1 used to hunt in this ancient forest.  Once beyond Epping we got into rolling agricultural land, criss-crossed by streams and ditches and tiny villages and masses of farms.

We were lucky with the weather. Parts of the Lake District in the north of England are suffering floods after record-breaking rainfalls that one Labour MP described as “Biblical”. The Met Office gauging station at Seathwaite recorded 314.4mm (12.3 inches) in 24 hours, compared to the previous record of 279mm (11 inches) which fell in Martinstown, Dorset in 1955.

We, on the other hand, spent most of the day in lovely mellow autumn sunshine, bringing out the gorgeous golds and oranges of the leaves still clinging to the beech boughs. Only later on did we get a few drops of rain, which coincided with the muddiest stretch of our walk as we squelched along footpaths in the aforementioned “rolling agricultural land”. But, as Winston Churchill said, “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” The same applies to mud. No way to go but onwards.

As we walked I chatted with Alison, the extreme skier who regularly hurls herself off the top of cliffs. She euphemistically describes them as “shower curtain slopes” – which gives you some idea how steep they are. We compared notes on our respective activities – and how we both find that the time we spend in our wildernesses help us to reconnect with what is important. We’ve both had people to say to us that they don’t know how we can be happy spending time alone, so far from “civilization”. I find this interesting.

Much as I love being around people, I really do love spending time alone. I get a bit stressed if I go too long without my me-time. 100 days of solitude at a stretch is almost too much of a good thing, but it’s a great time to step off the world, reflect, get to know myself, and remind ourselves what really matters. So many trivialities fall away when you’re in an extreme environment. The basic human needs of food, water, and rest become all-important – and you realize how little else is.

And you don’t even have to go to the top of a sheer cliff or the middle of the ocean to do it. Just walking through the wilds of Essex (which, to compare it to the US, is probably our equivalent of New Jersey, i.e. not very wild at all) is enough to feel like we’re getting away from it all, that all the clutter of email and internet and everyday life is receding into the distance. It’s not exactly Chris McCandless territory (Into The Wild), but I’m still getting a lovely feeling of reconnecting with nature, regrounding myself on the Earth.

This is a very special time, and I feel very lucky to be here with my fantastic BB2B teammates. Thanks, girls!

Other Stuff:

We seem to be walking through a lot of places that sound like verbs. Wapping yesterday. Epping today. We’re working on definitions.

Today we decided, while eating lunch in a lovely tearoom in Epping – which opened only a week ago, just in time for us – that Epping is what an American does when they steal the spoon out of the sugar bowl to stir their tea, resulting in a sticky spoon with sugar coating. See photo.

Definition for Wapping still open to debate. Any offers?!

I was using my solar-powered pedometer today  (Savage branded ones available on my store, in BB2B orange – only $5.59!). For most of the day I kept it clipped to my pocket, but then got worried it was too vulnerable there to being knocked off and lost. So I clipped it onto my sports bra, safe in my cleavage. Unfortunately I forgot it was solar-powered, and it’s probably rather dark in there. So now I want to tell you my final step count and I can’t. Aha!!! As I speak, the artificial light in the kitchen of our B&B has just resuscitated it. Final count = 29,742. About 15 miles. Not bad going!

Nothing like watching the end of the world on a Saturday night...

Last night, after too much talking at the Royal Geographical Society, I decided to give my vocal chords a rest and go see a movie. I was intrigued by 2012, and decided that there would be nothing I would rather do on a Saturday night than treat myself to a Premier seat at the Odeon Tottenham Court Road and watch the end of the world as we know it.

I’d read a couple of reviews that said the special effects in the movie 2012 were amazing – and they were absolutely right. I am not easily impressed by special effects. Too often they overwhelm the story, or are just plain silly – or plain dreadful. But these were seriously impressive. Unavoidably emotional seeing America crumble before your very eyes, so very realistically.

And the human side of the story was good – the characters were engaging and sympathetic, and not overwhelmed by the special effects as so often happens.

But my acid test for a film is: Was this a good use of 3 hours of my life? Did I come out feeling inspired (Schindler’s List) or enlightened (Slumdog Millionaire) or exceptionally well entertained (Pirates of the Caribbean)?

And in this case I’m not convinced.

Back in 2004, just before I decided to row the Atlantic, I had gone to a cottage in Sligo to read all kinds of books – several of which were about indigenous prophecies about an end of an era in 2012, or pole shifts, or other such doomsday scenarios. Some of them suggested that such a disaster could be averted by a raising of collective human consciousness.

So I suppose I had hoped that there might be some semi-serious take-home message about this – or at the very least that the humans in the film might show some kind of awareness of the need for a better way of doing things in the future.– but I didn’t see any hint of self-reproach about the mess we’d made of things in our last incarnation, or resolution to do things differently the next time around. I got the feeling that, give or take a couple of romances either new or rekindled, life in the new world would go on pretty much the same way as in the old.

The disaster in the film is not of man’s making – it is due to solar flares leading to increased movement of the earth’s continental plates leading to earthquakes, tsunamis and a pole shift – so maybe the makers felt that any self-reflection on the part of the humans was unnecessary.

I’m not into hellfire and brimstone, or repent for the end of the world is nigh. But maybe I do at heart like a bit of a morality tale, and would quite have appreciated just a teensy weensy bit of food for thought about how we might resolve to do a better job the next time we establish a civilization.

For myself back in 2004, I decided that the end of the world may not be nigh, but for sure one of these days my own personal world would be. I realized I didn’t have forever to make my dreams come true, and I wasn’t getting any younger, so if I was ever going to have a big adventure it was about time I got on and did it.

Within 6 months I had decided to row the Atlantic. And maybe, just maybe, at the back of my mind was the thought that if there ever was a catastrophic pole shift, about the safest place to be would be in a self-righting ocean rowboat…

P.S. Excellent review written by a proper film critic here!

Michael Palin (photogenic) and me (not photogenic) at the RGS today

I had a big day at the Royal Geographical Society today, speaking as part of their Explore seminar weekend, on “Journey with a Purpose”. The last time I attended Explore was in 2002, shortly after I launched myself into a life of adventure, when ocean rowing was not even a glint in my eye and I was getting ready for an archaeological expedition to Peru. I was the “sponsorship organizer” for the expedition, i.e. the muggins on the team who didn’t know just what a tough call sponsorship is!

