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Campaigning adventurers converge on Paris for climate talks

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On threadbare running shoes, beaten bikes and solar-powered rickshaws, climate campaigners with a taste for adventure have converged on Paris after epic journeys powered by dreams of saving mankind.

A UN conference in the French capital aimed at forging a pact to limit global warming and prevent its catastrophic consequences was the magnet for dozens of activists hoping their extraordinary feats would inspire others.

Their journeys were also aimed at trying to sound the alarm on climate change with a positive message, knowing many people tune out when confronted with Armageddon-like warnings about humanity's existence in a warmer world.

"It was about reinventing the narrative on climate change," British scientist Daniel Price, who cycled 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) from New Zealand, told AFP on the sidelines of the conference this week.

Price, 27, who completed his PHD at a New Zealand university assessing the thickness of Antarctica's ice sheets, was one half of a high-profile project backed by the United Nations called "Pole to Paris".

The other was a fellow young scientist, Erlend Moster Knudsen, an Arctic specialist, who ran roughly 3,500 kilometres from Norway to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on the planet's far northern regions.

Knudsen, who averaged 30 kilometres a day in sometimes near-freezing temperatures, said they came up with their plan because scientists had struggled for so long to promote their messages to a wide audience.

He cited a Yale University study that showed 43 percent of people around the world did not believe in man-made climate change, even though nearly 100 percent of scientists believed that was the case.

"As scientists, we need to communicate better," said Knudsen, 29.

"Pole to Paris" indeed gained traction, with the scientists getting media coverage in cities and towns they cycled or ran through, as well as with visits to schools and a slick social media campaign.

After riding through Bangladesh, Price is also planning a documentary with the UN Development Programme on the impacts of rising sea levels on the millions of people living in the South Asian nation's coastal areas.

- Foot power -

Activists of the Young Ecologists group take part in a symbolic swimming competition under the sloga...
Activists of the Young Ecologists group take part in a symbolic swimming competition under the slogan "If we don't get COP21 right, we will have to swim to COP106" at the COP21 UN climate change conference in Le Bourget, on December 5, 2015
Thomas Samson, AFP/File

Another high-profile climate adventurer is Yeb Sano, a former Philippine negotiator to the UN talks who gave up diplomacy to lead a global grassroots climate movement based on walking.

Sano arrived in Paris just ahead of the November 30 start of the UN talks after a 1,500-kilometre trek across Europe during which he helped to collect 1.8 million signatures on a petition calling for climate action.

Sano delivered the petition, which collected names from walkers around the world, to UN climate chief Christiana Figueres in an emotional encounter in Paris.

"I want to thank you for every single step, because with every step you have shown that it is possible to tread lightly in this our beautiful planet," Figueres told Yano and other walkers who joined him on the trek.

"I would like to thank you for your messages, for almost two million signatures, for your walking, for your praying, for your singing, for being who you are."

The "Pilgreens" is another group with an extraordinary path to Paris.

The French and German university students travelled 20,000 kilometres from the Thai capital of Bangkok using a solar-powered version of the city's famous "tuk-tuk" rickshaw to offer a vision of mass renewable transport.

"The Pilgreens believe that electric power will be, in the long run, the key energy to people's mobility," the group says on its website.

On threadbare running shoes, beaten bikes and solar-powered rickshaws, climate campaigners with a taste for adventure have converged on Paris after epic journeys powered by dreams of saving mankind.

A UN conference in the French capital aimed at forging a pact to limit global warming and prevent its catastrophic consequences was the magnet for dozens of activists hoping their extraordinary feats would inspire others.

Their journeys were also aimed at trying to sound the alarm on climate change with a positive message, knowing many people tune out when confronted with Armageddon-like warnings about humanity’s existence in a warmer world.

“It was about reinventing the narrative on climate change,” British scientist Daniel Price, who cycled 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) from New Zealand, told AFP on the sidelines of the conference this week.

Price, 27, who completed his PHD at a New Zealand university assessing the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets, was one half of a high-profile project backed by the United Nations called “Pole to Paris”.

The other was a fellow young scientist, Erlend Moster Knudsen, an Arctic specialist, who ran roughly 3,500 kilometres from Norway to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change on the planet’s far northern regions.

Knudsen, who averaged 30 kilometres a day in sometimes near-freezing temperatures, said they came up with their plan because scientists had struggled for so long to promote their messages to a wide audience.

He cited a Yale University study that showed 43 percent of people around the world did not believe in man-made climate change, even though nearly 100 percent of scientists believed that was the case.

“As scientists, we need to communicate better,” said Knudsen, 29.

“Pole to Paris” indeed gained traction, with the scientists getting media coverage in cities and towns they cycled or ran through, as well as with visits to schools and a slick social media campaign.

After riding through Bangladesh, Price is also planning a documentary with the UN Development Programme on the impacts of rising sea levels on the millions of people living in the South Asian nation’s coastal areas.

– Foot power –

Activists of the Young Ecologists group take part in a symbolic swimming competition under the sloga...

Activists of the Young Ecologists group take part in a symbolic swimming competition under the slogan “If we don't get COP21 right, we will have to swim to COP106” at the COP21 UN climate change conference in Le Bourget, on December 5, 2015
Thomas Samson, AFP/File

Another high-profile climate adventurer is Yeb Sano, a former Philippine negotiator to the UN talks who gave up diplomacy to lead a global grassroots climate movement based on walking.

Sano arrived in Paris just ahead of the November 30 start of the UN talks after a 1,500-kilometre trek across Europe during which he helped to collect 1.8 million signatures on a petition calling for climate action.

Sano delivered the petition, which collected names from walkers around the world, to UN climate chief Christiana Figueres in an emotional encounter in Paris.

“I want to thank you for every single step, because with every step you have shown that it is possible to tread lightly in this our beautiful planet,” Figueres told Yano and other walkers who joined him on the trek.

“I would like to thank you for your messages, for almost two million signatures, for your walking, for your praying, for your singing, for being who you are.”

The “Pilgreens” is another group with an extraordinary path to Paris.

The French and German university students travelled 20,000 kilometres from the Thai capital of Bangkok using a solar-powered version of the city’s famous “tuk-tuk” rickshaw to offer a vision of mass renewable transport.

“The Pilgreens believe that electric power will be, in the long run, the key energy to people’s mobility,” the group says on its website.

AFP
Written By

With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

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