Authors: Katherine Ball with Malkolm Boothroyd, Solutions Revolution youth cyclists

It’s been 290 miles since I’ve seen a car. Not everyday is on a bike path, some days we’re bicycling on freeways, backroads, mountain passes, residential streets, striking the balance between the shortest distance and the safest ride across the country. Sometimes that plan backfires, like the time a snowstorm hit and we had to hitch a ride with a narcoleptic who sang opera to stay awake and swore climate change doesn’t exist because the Lord has promised four seasons. This last stretch just happens to be on a circa 1830 donkey path for towing boats up a canal paralleling the Potomac River. Today, we’ll make it to Washington D.C. to meet with 20 legislative offices, and I have just a few more miles to reflect on this bicycle journey from Portland, Oregon to Washington, D.C.:

After biking across the USA from Portland, OR to Washington D.C., while filming over sixty interviews for the documentary we are making a on local communities’ solutions to climate change, and then finding our way to the COP16 UN Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico, I was hoping to have more clarity about the best way to devote my efforts to solving the climate crisis. Three months on a bike should be plenty of time to figure out the most complex problem our species has ever faced. Of course it is not and I might be more confused than before. But one thing I do know is that I will never stop trying to figure it out because it is the most beautiful struggle. I will always cherish the experiences I have had and the people and organizations that have made this trip possible. From the countless “strangers” that took us into their homes, to our families and friends who made the extra effort that gave us the strength to continue, to the Will Steger Foundation and 350.org for their in-kind sponsorship, to the incredible community we have been so fortunate to be a part of here at Klimaforum10. I thank you all of you from the fire of my heart.

YEA! MN is co-hosting this live on-line presentation in partnership with  Solutions Revolution from the front lines of the UNFCCC Climate Negotiations

"The Solutions Revolution: Here's a team that's spreading the most important number in the world-350-one mile at a time across the middle of the nation. The ride is waking up a country that needs waking up, because our Congress holds one of the keys to solving the climate conundrum!"

Jamie Racine joined the Will Steger Foundation in 2009 as a member of the Expedition Copenhagen delegation, led in part by polar explorer Will Steger. Armed with a passion for service, a commitment to environment, a beaming smile, and clever camera, Jamie represented Wisconsin youth at the UNFCCC COP15 international climate negotiations last December, calling for a just and binding global climate treaty and documenting the expedition experience for viewers back home. Jamie recently opened her doors to a team of young bike riders traveling across the US on their way to the COP16 negotiation in Cancun, and shared her reflections with us below.