Explore was an amazing induction into the life of adventure –an intense series of talks from all kinds of luminaries of the world of exploration, sharing the benefit of their accumulated wisdom. I can still remember some of the presentations now – and my memory isn’t usually that good, so they must have made an impact.

And now, 7 years on, I was there again. All those years ago I would never have dreamed that I would one day be hearing Shane Winser, the esteemed and universally respected doyenne of the Expedition Advisory Centre, describing me as “one of the foremost female explorers” or some such thing – incredibly high praise, coming from someone who has seen more than her fair share of adventurers. In fact, I wasn’t sure how I’d live up to the generosity of her introduction.

But it all seemed to go pretty well. I only had a few minutes, which happily restricted the amount of nonsense I could talk. My theme was how to use an expedition to serve a greater purpose – as an advocate for a cause. I was extremely happy when Shane asked me to speak on this subject, as this year has seen a big evolution in me finding my voice as an environmental advocate, and condensing that learning experience into a 10-minute talk in an attempt to share with others such things as I may have learned was a very good process for me.

And I must have made some sense, because many of the members of the audience came up to me afterwards to say that my words had resonated with them. Different people picked up on different things that I had said, so even if not every person found everything useful, at least most people found something useful.

So that was very cool. Also extremely cool was getting to meet Michael Palin, the new President of the RGS. He gave his talk just after me, and I bagged him outside the coffee room to thank him for the wonderful audiobooks that kept me entertained for so many hours at the oars this summer. My favorite Palin books:

1. Around the World in 80 Days

2. Full Circle

3. Himalaya

4. Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure

5. Sahara

He was most gracious, and agreed to be photographed with me. He also asked if I would like to lecture at the RGS. Yes please – was my most emphatic reply! So maybe one day….I also confided in him that one day I want his job – to be paid by the BBC to go travel the world and write books about it. Would be amazing if that dream came true.

In case I got too carried away with my big dreams, tonight I decided to put things in perspective by going to the movies for a dose of disaster – 2012, which was released yesterday. But I’m tired now, and back to the RGS early in the morning for some lectures on expedition technology. Although I reckon I know a thing or two about it, there’s always more to learn. So review for 2012 coming tomorrow.

P.S. An afterthought – I was only able to stick around for a few of the other lectures today, as I’m in the thick of organizing our Big Ben to Brussels walk, but of the other ones I heard, all seemed to include some element of advocacy or research – often relating to environmental issues such as extinction of species or climate change. So now that “adventure” is what so many travel companies are selling – and it still baffles me how you can sell a prepackaged and prescheduled “adventure” – maybe the people that we would once have called adventurers are now classified as expeditioners to differentiate them from the tourist-adventurers. And explorers? Do we have anything left that can feasibly be explored? Or are explorers now also an extinct species – or at least on the endangered list?

Time to clean up our act (Photo by Natalie Behring for Bloomberg)

Let’s forget about climate change.

WHAT??! I hear you gasp. But that’s all she’s been able to talk about ever since she got back from Kiribati. Is she having a crisis of faith?

No, I’m not. Nor am I caving in under pressure from negative comments on this blog. If 100+ days on the ocean couldn’t break my spirit, then a few naysayers don’t bother me.

All I’m saying is that from now on, my stance is going to be officially pro-sustainability rather than anti-climate change. You might think this is just playing on words, but there are two important points to be made here.

1. Focus on the positive

Regular readers might remember the mini-epiphany I had during the last stage of my row – that we need to focus on the solution rather than the problem. Click here to refresh your memory.

To quote Mother Teresa: “I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.” I am going to take a leaf out of that wise woman’s book, and suggest that we focus on what we DO want rather than what we DON’T want.

2. Pulling Together

For certain people, “climate change” has become an emotionally charged phrase. Reading certain comments posted on this site, and possibly the comments of Lord Monckton, it seems they perceive a global conspiracy to overthrow capitalism and democracy. They think that climate campaigners are scamming the public to line their own pockets (I can’t speak for every campaigner, but I can assure you that my pockets are most decidedly empty – and you can ask my unimpeachable mother if you doubt me). They see environmental campaigning being used as a vehicle for self-promotion and aggrandisement.

There is little to be gained by engaging in a tit-for-tat exchange of defense and counter-attack. The personal comments are just a distraction from striving towards a solution. So we’ll move swiftly on.

Both believers and deniers point at the statistics to back up their arguments. Well, we all know there are lies, damned lies, and statistics, and it is generally possible to find evidence to support any preconceived point of view. We are bombarded with so much information that it can be bewildering to try and make sense of it all, so our natural tendency is to apply filters and see only what we want to see.

Even some of my best friends are climate change deniers – and yes, I do still speak to them. They have done their research, considered the facts, and arrived at a different conclusion. I respect that. They are at least engaged, informed, and conscious. Provided that they respect me and my beliefs, then I will extend them the same courtesy.

Too much time and energy has been expended, by both sides, on attacking each other’s facts and each other’s champions. Instead of uniting mankind against a common enemy, “climate change” has instead become a divisive issue just at the time when we are most in need of unity.

So let’s forget it. Hopefully I can show that ultimately it doesn’t matter whether we believe in climate change or not – that we still actually want the same things.

Let’s instead focus on these questions:

1.    Do we agree that we live on a finite earth, and are unlikely to colonise any other planets in the near future?
2.    The first oil was drilled in 1859, just 150 years ago. We have now used around half of it. In 1996 the oil industry estimated we had only 45 years left – at 1996 rates of consumption. But consumption is escalating. Even if you think these figures are pessimistic, do we agree that oil reserves must at some point run out, given that they are a non-renewable resource?
3.    Does anybody enjoy inhaling exhaust fumes? Have you read about the appalling air quality in some Chinese cities – largely due to coal-fired power plants? Would you want to live there? If you live in LA, are you happy about the fact that 25% of your air pollution comes from China?
4.    Would you prefer that your country (whatever country that may be) is engaged in sustainable industries based on renewable energy sources? Or would you prefer that investment continues to flow into industries that depend on energy and fuel sources that must one day run out?
5.    Would you prefer that your country (again, whatever country that may be) is at the leading edge of innovation, a global leader? Or would you prefer to see your economy overtaken by other nations that preferred to invest in industries that will be sustainable, not just in the long term, but in the forever term (or at least as long as the sun continues to shine)?

So let’s raise the tone of the debate. Too often at the moment we look like schoolchildren squabbling over a toy – our most precious toy, the Earth. And the danger is that as we pull in opposite directions in our global tug of war, the Earth will end up broken – or at least unable to sustain human life. That is the worst case scenario – or maybe, from the Earth’s point of view, the best.

