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Ride Planet Earth's Kim Nguyen in Prague

A young Australian's epic bike ride from Brisbane to the Copenhagen climate summit reaches the Czech Republic

Ride Planet Earth's Kim Nguyen in Prague
By Irene Carpintero
Tue 10th Nov, 2009 [updated Tue 10th Nov, 2009]		 Add to favorites email print this article Stumble! del.icio.us digg this

On August 10, 2008, Kim Nguyen decided to leave Australia and cycle halfway round the world.

His objective? To highlight climate change, promote sustainable transportation and reach Copenhagen, Denmark by December 5, in time for COP15, the most important climate-change negotiations in more than a decade.

After 15 months of cycling, Nguyen was in Prague November 10 to discuss his epic journey with local journalists and share what he's learned about climate change along the way.

Through this adventure, he wants to show that it's possible to limit the use of cars and other motorized vehicles. As he puts it, if someone can cycle from Brisbane to Copenhagen, anyone can cycle between their home and their workplace.

Kim isn't a politician or a government official, he told the press conference, just a regular guy. People often complain about the damage caused by climate change, he said, but don't do anything about it because they think that only "important" people can make a difference. His initiative, however, shows that everyone can do something to tackle ecological problems.

In each country Nguyen visits, he tries to organize events where he can talk about the importance of not using cars irresponsibly.

Some people join him for a few days or weeks, and he says that one of his biggest successes is encouraging these people to become more concerned about climate change and the necessity of changing our lifestyles.

One example is Richard Kimberley, an artist from Staffordshire in the UK, who joined Kim in Georgia a few months into his journey and is now as heavily involved as Kim in the initiative.

Talking about what he's learnt about climate change while traveling the world, he says he was particularly struck by the situation in Mongolia.

As the weather has become more unpredictable, Mongolians are having real problems producing food and other crops. Despite having a simple lifestyle something like ours 200 years ago, they're paying the price for a situation created by industrialized nations.

After a year and a half on his bike, Kim is already thinking about future projects.

He says he has in mind a large-scale project involving people from different countries cycling round the world. But before that he'll have to go back to Australia, find a job and save some money.

Whether he gets involved in another project or not, however, he'll have proved that we can all take action and change our way of life in order to avoid the disasters caused by climate change.

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Article added on Tue 10th Nov, 2009 [last updated Tue 10th Nov, 2009]
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