Climate Ride 2008

The goodfocus team has just returned from five days of shooting ClimateRide2008. It was a singularly engrossing five day event involving over 1o0 cyclists riding their bikes from New York to Washington, D.C. to bring awareness to the growing climate crisis and the possibility of mitigating said crisis with non-carbon-emitting forms of transportation - specifically, you guessed it, cycling.

While we would have loved to have trekked the entire distance on bicycles, we still found ourselves reliant upon our trusty Prius production vehicle for most of the trip. We did spend about an eighth of the ride trekking through the coutryside on our xtracycle, with producer Doug Stradley pedalling madly while DP Daniel Stephens perched precariously atop the bike's rear deck, camera in hand. And while Daniel preferred shooting from the back of the bike to sticking his body out the side window and back hatch of the Prius, Doug found the hilly terrain a bit, well, hilly. Next years ride will hopefully find us making the entire journey via bicycle alone (sorry Prius) now that we've learned a great deal about the logistics of bicycle touring.

But what is most interesting is that we were able to realize, first hand, and document with video the reality that one need not rely upon four wheels and an engine to motivate one through space and time. Yes, it seems convenient. Yes, it seems easy. Yes, it keeps one's hair and toes dry during rain showers. Yes, it keeps one's body warm and toasty in cold weather. Yes, it seems a good way to move things from point a to point b. But the reality is that if we simply change our expectations, our lifestyles, our dependencies, we can rely solely on two wheels and our own food-powered bodies to get from here to there. And in the process it can be more convenient (parking isn't a problem), incredibly easy (traffic is less an issue), dry (waterproof clothes), warm (pedalling keeps the core nice and toasty), and it can move everything from gear to passengers from point a to point b - with no emissions other than breath (ok, some CO2) and heat.

The key is to change our expectations of ourselves and others - to allow us the time to enjoy the ride and in the process begin the healing of our planet. If we don't start now - and I mean now, today, this moment, we won't have a beautiful, lush, incredibly diverse little orb to appreciate. And once that is the norm, does it matter if you are on time, dry or warm?