A new version of our logo - but one final refinement still to come...

This evening Jane emailed through an outline plan for Belgium, so for anyone who would like to join us for the whole walk, or for the European side of the journey, here we go – the combined UK and Belgium routes. Both countries well known for their beer! Well, we have to replenish our carbs somehow…

Day 1 Friday 20th November 2009
About 14 miles (5 from Big Ben to Limehouse Basin, 2.5 to the Foot Tunnel, 5 to Eltham, 2 to Sunridge Park)
10.00 am Big Ben London – meet with the media
10.30 start walk – head East along the Thames Path on the Northern side of the river
12.30 Limehouse Basin
1.15 Northern entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel
1.30 Southern entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel then walk south through Greenwich Park, Blackheath, cross the A2 and turn to the east along Shooters Hill until turning south into Kidbrooke Grove.  Take first east into Westbrook Road and continue until the T junction with Rochester Way.  Turn south down Rochester Way and continue along, over the A2 until Bridbook Road.  Turn down Bridbrook Road (south/south/west) and continue under the A2 and into Eltham Green Road (south).  Continue southward until the A210, Eltham Road, cross the road, and cross Westhorne Avenue, turn eastward to the major roundabout and pick up Middle Park Avenue.  Continue down Middle Park Avenue until the junction with Eltham Palace Road, turn east, continue until Eltham Palace and the grounds are in front of you and pick up St John’s Walk.
3.00 Pick up St John’s Walk at Eltham Palace and follow to Mottingham, picking up the Green Chain Walk.
At Elmstead Wood leave the Green Chain Walk and walk through to Sunridge Park and the Sunridge Park Hotel

Day 1 Accommodation: Sunridge Park Hotel

Day 2 Saturday 21st November
Approximately 16 miles (10 to Eynsford and then 6 to South Street)
8.30 start from Sunridge Park Hotel – walk north/east to pick up the Green Chain Walk at the edge of Elmstead Wood.  Walk through Chislehurst west to Chislehurst Common.
9.15 Chisltehurst Common then through the edge of Park Wood and into St Paul’s Cray.  Cross the River Cray at Brooks Way, and pick up the footpath that joins to Chapmans Lane between Cray Valley Golf Club and Pauls Cray Hill Park which links to Hockenden.
From Hockenden take the eastern bridlepath and then footpath across the fields along the side of Bourne Wood crossing the railway by the footbridge and continuing until picking up the back road into Crockenhill
11.30 Centre of Crockenhill, follow the Church Road southwards and then turn east down Harvest Way and pick up the footpath at the end of the road and continue until the M25, turn south east and follow the footpath along until the subway under the motorway, continue along the path the other side, connecting up to a track that takes you through Hulberry Farm and then pick up the Darent Valley Path, traverse the railway line and into Eynesford.
12.30 Eynsford Pub: The Malt Shovel Inn
1.00 From Eynsford to in a northerly direction along the A225 until a small turning to the right signposted Prior Lane, take that and pick up the bridleway across the fields, pick up Donkey Lane, cross the A20 and continue on the footpath to Gabrielspring Wood.  Turn left towards the M20 and follow the path to the footbridge across the motorway.  Once over the motorway take the path straight ahead to the wood, entering the wood and then turning right after a short distance.  This track follows down to Speedgate Farm and the road.  Turn right at the road, continue straight across at the cross roads with Oak Racing Kennels to your left, picking up a path at the edge of the kennels to the left.  Follow that to the embankment of the M20 and in front there should be a junction with one road going under the motorway and another going away in front of you, Brands Hatch Road.  Follow the road along, taking the left hand branch and crossing straight over at the cross roads towards Ash.  At the T juncion to New Ash Green take the footpath straight ahead, joining a road again as you go past Ash Place Farm to pick up a bridleway to White Ash Wood.  Half way through the wood take the right hand path going east, cross the road picking up the path on the opposite side which takes you south eastward past another wood, picking up a track and into Ridley.  In Ridley turn left on the road and then right at the junction along Bunkers Hill towards South Street.  Continue along this road for about half a mile going straight across at the cross roads until you come into South Street.

Day 2 Accommodation: Beechfield B&B, South Street

Day 3 Sunday 22nd November
Approximately 14.5 miles (About 5.5 to Medway Bridge, then 9 miles to Thurnham)
9.00am start from South Street.  Follow Heron Hill eastward until just after the end of the village where there is a confusion of footpaths and bridlepaths.  Where the land bends to the left take the footpath to the south, then after a very short distance there should be a branch that goes south easterly over a field towards Harvel.  Take this and go into Harvel Village, turn left at the road then right at the cross roads and continue out of the village, past a road to the left and shortly after this there should be a track/footpath to the left which goes to Little Delmar Farm.  Take this track and at Little Delmar Farm you pick up the Wealdway.  Cross the road and continue southward on the Wealdway, through Lie Wood, Luson Wood and to Lockyers Hill where you pick up the road.  At the triangle road junction take the footpath to the east, and continue eastward through a wood, at this junction you should meet up with the North Downs Way which is coming up from the south.
About 2.00pm passing through Kits Coty and briefly resting at Kits Coty Brassier on the Old Chatham Road.

Day 3 Accommodation: Black Horse Inn, Pilgrims Way, Thurnham

Day 4 Monday 23rd November
About 18 miles
8.30am start from the Black Horse, going North to pick up the North Downs Way again.
North Downs Way via Hollingbourne, Harrietsham, Charing (possibly stopping here for a brief rest), Dunn Street, Boughton Lees to Wye.

Day 4 Accommodation: Wye (Wife Of Bath Inn or Kings Head)

Day 5 Tuesday 24th November
Longest day: just over 20 miles
8.30am start, prompt!!  Wye to Etchinghill, past the Channel Tunnel Terminal, Folkestone, Capel-le Ferne and into Dover.

