Climate Zero: 54° North to 54° South by Bicycle.
The Challenge and the Message,
For me, the bicycle pilot, the journey known as Climate Zero was an opportunity to challenge myself to such an extent that the edges of my physical limits and mental awareness were continually expanded, to breaking points and beyond, and contracted back into an ever expanding comfort zone to inform and hopefully move forward, incrementally, my lifetime ambition to become a good human. I also wanted to bring awareness, to everyone touched by the journey, of the short and long-term, devastating implications of climate change. And most important, I wanted to demonstrate that all of us can make a positive difference, and relatively easily I would argue, in the global effort to reverse climate change and even zero-out our lifetime carbon contributions to the atmosphere by planting trees, as I did, or by other means such as removing plastics from the environment.
Regarding individual contributions to reversing climate change, I hope everyone will reflect on the following conclusion when considering what they could do: I was able to not only plant 5000 trees, enough to zero-out my 52-year carbon footprint, but also ride a bicycle immediately before and after planting those trees across North, Central, and South America in 284 days (add another 20 days to include the prelude). Reversing each of our contributions to climate change is relatively easy, I planted 5000 trees in three weeks. What's difficult is having the courage, amidst the whirlwind of paralyzing reasons that are always circulating in our minds, to begin our own personal, heroic and inspirational journeys to climate zero. Find the courage to begin and your children and grandchildren and more human generations than we can imagine will remember that you took action because you wanted them to inherit what you had in your lifetime, a livable, beautiful planet earth.
Regarding individual contributions to reversing climate change, I hope everyone will reflect on the following conclusion when considering what they could do: I was able to not only plant 5000 trees, enough to zero-out my 52-year carbon footprint, but also ride a bicycle immediately before and after planting those trees across North, Central, and South America in 284 days (add another 20 days to include the prelude). Reversing each of our contributions to climate change is relatively easy, I planted 5000 trees in three weeks. What's difficult is having the courage, amidst the whirlwind of paralyzing reasons that are always circulating in our minds, to begin our own personal, heroic and inspirational journeys to climate zero. Find the courage to begin and your children and grandchildren and more human generations than we can imagine will remember that you took action because you wanted them to inherit what you had in your lifetime, a livable, beautiful planet earth.
Introduction,
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My goals for this tour were to ride from 54° north latitude to 54° south latitude by bicycle, a complete transect of North, Central, and South America, and along the way plant 5,000 trees, enough to zero-out my 52-year carbon footprint, that's climate zero. During the prelude to Climate Zero, I bicycled from Scarborough, Maine, USA to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada for 16 days and then boarded a ship that deposited me at Cartwright, Labrador on September 9th, 2023. The tour began two days later, on September 11th, when I rode south out of Cartwright on a gravel road, the only access road to Cartwright.
For the next 284 days, including two-weeks of Spanish language school in Guatemala and three weeks planting trees in Costa Rica, where I achieved my goal to plant 5000 trees and zero my 52-year carbon footprint, I overcame more challenges than I could ever recall though many will always be remembered including five days spent bypassing the Darién Gap by boat and an ascent to 4,693 meters (15,441 feet) in Peru that followed a long bout of illness and being bitten by a dog the same morning. At about 4 pm on the 20th of June, 2024, I arrived to Ushuaia, Argentina. Among other physical challenges presented to me by the Patagonia winter, by the time I reached Ushuaia I had been riding on snow and ice covered roads for many days.
As of this writing, 5 July 2024, I'm preparing to depart Ushuaia bound for Buenos Aires by airplane tomorrow afternoon. My plan is to ship my Niner Bikes RLT 9 RDO bicycle and gear back to the United States from Buenos Aires and then a few days later transition to Montevideo, Uruguay by ferry boat where I hope to attend Spanish language school for a month or more. Beyond Uruguay and school, my thoughts at the moment are to visit friends in São Paulo, Brazil; and then, possibly, fly to Manaus and take a boat down the Amazon River to Belém. After Belém, I am considering returning to Costa Rica to check-in with the 5000 trees that I planted in February and visit with the community at La Suerte Biological Field Station that made that outcome possible.
Over the next couple of weeks, as I am traveling to and from the places I just mentioned, I will return here, to my webpage, with the goal of telling the complete story of Climate Zero in text and images and possibly even write a complete travelogue as I did for (among others) my ambitious, 2022, Europa 360 bicycle tour. Check back in a few weeks and you'll likely find many previously unpublished images and much more. In the meantime, use this link to visit the Climate Zero playlist on my YouTube channel, 240 videos that tell the story of the entire journey as it was unfolding on the tour. The same videos are published on my Instagram and Facebook channels.
For the next 284 days, including two-weeks of Spanish language school in Guatemala and three weeks planting trees in Costa Rica, where I achieved my goal to plant 5000 trees and zero my 52-year carbon footprint, I overcame more challenges than I could ever recall though many will always be remembered including five days spent bypassing the Darién Gap by boat and an ascent to 4,693 meters (15,441 feet) in Peru that followed a long bout of illness and being bitten by a dog the same morning. At about 4 pm on the 20th of June, 2024, I arrived to Ushuaia, Argentina. Among other physical challenges presented to me by the Patagonia winter, by the time I reached Ushuaia I had been riding on snow and ice covered roads for many days.
