• On 6th December 09 cyclists around the globe will take to the streets, demonstrating the capacity and willingness of ordinary people to take action against climate change.
  
• The next day in Copenhagen, the COP15 negotiations begin. Ride Planet Earth aims to help convince the governments meeting there to take immediate action.
• Participants will be recording video messages to send to the COP15, stating not only why action is necessary, but also what they will be doing about it personally, to show that if governments don't take the lead ordinary people will.  
  

In order to raise awareness about climate change, Kim Nguyen, on 10th August 2008, with the support of a team of friends, sponsors and supporters from around Australia, set off on a bike ride from Brisbane to Copenhagen. He is encouraging people to join him on the ride, to journey with him to Copenhagen and help spread the message that we, as a global community, need to act now.  

Kim aims to arrive in Copenhagen in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009.

The Copenhagen Conference will see the nations of the world negotiate an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. This is one of the last chances the international community has to set the planet on another path, to avert the oncoming disaster of irreversible climate change, that will increasingly destroy the natural environment around us and ultimately make many parts of the world unliveable.

You can find the ride planet earth website here.

For his most recent press releases, see below

"Ride Planet Earth" Press Release, October 5, 2009
 

Australian Cyclist Reaches Romania on way to Copenhagen Climate Talks

After setting off from Brisbane in August 2008 Kim Nguyen has reached Bucharest, just 2500km from his destination of Copenhagen by December 6  

    * Cyclists from Europe have begun to join Kim, making up the Cycle Change Convoy that is making its way towards Copenhagen spreading a call to action.
    * Kim has so far cycled over 15000km through Australia and Asia in order to get to Copenhagen to tell the world's leader they must take action.
    * Kim has set up Ride Planet Earth as he has been travelling, a series of simultaneous cycling actions happening all around the world on 6th Dec 09.
    * The Ride Planet Earth event will send a message to governments, business and ordinary citizens that they can and must take action to stop dangerous climate change before its too late.    

With only 2 months to go before the vital UN Climate Change negotiations begin in Copenhagen in December, 28 year old Australian, Kim Nguyen, continues his epic cycle journey to Denmark, having been on the road for over 1 year and covering over 15 000km.
 
Kim's journey began as a solo mission across the continents raising awareness about the impacts of climate change on the developing world. However, over the course of the past year, the journey has developed into a world wide campaign called "Ride Planet Earth", using cycling and sustainable transport events to call for governments, industry and ordinary citizens to take action to stop dangerous climate change.

The campaign will culminate on 6th Dec 2009, the day Kim will arrive in Copenhagen and the day before the negotiations begin. A series of simultaneous cycling events will taking place around the globe will show that ordinary people have the capacity and willingness to take action and call for the world's governments to take action as well.

Regarding the Copenhagen negotiations Kim Nguyen states, "If an agreement is not made that secures the necessary reductions in greenhouse emissions and the means to do so within a suitable time-frame, starting now, the current climate science shows the consequences for the planet will be devastating."       
 
Kim's journey, now coined the "Cycle Change Convoy" as cyclists from across Europe have begun to join him, has taken him through scorching hot deserts, thick jungles of rain forest, the crowded streets of mega-cities, across giant volcanoes, freezing mountain ranges, through torrential downpours and against gail force winds. Kim has been hampered by broken parts, injuries and illness, and on more than one occasion needed to rely on the hospitality of locals to feed him, provide him with water and help him when lost. During his journey he has been hospitalized 3 times due to heat exhaustion, collapse and fever as well as suffering several falls, one that resulted in 5 stitches in his face. He has cycled through Northern Australia, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and has now reached Romania. By the time he reaches Denmark he will have crossed 20 different countries.  

Kim states, "Everyone can have a positive impact and help change come faster. For example you can join the Ride Planet Earth Challenge and ensure at least 25km of your weekly travel is environmentally friendly. This is part of the cycle change we need, to change the way our society interacts with our natural environment, to address climate change in the short and long term."    

Kim hopes that by raising awareness of the current impacts of climate change on some of the world's most vulnerable communities more people will be motivated to act faster. "Throughout the places I have travelled the evidence is clear that climate change is having an impact. Indigenous communities in remote Australia are highly vulnerable to extreme weather. Heat increases and changes in the timing of the monsoon in East Timor, Indonesia, Laos and Thailand have devastated much of the past 3 years of crop yields, making many communities reliant on foreign food aid. Rising sea levels will soon affect many of the smaller islands in Indonesia and the South Pacific. Many rural communities in China face drought and severe water shortages. Water is becoming more scarce in Mongolia and Kazakhstan. These impacts will only worsen if as a global community we cannot reduce global warming."

There are Ride Planet Earth events taking place in Australia in Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Cairns with more to be announced. All the details about participation and setting up your own ride can be found at www.rideplanetearth.org

Links:

Videos

Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/rideplanetearth/TheRidePlanetEarthPhotoAlbum?feat=directlink
 

Contacts:

Project Manager
Kim Nguyen
kim@rideplanetearth.org

 
Campaign Advisor
Owen Cordes-Holland
owen@rideplanetearth.org
(+61) 422 926 878

 
UK Coordinator
Richard Kimberley
richardkimberley8@hotmail.com