Day 5 Accommodation: Dover with ferry crossing to Calais on the morning of Day 6 (Wednesday 25th November)

BELGIUM

Day 6 (Wednesday 25th) (@10 miles)
Ferry from Dover to Calais.  Foot passengers book in 45 minutes ahead of crossing, P&O crossing takes 90 minutes.  9.15am sailing arrives 11.45 (cost on 5th Nov: £14.00 per adult)
12.00 start walking: Calais to Marck
Accommodation: Le manoir du meldick
2528, Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 62730 Marck, Pas-de-Calais, France  03 21 85 74 34‎

Day 7 (Thursday 26th) (@20 miles)
Marck to Dunkerque

Day 8 (Friday 27th) (@20 miles)
Dunkerque to Neuiwpoort

Day 9 (Saturday 28th) (@ 18 miles)
Neuiwpoort to Diksmuide

Day 10 (Sunday 29th) (about 18 miles)
Diksmuide to Ruddervoorde
Accommodation: Domein Leegendael   domeinleegendael.be
Kortrijksestraat 498
8020 Ruddervoorde, Oostkamp, Belgium  050 67 96

Day 11 (Monday 30th) (about 18 miles)
Ruddervoorde to Lotenhulle
Accommodation: Lomolen B&B   lomolenlogies.be
Lomolenstraat 112
9880 Lotenhulle, Aalter, Belgium  09 371 95 15

Day 12 (Tuesday 1st December) (about 20 miles)
Lotenhulle to Ghent

Day 13 (Wednesday 2nd) (about 18 miles)
Ghent to Appels
Accommodation: ets Jerry Pierre‎
Hoofdstraat 53
9200 Dendermonde, Belgium  052 21 14 07

Day 14 (Thursday 3rd) (about 18 miles)
Appels to Mollem
Accommodation: B&B Kezenestje    kezenestje.be
Kezeweide 33
1730 Mollem, Asse, Belgium  02 452 76 59

Peeters / B.
Voorstehoeve 42
1730 Mollem, Belgium  02 452 63 61

Day 15 (Friday 4th) (about 12 miles)
Mollem to Brussels

Our draft logo for BB2B, although likely to end up with two feet on the Earth. Two feet definitely better than one!

Hot off the press – this is our planned route for the first few days from Big Ben to Brussels. We would love it if you want to come and join us for part of our walk. Details of the second leg from Dunkerque to Brussels coming soon, when our wonderfully efficient route-planner Jane manages to get hold of some better maps for Belgium.

Note from Jane: “I have assessed the times over the first two days on a walking speed of about 3 to 3.5 miles per hour  ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE (that also applies to mileages!)”

Note from me: VERY IMPORTANT! We are exploring a number of options for crossing the Channel. At the moment we are planning to take the ferry, but if a zero-carbon option becomes available we will leap at the chance. So ALL PLANS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT SHORT NOTICE! Please do check the website for updates before you set out to join us. Any changes will be posted here as soon as we know about them.

We can’t offer to arrange accommodation and food for everybody, alas – it would be logistically impossible to organize this for an unknown number of people – so you’ll need to be self-sufficient. But you WILL have the opportunity to be interviewed for our documentary, and be a part of a historic adventure!

Day 1 Friday 20th November 2009
About 14 miles (5 from Big Ben to Limehouse Basin, 2.5 to the Foot Tunnel, 5 to Eltham, 2 to Sunridge Park)
10.00 am Big Ben London – meet with the media
10.30 start walk – head East along the Thames Path on the Northern side of the river
12.30 Limehouse Basin
1.15 Northern entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel
1.30 Southern entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel then walk south through Greenwich Park, Blackheath, cross the A2 and turn to the east along Shooters Hill until turning south into Kidbrooke Grove.  Take first east into Westbrook Road and continue until the T junction with Rochester Way.  Turn south down Rochester Way and continue along, over the A2 until Bridbook Road.  Turn down Bridbrook Road (south/south/west) and continue under the A2 and into Eltham Green Road (south).  Continue southward until the A210, Eltham Road, cross the road, and cross Westhorne Avenue, turn eastward to the major roundabout and pick up Middle Park Avenue.  Continue down Middle Park Avenue until the junction with Eltham Palace Road, turn east, continue until Eltham Palace and the grounds are in front of you and pick up St John’s Walk.
3.00 Pick up St John’s Walk at Eltham Palace and follow to Mottingham, picking up the Green Chain Walk.
At Elmstead Wood leave the Green Chain Walk and walk through to Sunridge Park and the Sunridge Park Hotel

Day 1 Accommodation: Sunridge Park Hotel

Day 2 Saturday 21st November
Approximately 16 miles (10 to Eynsford and then 6 to South Street)
8.30 start from Sunridge Park Hotel – walk north/east to pick up the Green Chain Walk at the edge of Elmstead Wood.  Walk through Chislehurst west to Chislehurst Common.
9.15 Chislehurst Common then through the edge of Park Wood and into St Paul’s Cray.  Cross the River Cray at Brooks Way, and pick up the footpath that joins to Chapmans Lane between Cray Valley Golf Club and Pauls Cray Hill Park which links to Hockenden.
From Hockenden take the eastern bridlepath and then footpath across the fields along the side of Bourne Wood crossing the railway by the footbridge and continuing until picking up the back road into Crockenhill
11.30 Centre of Crockenhill, follow the Church Road southwards and then turn east down Harvest Way and pick up the footpath at the end of the road and continue until the M25, turn south east and follow the footpath along until the subway under the motorway, continue along the path the other side, connecting up to a track that takes you through Hulberry Farm and then pick up the Darent Valley Path, traverse the railway line and into Eynesford.
12.30 Eynsford Pub: The Malt Shovel Inn
1.00 From Eynsford to in a northerly direction along the A225 until a small turning to the right signposted Prior Lane, take that and pick up the bridleway across the fields, pick up Donkey Lane, cross the A20 and continue on the footpath to Gabrielspring Wood.  Turn left towards the M20 and follow the path to the footbridge across the motorway.  Once over the motorway take the path straight ahead to the wood, entering the wood and then turning right after a short distance.  This track follows down to Speedgate Farm and the road.  Turn right at the road, continue straight across at the cross roads with Oak Racing Kennels to your left, picking up a path at the edge of the kennels to the left.  Follow that to the embankment of the M20 and in front there should be a junction with one road going under the motorway and another going away in front of you, Brands Hatch Road.  Follow the road along, taking the left hand branch and crossing straight over at the cross roads towards Ash.  At the T juncion to New Ash Green take the footpath straight ahead, joining a road again as you go past Ash Place Farm to pick up a bridleway to White Ash Wood.  Half way through the wood take the right hand path going east, cross the road picking up the path on the opposite side which takes you south eastward past another wood, picking up a track and into Ridley.  In Ridley turn left on the road and then right at the junction along Bunkers Hill towards South Street.  Continue along this road for about half a mile going straight across at the cross roads until you come into South Street.

