Week 2: Reality sets in. This week was spent regrouping after a police scare that set me back a few days and forced me to take a bus through south Hunan. So far, mixed success. To get to Hong Kong before my visa expires, I have to pick up the pace to 60 km days (2 on, … Continue reading 龙胜（Longsheng) to 贺州（Hezhou)
I may never again travel without my bicycle. Life gets a bit more high-maintenance when you pack your life onto your bike, it’s true. I have to be constantly looking for places to get food and water. I had two showers last week. Three days ago, I spent 30km finding a place to sleep. These things sound like inconveniences, … Continue reading Jishou/吉首 to Longsheng/龙胜
Hey! Well, this is it. I’m headed out tomorrow. I’m done with a year teaching English, done with a year in Jishou, soon-to-be missing the mouth-numbing food of Xiangxi. A week ago, I was nervous. There’s an uncountable amount of things that can go wrong on a trip like this. Some days, things as simple … Continue reading The First Pedal Strokes
Justine Zhang’s (张婷) workshop is well hidden. In the middle of downtown Jishou, the bustling capital of an autonomous minority prefecture in western Hunan, China, her converted garage-door storage space is tucked away in a shaded side alley. Set back from the chattering masses of vendors and pedestrians, its presence barely registers from the street. … Continue reading Rosaries, Small Business, and the Environment: Justine’s Story
The release of Pope Francis’s encyclical (full text) on the environment, Laudato Si, has created a furor that has caught both environmental and theological circles off-guard. This sudden interest may be a sign of growing disillusionment with our globalized, consumerist lifestyle, but the pontiff also extends a direct invitation to all readers of the letter: Now, faced as we are … Continue reading The Pope’s Encyclical: Joining the Conversation
Environmental triage is particularly difficult in China, which can be afflicted by drought, floods, dust storms, and pollution disasters in a single week. That is not the only reason this is no ordinary developing nation. China is a 3,000-year-old civilization in the body of an industrial teenager; a mega-rich, dirt-poor, overpopulated, underresourced, ethnically diverse mass … Continue reading When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind — Or Destroy it
Make it this one: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/may/27/why-india-is-captured-by-carbon David Rose demystifies the seeming hypocrisy of India PM Modi’s Environmental message. As with many developing countries, enforcement of environmental protections is an open question and the obvious weak point in any potential environmental advances for India. The biologist in me is highly skeptical that covering exhausted coal mines and replanting … Continue reading If you read one piece of climate-related reporting this month…
Today I fasted for the climate. I fasted in solidarity with people who are losing their lives and livelihoods to climate change, and with those who are dedicating every ounce of themselves to fighting it. Climate change is going to bring hungry days to the world, more than we’re prepared to cope with. Most fundamentally, … Continue reading Fast For Climate
This is a message to everyone who’s followed me so far. I’m currently about 2 months from the end of a year of teaching in Hunan Province in China—and two months away from the wide open road. This summer, I’ll bike more than 2,500 km across China in the first phase of the project that … Continue reading T-minus 2 Months: My Climate Story, A Sketch of My Message
Note: This will be the last of my weekly posts. I’ve found that in recent months that this deadline has begun to limit the project rather than pushing it further. Having it in place pushed me to establish a routine of writing, but now the short timeline is preventing me from working on longer-form pieces and planning … Continue reading An end to weekly posts? Here’s why.
360 by bike 