On October 2, 2016, Forrest Watkins will arrive in Sarajevo as part of his 360 By Bike tour. The young journalist is traveling around the world by bicycle, searching for stories of climate change and the world’s rapidly changing energy landscape.
He began his tour in central China in the summer of 2015, and has since traveled more than 12,000 kilometers by bicycle. He plans to continue bicycling until he completes 40,075 km, or one circumference of the earth.
Watkins says the goal of the project is to better understand the ways in which climate change affects people from around the world, but also to study the work of those looking for solutions. “Climate change disproportionally impacts underprivileged communities. I think the stories of those communities can be incredibly powerful, in their ability to show not only the suffering caused by climate change, but also humanity’s resilience in the face of this crisis.”
“I have a special place in my heart for the stories of people who are innovating to rapidly scale up low-emissions energy and farming efforts, and to ensure the ownership and management of these projects makes it into the hands of underprivileged communities.
“I think too often people try to wrap these stories up in nice little packages, when real-life solutions are difficult and messy and full of uncertainty. There’s something engaging about the day-to-day progress of people working on a massive and unsolved problem. When we tell the story right, that tension is very engaging for our readers.”
According to Watkins, traveling by bicycle isn’t just about reducing his personal carbon footprint. “On my bike, I can spend more time out in the world without spending very much money, and I think it really helps lower the barrier between me, the traveler, and people I meet along the road.”
The project’s website, 360bybike.org, publishes pieces from local writers and artists as well as Watkins’ own work.
Watkins will remain in Sarajevo from the evening of October 2nd until the 6th of October, when he will depart to ride north towards Copenhagen.
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