Day 2 Accommodation: Beechfield B&B, South Street

Day 3 Sunday 22nd November
Approximately 14.5 miles (About 5.5 to Medway Bridge, then 9 miles to Thurnham)
9.00am start from South Street.  Follow Heron Hill eastward until just after the end of the village where there is a confusion of footpaths and bridlepaths.  Where the land bends to the left take the footpath to the south, then after a very short distance there should be a branch that goes south easterly over a field towards Harvel.  Take this and go into Harvel Village, turn left at the road then right at the cross roads and continue out of the village, past a road to the left and shortly after this there should be a track/footpath to the left which goes to Little Delmar Farm.  Take this track and at Little Delmar Farm you pick up the Wealdway.  Cross the road and continue southward on the Wealdway, through Lie Wood, Luson Wood and to Lockyers Hill where you pick up the road.  At the triangle road junction take the footpath to the east, and continue eastward through a wood, at this junction you should meet up with the North Downs Way which is coming up from the south.
About 2.00pm passing through Kits Coty and briefly resting at Kits Coty Brassier on the Old Chatham Road.

Day 3 Accommodation: Black Horse Inn, Pilgrims Way, Thurnham

Day 4 Monday 23rd November
About 18 miles
8.30am start from the Black Horse, going North to pick up the North Downs Way again.
North Downs Way via Hollingbourne, Harrietsham, Charing (possibly stopping here for a brief rest), Dunn Street, Boughton Lees to Wye.

Day 4 Accommodation: Wye (Wife Of Bath Inn or Kings Head)

Day 5 Tuesday 24th November
Longest day: just over 20 miles
8.30am start, prompt!!  Wye to Etchinghill, past the Channel Tunnel Terminal, Folkestone, Capel-le Ferne and into Dover.

Day 5 Accommodation: Dover with ferry crossing on the morning of Day 6 (Wednesday)

Supported by Keen Footwear and Marmot, with carbon offsetting by Carbon Foresight. Thanks also to Orbis Globes, Murray PR, the kind folks at Green People and all our backers through Kickstarter.

The Mission:
To send a message to the COP15 conference expressing our desire for action on climate change. Come join us!

Background:
This summer Roz rowed solo 2,600 miles across the Pacific from Hawaii to Kiribati, where she saw the human face of climate change. Kiribati, a scattering of small coral atolls, will be uninhabitable within the next 50 years as climate change causes rises in sea level and increasingly frequent major weather events. Click here to watch a video about Kiribati and climate change.

Big Ben to Brussels:
Roz is now taking a message to the climate change conference in Copenhagen, in her role as United Nations “Climate Hero”. With a small group of friends she will set out on Nov 20 to walk 200 miles from Big Ben to Brussels, where she will join the United Nations Climate Express train for the remainder of the journey to Copenhagen. Click here to meet the team.

Earth Balls:
During the walk they will gather signatures on inflatable “Earth” balls, to be delivered to the conference as a petition calling on the delegates to take decisive action on climate change so that more countries and regions do not suffer the same fate as Kiribati.

The Route:
Come and join us! For an hour, for half a day, for a full day, or even the whole trip. Click here for details of the route. And we’d love to interview you for our film to find out who you are and why you care about climate change.

Walk With Us – Online:
Can’t be there? You can still show your support for our cause by going for a walk, wherever you are! You can sign up for our environmental mission, called Pull Together. Take action on CO2 levels by walking more and driving less. Good for your body, and good for the planet! Match the the 10,000 oar strokes Roz does each day on the ocean by walking 10,000 steps a day and sharing your results online. Click here for details.

Support Us:
You can also support us by pledging financial support. In return we have all kinds of exclusive Roz Savage goodies on offer. See Kickstarter for more details.

Follow Us:
We’ll be posting photos, videos, blogs and Facebook and Twitter updates on this website throughout the BB2B walk. Roz will also be writing exclusive blogs for Keen Footwear, Grist.org and the Wend Magazine blog.

Motto:
If we all pull together, we CAN save the world!

The 16ft ball is definitely TOO big

Thank you to all who have pledged support. We are now over 60% of the way to our target – and the nailbiting is getting worse! It’s all or nothing, so if we don’t get at least 100% of target, we get a big round $000 – which would be a bummer! Thanks also to those of you who have passed the link to our project on to your networks of friends – it really helps to spread the word.

If it helps inspire you, here is what Joan in Atlanta posted to her Facebook page: “Do you feel like your karma needs a boost? Kickstarter is an awesome way to do it, and do a good deed for the day. C’mon. A ten-spot. It’s way better than spending it on lottery scratch-offs. Of course, I want you to choose my pet cause (Roz! Roz!), but you might find another endeavor that really speaks to you, and that’s cool, too. Take your first step into meaningful philanthropy.”

I had a meeting with teammate Jane yesterday – she is in charge of route planning and logistics. It hasn’t been easy to find safe walking routes out of London – amazing how many roads and bridges don’t have paths for pedestrians. So Jane has had her work cut out! Google Earth has come in very handy for zooming right in and seeing if there is a footpath or not.

We sat there in the coffee shop with maps everywhere, and Jane’s trails of little multicolored stickers traipsing across them to show our route. Hopefully by the end of today we’ll be able to post details of our route online, with rendezvous points, so that people can come and join us for a day to show solidarity with the cause.

Even just the planning process has been an education. With such restricted facilities for walkers and cyclists, how can we expect to coax people out of their cars?

Now on to the next stage of the planning process – sorting out our kit, including our Earths. What size to get….?

Carrying the world on our shoulders (image courtesy of 350.org)

Ever had a great idea for a project, but lacked the finance to get it off the ground? You might want to check out Kickstarter, a website founded earlier this year to help small-scale projects get funding. I’m trying it out for the first time – to cover the basic costs of our walk from Big Ben to Brussels. Details of our mission follow, but first I wanted to give you my first impressions of Kickstarter.

Points to note, including some insider info from a friend who advised the creators of Kickstarter:

1. It’s all or nothing. If you don’t get to 100% of your target, you get nothing. Nada. Not a bean. And all the pledges are cancelled. So it’s better to set a slightly conservative target rather than aim too high and end up with zilch.

2. If a project gets to 40% of its target, chances are good (about 90%) that it will go on to achieve 100%. So I wrote to a few people who had previously been generous to ask them individually if they would help me achieve this critical threshold – which we have now done. It remains to be seen if we get all the way to 100%.