As of this writing, 5 July 2024, I'm preparing to depart Ushuaia bound for Buenos Aires by airplane tomorrow afternoon. My plan is to ship my Niner Bikes RLT 9 RDO bicycle and gear back to the United States from Buenos Aires and then a few days later transition to Montevideo, Uruguay by ferry boat where I hope to attend Spanish language school for a month or more. Beyond Uruguay and school, my thoughts at the moment are to visit friends in São Paulo, Brazil; and then, possibly, fly to Manaus and take a boat down the Amazon River to Belém. After Belém, I am considering returning to Costa Rica to check-in with the 5000 trees that I planted in February and visit with the community at La Suerte Biological Field Station that made that outcome possible.
Over the next couple of weeks, as I am traveling to and from the places I just mentioned, I will return here, to my webpage, with the goal of telling the complete story of Climate Zero in text and images and possibly even write a complete travelogue as I did for (among others) my ambitious, 2022, Europa 360 bicycle tour. Check back in a few weeks and you'll likely find many previously unpublished images and much more. In the meantime, use this link to visit the Climate Zero playlist on my YouTube channel, 240 videos that tell the story of the entire journey as it was unfolding on the tour. The same videos are published on my Instagram and Facebook channels.
Answers to popular questions and more,
How many days did it take you to reach Ushuaia? 304 including the prelude (20 days)
How many trees did you plant? 5000
Was that enough trees to zero your 52-year carbon footprint? Yes
Where did you plant those trees? La Suerte Biological Field Station, Maderas Rainforest Conservancy, Costa Rica
What kind of bicycle were you riding? Niner Bikes RLT 9 RDO (2019 model)
How many miles? 17,331 including the prelude (1672 miles)
How many kilometers? 27,730 including the prelude (2691 km)
How many times would you have to travel from New York City to San Francisco on Interstate 80 to match those distances? 6
How about between Paris and Istanbul? 10
How about Quito to Buenos Aires? 5
How many feet of climbing? 754,445 (includes prelude)
How many meters of climbing? 229,955 (includes prelude)
How many times did you climb the equivalent of Mount Everest from sea-level? 26
How many countries? 15
How many in Central America? 7
How many in South America? 6
Have questions of your own? Use my contact page to send those to me and I'll add them to this list.
How many trees did you plant? 5000
Was that enough trees to zero your 52-year carbon footprint? Yes
Where did you plant those trees? La Suerte Biological Field Station, Maderas Rainforest Conservancy, Costa Rica
What kind of bicycle were you riding? Niner Bikes RLT 9 RDO (2019 model)
How many miles? 17,331 including the prelude (1672 miles)
How many kilometers? 27,730 including the prelude (2691 km)
How many times would you have to travel from New York City to San Francisco on Interstate 80 to match those distances? 6
How about between Paris and Istanbul? 10
How about Quito to Buenos Aires? 5
How many feet of climbing? 754,445 (includes prelude)
How many meters of climbing? 229,955 (includes prelude)
How many times did you climb the equivalent of Mount Everest from sea-level? 26
How many countries? 15
How many in Central America? 7
How many in South America? 6
Have questions of your own? Use my contact page to send those to me and I'll add them to this list.
Dedications,
Climate Zero is dedicated to the memory of two dear friends, Wade "Suedehead" Collin and Dr. John Kummrow. These and other friends that I've lost over the years were in my thoughts and heart throughout the tour. Instead of the sadness I felt from their initial loss, I endeavored throughout the long journey, 284 days, to replace those feelings with the inspiration that their lives and their memory gifted to me and everyone else that knew them.
Left or top image: Wade Collin. Right or bottom two images: Dr. John Kummrow.
Public Support,
Please consider a one-time or recurring donation using these Paypal or Venmo links to support my adventures by bicycle and the hours that I invest in social media posts describing those journeys on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Seeking Sponsorship,
I want to thank Sportful for a 40% discount on the clothing that I'm wearing in the majority of my Climate Zero images and videos, the only corporate discount that I received to reduce costs associated with Climate Zero, 54° north to 54° south by bicycle. During my bicycle tours, I share enormous amounts of images and videos to my social media channels, opportunities for sponsors to receive valuable advertising for any investment they are willing to make. For anyone interested in becoming a sponsor for my next tour, use this contact page to get in touch with me. I'm hoping to team-up with a bicycle sponsor, among others, before I depart from Cape Town, South Africa, in 2025.
YouTube Climate Zero Playlist,
Use this link to visit the Climate Zero playlist on my YouTube channel, 240 videos that tell the story of the entire journey as it was unfolding on the tour. The same videos are published on my Instagram and Facebook channels.
Satellite Tracking: location tracking every 10 minutes
For the first time in my touring history, on this tour I carried a satellite tracker. The small device, a refurbished inReach Mini 2 from Garmin that I purchased on Amazon shortly before the prelude to the tour began, sent my location to an online mapping tool every ten minutes and the data are still visible to anyone (no accounts needed) on the internet, here's the link. Be sure to click the view all option after the map loads to see the entire journey from Cartwright, Labrador to Ushuaia, Argentina.
RideWithGPS: details of my route
My complete GPS database is available to anyone (no accounts needed) as a collection of daily tracks, organized descending by day, on RideWithGPS. Here's the link. Anyone interested in my route, villages I passed through, and more are encouraged to dive into this vast collection of data that I recorded daily using my Garmin 1030 GPS.
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Somewhere between the ether and consciousness, doing the work on an epic journey, Climate Zero, 54° north to 54° south, a complete transect of North, Central, and South America by bicycle to bring awareness to the threat of climate change and demonstrate that all of us can make a difference and even zero-out our lifetime carbon contributions to the atmosphere.