Climate Ride California, was a success!  Keegan Eisenstadt, ClearSky CEO, and Devin Trainor, ClearSky’s new intern, cycled together as part of the first California Climate Ride.  Over 100 riders rolled along the northern coast of California as part of a fundraising bike ride for climate change awareness and bike advocacy.

Here Devin reports on his experience:

It took a full week of dedication and extreme logistics but we pulled it off!  The sleep deprivation and sweat was well worth it.  Each rider raised $2,400 for the event.  This money was donated to 1 Sky, Rails to Trails Conservancy, and Green America.  Riders were cyclists, non-cyclists, educators, students, business people, advocates, young, and old.  The ride was a forum for creating climate action connections through an untraditional platform – the bicycle.   The bicycle took us through the impressive coastal redwoods.  Cycling 320 miles created a common experience for all of us to struggle through.  As we were pushing up hills, a comparative simile came to mind of the climate policy struggle our nation has been pushing on Capitol Hill.  We endured these long hills and full days to contemplate, connect, raise money, and raise awareness.

The ride is best summarized by day 3:  A 100 mile day.

• A 7am departure,
• A 10 hour ride,
• Devoured every edible part of a pasta dinner,
• Listened to captivating lectures from University of Pennsylvania’s, Dan Garofalo, and an internationally acclaimed photographer, Chris Jordan,
• With images of decaying seabirds and colorful plastics piles where their stomachs should have been, the riders set up camp and go to sleep while the staff summoned energy to plan the entire next day.

As part of my ClearSky internship, I am positioned to gain a foot into the complex world of current climate action.  The issues are immense and often intimidating.  Educating oneself goes as far as your mind is willing to participate, then what?  Information does not act on its own, it must be translated into action.  Climate Ride is one approach, and it all adds up!

With the newest climate change bill unveiled in the Senate last week, it has kick-started the same debate: to ’solve’ climate change or to focus on reviving the economy.  Interestingly, there are few actors in the policy and economic debate that view the two goals as linked.  However, bringing about a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions IS an economic development activity.  I find the inability to link the two goals in the news to be fascinating.  How is it possible that the US discourse can be so short-term?  How can the planet’s future ability to comfortably sustain human society be addressed by a system that has tremendous difficulty seeing beyond the next election cycle, the next fiscal-year, the fiscal quarter or the close of business stock price?  It is proving to be quite a challenge!

That said, the more bills that come out of the House and Senate, the better chance we have of joining the world in earnestly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.  Having looked at the bill, and its predecesors, it comes nowhere close to the target set by the international scientific community.  But then, it appears that isn’t the goal of the first piece of climate change legislation in the US.  Instead, it appears that the goal is really to START….and to then adapt and fix it along the way.

As the long, heart-breaking process of watching the US Senate wrangle through another piece of climate legislation begins, it is a good time to reflect and take a deep breath.  As the teeth of the legislation become dull during the process, it is important to realize that TO START is the key.  To make the new societal baseline understanding, “one of action” appears to be the key.  After all, if the carbon market is still considered a key component of our response to climate change in 50 years – we will have missed the boat.  It is a great transitional tool, to leverage the efficiency of markets to achieve the common goal of reduced greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.  But the ultimate goal, transitioning off of a fossil fuel economy is the key to humanity’s response to this challenge.  The carbon market, and carbon offsets provide a unique opportunity to make the transition away from our fossil fuel addiction much easier and quicker – but the carbon offset, in and of itself, is not the solution.

I guess, understanding the ultimate goal and comparing that to the current state of debate – one can take heart that the debate has begun…….and NONE TOO SOON (and a little bit late)!!!

Another deep breath…….and a lot of work…..and we’ll change the world.

Keegan Eisenstadt