3. It’s not designed for charitable giving. Donors expect the rewards on offer to be commensurate with the amount pledged. So obviously, if this is going to make sense financially, it takes a bit of creative thinking to figure out rewards that will be exciting for the recipient, while not costing so much that they cancel out the value of the pledge. I found some great examples on a project to create a cartoon book called “Poorcraft”:
$1 Access to exclusive blog about the creation of the book
$5 Complete PDF of the book
$10 Signed copy of the book
$30 3 more copies of the book
$50 Thank you in the acknowledgements
$100 Page of original art
$250 Cameo in book
$500 Cameo on cover of the book
Most of these cost little or nothing to the creators of the book, but are thoughtful and special ways to acknowledge their supporters.

Overall, it seems like a great concept. I’m excited (and rather nail-bitingly nervous!) to see if it works out well for our project. Speaking of which, here it is:

The Mission:
To send a message to the COP15 conference expressing public desire for action on climate change

Background:
This summer British ocean rower Roz Savage rowed solo 2,600 miles across the Pacific from Hawaii to Kiribati, where she saw the human face of climate change. Kiribati, a scattering of small coral atolls, will be uninhabitable within the next 50 years as climate change causes rises in sea level and increasingly frequent major weather events. Click here to watch a video about Kiribati and climate change.

Big Ben to Brussels:
Roz Savage is now taking a message to the climate change conference in Copenhagen, in her role as United Nations “Climate Hero”. With a small group of friends she will set out on Nov 20 to walk 200 miles from Big Ben to Brussels, where she will join the United Nations Climate Express train for the remainder of the journey to Copenhagen.

Earth Balls:
During the walk they will gather signatures on inflatable “Earth” balls, to be delivered to the conference as a petition calling on the delegates to take decisive action on climate change so that more countries and regions do not suffer the same fate as Kiribati.

Documentary Film – The Long Walk to Copenhagen:
The walk will also be the subject of a documentary film, “The Long Walk to Copenhagen”, focusing on the walkers and the people they meet en route to show how humankind is reacting to the biggest challenge of all time.

Global Initiative – Pull Together:
The global online community will be encouraged to show solidarity with the walkers by joining Roz’s environmental mission, called Pull Together. This initiative aims to inspire people to take action on CO2 levels by walking more and driving less. Calling upon her supporters around the world to Pull Together, Roz will challenge them to match the 10,000 oar strokes she does each day on the ocean by walking 10,000 steps a day.

Online Participation:
Using photos, videos, blogs and several social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, her mission is to connect and engage people of all ages around the world, and demonstrate that every action, no matter how small it may seem, does indeed matter. http://www.rozsavage.com.

Motto:
If we all pull together, we CAN save the world!

If you want to find out more, including a little video of me talking about the project and details of the rewards on offer, then check it out here. I’d also be grateful if you would pass on this link to your network of friends and family.

Only 15 days left, and over $2,000 still to raise. Please help us reach our target!

I’d also be interested if you have any suggestions of things that you might like to see as rewards for future projects. Exclusive access to a special blog? Exclusive video updates? E-books? Let me know!

Elizabeth II - Queen for 21,900 days

Queen Elizabeth will be celebrating her Diamond Jubilee – 60 years  – in 2012. I can still remember the Silver Jubilee in 1977, when I was at the grand old age of 9. Mine was one of probably millions of gaudily illustrated children’s cards winging their way to her Majesty to congratulate her on her 25 years on the throne.

I remember doing an exercise at school to say what I would do if I were queen for a day. I seem to recall imposing some horrendously over-the-top punishment for dropping litter, so maybe even then I had a certain awareness of the need to take care of the Earth.

Now my decrees might be a bit different – but still mostly Earth-oriented:

- no plastic or styrofoam packaging – including takeout containers, coffee cups, and packaging on technology. ALL would have to be biodegradable – as would all doggy poop bags.

- free broadband wireless internet in every town center

- government subsidies on public transport, with schedules for trains, buses and tubes all coordinated so that it is quicker, cheaper and easier to use public transport than private cars

- massive investment in extending the network of paths for cyclists and pedestrians, so it is safe and pleasurable to use human-powered transport

- an end to global hunger, war and injustice – so we could stop fighting each other and start fighting our shared problem instead

Hmm, I think that will do for my first week in power, anyway…

From our western democratic perspective, it’s almost impossible to contemplate 60 years in power. Although 60 years of a bad ruler would obviously be undesirable, it would be interesting to see if the longer term in office encouraged a shift towards longer term thinking – in itself a kind of wisdom. We would have to think carefully how we would exercise our power if we had to live with the consequences for the next 60 years.

Our prevailing system of short term government has many advantages, but (at least) one serious flaw – it discourages leaders from addressing long-term problems. We have been aware of the possible existence of anthropogenic climate change for the last 20 years, but it was a political hot potato, being tossed rapidly from hand to hand down the years. Nobody wanted to deal with it. There was a perception that to tackle the problem would be costly, difficult, and unpopular with the electorate. So leave it to the next government.

So we are now 20 years deeper in trouble, with CO2 reaching critical levels, and still there is reluctance to hang onto the hot potato – and it’s getting hotter all the time. In Copenhagen, will our leaders finally have the moral courage to do what needs to be done for the long term future of our species – and the many other species who are suffering the side-effects of our addiction to fossil fuel? I hope so.

Public perception is changing, and decisive action on climate change would now be popular with a significant proportion of the electorate. Most people are concerned about it, and are looking for strong leadership. Although in an ideal world we would all take responsibility for going green, in the real world most people are too overburdened already. If national policy made it easier to do the right thing – to recycle, use public transport, and so on – this would be a huge step in the right direction.

Do you ever think about what you would change if you were running the world? For the purposes of this exercise in fantasy, you don’t have to get anything passed by Congress. You don’t even have to worry about whether you will be re-elected. You can choose whatever you like – a ban on facial hair, mandatory training in good manners, a three-day working week, free caramel lattes for all.

What would you do, and why?

When worlds collide! Fantastic photo by Kip Pierson. More on the climateride.org Flickr page

Today dawned bright and beautiful over our campsite in a field next to the YMCA in Phoenixville, PA. After yet another hearty breakfast we set out through gorgeous countryside into Amish country. Even though the images are familiar from “Witness” I still got a kick out of seeing men in broad-brimmed hats sitting in tidy little horse-pulled carriages or working in fields behind horse-pulled ploughs. Favorite sighting was a little boy in a scaled-down broad-brimmed hat whizzing along on his human-propelled scooter, his left leg working energetically.

