January 2010
Turn On Turn Off
High five Off their bikes
Saddle up and change the world
Over the last two years Otesha cycle tours have pedalled down to the low lying lands of East Anglia, up high to bonny Scotland, cycled circles around Devon and Cornwall and braved wild wet Wales (twice). This year we’re taking on the big one - Land’s End to John O'Groats.
From July to August this summer a team of 18-28 year olds will make their way from the southernmost point of Cornwall to the northernmost tip of Scotland. On their way they’ll stop at schools, youth clubs, festivals and communities to deliver workshops, a play and learn plenty of stuff for themselves too. The team will live on and out of their bikes and a few trusty trailers, and they’ll take turns cooking for and looking after each other.
If you're 18-28 years old and fancy joining us for eight weeks on the road here’s lots more information and a three minute film to show you what it’s all about.
If you’re bursting with questions, see if Hanna’s FAQs page has the answers. Failing that, get it straight from the horse’s mouth on 0207 702 4137 or .
Tar Sands
They’ve been called “the biggest environmental crime in history”, the solution to Peak Oil and the “Great White Hope of a panacea to support business as usual”. George Monbiot’s written about them, the founder of Wikipedia urges you to read the entry on them, and many other people have begged Shell, BP and RBS to get out of them.
The Tar Sands are the biggest opencast mining operation on earth; they’re also the world’s biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions. There are many, many animal, vegetable and mineral reasons why the exploitation of the Tar Sands is a bad idea. The extraction of oil from the Tar Sands uses large quantities of water and natural gas, decimates vast swathes of forests, pollutes rivers, poisons people and wildlife and uses two to three times as much energy as refining crude oil.
Our Hanna made a fantastic short film about the Tar Sands. This project - the biggest development in the world - is something everyone should know about. So tell your friends - send them a postcard from the tar face. Then join the UK Tar Sands Network.
According to Copenhagen
Not many people, ice caps or polar bears were best pleased with the Copenhagen Accord that came out of last month’s UN Climate Change Conference. Radio 4’s The Now Show has handily distilled two weeks worth of UN negotiations into a five minute poem in the style of Dr Seuss. We also love this.
Revolutionary Resolutions
According to some clever bloke on the Internet, people have been making new year's resolutions since 153BC. This month we challenge you to carry on the tradition and commit yourself to a green resolution.
We’ve resolved to:
• Go to more swishing parties (that’s clothes swapping to the lay men)
• Stop buying new clothes
• Mend old clothes
• Reuse water bottles and stop buying mineral water
• Take showers inside of baths
• Eat less dairy
• Write more letters (to friends and MPs)
• Protest more
• Brave the weather and the traffic and cycle to work everyday.
We want to know yours too - as usual a Fairtrade chocolate bar to our favourite. So send your suitably sustainable new year's resolutions to .
And remember, if you break yours, you can always start again on the Chinese or Persian new years.
And finally
This month we are wrapping up warm and putting snow tyres on our bikes. Happy New Year!
Jo, Busayo, Hanna, Carla & Liz
The Otesha Project UK
www.otesha.org.uk