The undulating countryside was beautiful. A gentle breeze sent down showers of autumn leaves from the trees that in places lined our route, and it felt joyful to be alive. I was riding with a new friend called Courtney, who works in the ornithology department at Cornell University. We had a slightly ragged start to the day – she had a slight fall at a junction, and there were a few extra stops before we got into our stride.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last. By early afternoon ominous dark clouds were gathering, and as we were sitting outside a New Strasbourg creamery for a well-earned break, the heavens opened. We retreated inside from the torrents, and indulged in all manner of fudge, ice cream, caramel popcorn and other sweet indulgences. Ah, the benefits of burning off 2000 calories a day on a bicycle!

Feeling rather queasy and sugar-high, we set off once again down the puddle-strewn road. Shortly afterwards I had a mishap. I was riding along with Courtney and another woman. They were in front as we sped down a long downhill to try and gain enough momentum to get up the other side of the valley. At the bottom of the hill was a bridge where the road suddenly turned from pavement into an open metal mesh like a cheese-grater. A car overtook me, and slowed behind my two companions on the bridge. At top speed I suddenly had to brake to avoid running into the back of the car. My bike started to weave…. and splat! My bike and me found ourselves sprawled across the road.

It could have been worse. If I hadn’t been wearing a bike helmet, for example. I felt the impact as my head hit the road and my helmet cracked. My left knee looked quite spectacularly gory. I also had abrasions on my knuckles and left elbow. But nothing hurt, and I was able to ride the remaining 10 miles of the day with no problems. A hot shower washed away most evidence of my inelegant fall. And I was hugely relieved to find that my iPhone, strapped to my arm for convenience, had survived intact.

And it provided good material for my presentation tonight – a joke about how people often ask me if ocean rowing is dangerous, but I’ve suffered more damage today than in nearly a year accumulated time on the ocean. I like to tell people that we don’t have to suffer for a greener future – it is perfectly possible to live a more sustainable lifestyle without any detriment – but today I felt I did more than my fair share of sacrifice for the cause!

As I write this, No Impact Man (who was also riding with us today) is showing his film. I’d love to see it, but I’m very sleepy and it was a straight choice between blogging or watching the film before my eyelids close resolutely for the night. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to see it some other time.

Today’s stats: 64 miles, 1789 calories, 1 minor splat!

Other Stuff:

Please do check out the FANTASTIC photos from the Climate Ride official photographer, Kip Pierson at climateridelive.org. VERY highly recommended!

Please note: the Climate Ride organizers have plenty of spare cycle helmets, so I will have a new one to use tomorrow. Safety first!

Apologies for not including more hyperlinks to the various website – but the internet connection here is horrendously slow (positively Pacific-like) and my pillow is calling me… now past 11pm and breakfast is at 6.30 tomorrow morning! And I’ve got some healing to do…

We take shelter from the afternoon's short sharp storm (photo by Kip Pierson)

I’ve had better starts to a day – although I suppose I’ve had worse ones too. At least today I didn’t find that I was unexpectedly 15 miles further away from my destination, as sometimes happened on the ocean.

The rain had been unrelenting last night, and I woke up this morning to find that my sleeping bag was sopping wet. I thought I had been so clever to put today’s clothes down my sleeping bag so they wouldn’t be chilly this morning, but instead of being nicely warm they were nicely soaked. Wet biking shorts – mmm, hmmm! There’s a sensation to warm the cockles of your heart – not! But I was at least relieved to find out that my muscles weren’t too sore after yesterday’s exertions.

After my spirits had been somewhat restored by an excellent breakfast, we hit the road again. Today’s target was 66 miles. The rain continued throughout the morning as we pedaled through New Hope (gorgeous, artsy town with a steam train, countless galleries, and allegedly the third largest gay community on the East Coast) and Doylestown, where we stopped for our lunchbreak. I’m really enjoying getting to see parts of the East Coast I’ve never seen before, even though I’ve traveled these states extensively by plane, train and automobile. Bike-touring takes you through places at the perfect pace for taking it all in – as well as having less emissions and less environmental impact.

I was taken to lunch by Brandon, a fan of the podcast who I had never met before, but had come to Doylestown specially to meet me. Thanks, Brandon, for lunch – and also for the best compliment that anybody can ever pay me, which is that as a result of my blog/podcast/presentation they have now consciously chosen to live a greener life. This really makes me feel that I must be doing something right!

In the afternoon the rain gradually relented – although it couldn’t resist a final hurrah with a sudden and dramatic downpour late afternoon, just as we’d all taken off our waterproofs – and by the time I rather wearily reached the campsite at the YMCA in Valley Forge the evening sun had broken through. I pitched my tent and hung out my sleeping bag to dry.

Tonight we’re listening to a series of speakers – David Kroodsma who rode from San Francisco to the southern tip of South America, Markus talking about a green Germany, and now Alison – an extreme skier who has campaigned on climate change for the last 20 years. Outdoorsy people might have seen her in Warren Miller’s extreme skiing movies. Her presentation is excellent – full of practical tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint based on her own experiences. She very much walks the talk – she lives in an energy-efficient straw bale house she built herself, has quit heli-skiing because of its high CO2 impact, and uses her bicycle to tour between far-flung speaking engagements.

Someone who does extreme sports for the environment – sound familiar?!

Other Stuff:

Thanks for all the great comments in response to my question about reality vs perception of spreading environmental awareness. I’ve only had time to skim read them (sorry, been busy cycling!) but will take a closer look when I have more time to spend online. I really appreciate all the feedback – all helpful input for my trip to Copenhagen. Thank you!!

Today’s stats: 66 miles, 1965 calories, tons of inspiration!

Q: (from stormcloud) So, I have a question about the motive behind
saving the planet, or however it's called. I've been told that humans
are a scourge on the planet, we're so evil and uncaring, and stuff like
that–but, aren't we part of nature, too? Isn't everything we do a part
of Mother Nature's plan, plastic and all? Don't get me wrong, I do
believe we should do everything to take care of the planet . . . but are
we really taking care of it? Or are we just making it better for
ourselves? I'm sure life would learn to exist on a planet with a sick
atmosphere, and some plants might die from cleaner air. Who knows. These
thoughts and stuff have been kind of confusing me for a long while, but
I've never been able to ask anyone about it. So, what's your take on
this? I don't know if it's a too complicated question or not, because I
honestly don't know that much about enviromental, er, stuff (good thing
I've found your blog, no?) so, answer at your own leisure!

A: This is a great question. I don't claim to be an expert in
environmental matters, but I think that the issue has often been clouded
by too much information. It's basically a very simple issue (although
not necessarily with simple solutions) that requires nothing more than a
bit of objectivity and common sense. Some of what I'm about to say might
be a bit controversial, but here is my humble opinion….

The eco-green-sustainability movement is usually assumed to be talking
about saving the planet, but the planet doesn't need saving. We humans
have made a right royal mess of it in the short time we've been here,
but the Earth has been through worse and survived. Give it a few
millennia and the planet will be just fine, the brief human infestation
just a bad memory.

Because Stormcloud, you're right – 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. Why did we ever think it
would be okay to pollute and poison our natural habitat? When there were
just a few million of us, and all our waste was biodegradable, it didn't
matter too much what we did – our impact was still negligible. But now
there are 6.5 billion of us, consuming like crazy, and much of our waste
lasts a very long time. Our attitude to consumption has changed (more,
more, always more) but our attitude to disposal hasn't.

And it's coming back to bite us.

You ask – aren't we a part of nature too? Yes, we are, but we've been
given special abilities and inclinations – or at least an opposing thumb
and an extra-large brain – that set us apart from other inhabitants of
the natural world. And – most important of all – we have been given free
will that allows us to decide how we are going to use our special
status.

I believe this is the key to it: we need to use our unique ability of
self-awareness to step outside ourselves and see with clarity what we
are doing. Right now, our behavior suggests that we are short-sighted,
arrogant, and addicted to conspicuous consumption. But we can also be
creative, inquisitive, ingenious, and endlessly amazing. We have so much
worth living for, it would be a tragedy if we continue our path towards
collective suicide.

We need to rise to be our better selves, using our free will, our power
of reason and our inner wisdom to get ourselves out of this
unsustainable situation. We already have all the technologies we need to
create a sustainable future. We don't need to wind the clock back to a
pre-industrial age – better instead to forge ahead and create a new
style of living that combines the best of the old with the best of the
new, allowing us to live in balance with nature in a way that is
infinitely sustainable.

It's time we woke up to what we're doing and did something about it. My
interest in sustainability is utterly selfish. I want to live a long,
healthy life on a pleasant, clean, thriving planet. And I'm willing to
do whatever I can to help make that happen.

[photo: a lovely cloudscape during the best part of today's
ever-changing weather]

Other Stuff:

A mixed bag of weather today. I woke up to leaden skies and dismal rain
that looked like it wasn't in any hurry to go anywhere. But it did – by
this afternoon I had the sun canopy and was enjoying an amazingly varied
cloudscape. Conditions weren't conducive to major mileage, but I made
another 10 miles or so towards the Equator, and a useful bit of
eastwards too. Another squall tonight (so still no crescent moon
sighting – sorry, UncaDoug!), so the weather still has a few tricks up
its sleeve, but all in all, a good day at the office. (But uh oh, as I
write this I see I am being pushed north. But I can't row all night –
I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it in the morning…)

Eco Champ of the Day award goes to Steph, who is doing one of the BEST
things you can do to reduce the amount of plastic you use:
"I wanted to let you know you've inspired me to stop buying bottled
water, and use my own bottle instead."
I do this too, when I'm on land. I use a Brita water filter jug that I
keep in the fridge, and just top up my water bottle. Or get them to
refill it in the coffee shop or gas station. It's no hassle, and saves a
LOT of plastic.

Thank you to all the Rozlings for the wonderful comments. It's great to
see how many people are reserving their Larabar bookmarks. I'm doing my
side of the bargain by munching my way through 4 a day here – tough job,
but someone has to do it! I've got quite a bagful of wrappers
accumulating and when I get back to dry land we'll set to work signing
and laminating. Thanks also for all the words of encouragement,
environmental wit and wisdom, and everything else. I feel that I have
some true friends back on terra firma.

Sue the Psychlotherapist of Cirencester – lovely to hear from you. For
sure I will drop in the next time I am in your part of the world. Last
time I was so grateful for your warm hospitality – and the laundry
service!

Lorrin Lee – thanks again for the goodies you bought for me in Hawaii
just before I left. I found the spirulina crackers by Go Raw a couple of
days ago. They were SOOO good!

Quick answers to quick questions:

Q: Is there a reason you are not eating fish you can catch or squid that
land on the deck, for instance, to add to your diet (and diversity of
activities)? Are you a vegetarian?
A: No, I'm not vegetarian. But I would have defied anybody to find an
appetite for the roadkill squid! As for fishing, I just don't really
fancy it. Not until necessity dictates.

Q: What do you dream?
A: A lot of random stuff – often about food! And it's amazing some of
the people that pop up in my dreams, people I haven't even thought about
in years. Quite fun – like a trip down memory lane!

Weather report:

Position at 2145 HST: 04 07.862N, 175 04.296W
Wind: Mostly E, between 0 and 20 knots
Seas: 4-6ft E
Weather: rain, then sun, then rain again

Weather forecast courtesy of weatherguy.com:

Using last night's Feedblitz blog email (22 Jul), reported position was:
04 32N 175 19W as of 22Jul 1930HST. Your are still in the ECC which is
good because you might want to be at this latitude for as long as you
can.

As of Thursday, 23 July 2009. Wind predictions still uncertain while
in the area of the Equatorial region. According measured data, there is
SE winds 15-17kts over your area. To the SE (between 01N to 04N and
168W-170W) of your position, there was a patch of measured winds of
40-50kts in rainshowers.

It would appear you are almost through the southern boundary of the
ITCZ. According to satellite imagery, there is minimal convection south
of 05N. There is one exception.the patch of high winds to the SE. This
is associated with downdraft winds in convective cloud activity.

Movement eastward should be viewed as positive because south of the
Equator the prevailing E to SE winds will carry you westward with no
problem. If you are too far to the west already, potential landing spots
in the southern hemisphere might be missed. So just hang on for the ride
and take the Eerly current as long as it lasts.

Sky conditions: Partly to mostly cloudy. Isolated rainshowers, squalls,
and possible thunderstorms.

Forecast (low confidence due to extreme variability in Roz's position
and the fluctuations in wind direction/speed in the Doldrums)
Date/Time HST Wind kts Seas (ft) est
23/1800-25/1800 SE 12-17 3-7
25/1800-28/1800 ESE 10-15 4-6

Next Update: Monday, 27 July