WORLDFIRE - Chapter 3

Heeding the Call

“I thought of it while riding my bicycle.” Albert Einstein, on the Theory of Relativity (1879-1955)

Two weeks after I received the fateful flash of inspiration to pedal across the country, providence paid me another visit. February 16 dawned as a typical winter day in Boulder, the weather crisp and clear, as I headed out for an afternoon training ride on Baby Bike. Boulder Creek Path was snow-free, yet it was cold enough out that I had the path mostly to myself. Not yet fully committed to the enterprise, I was leaning heavily towards doing it, but was still wrestling with bouts of doubt, as most any reasonable person would do.

Dressed in layers to ward off the chill, I was pedaling along, daydreaming about how the journey to DC might take shape, when at the crest of a small rise I noticed a large bird flying straight toward me. Surprised by its low approach and imposing size, I first imagined it to be one of the many Canada Geese that populate the nearby ponds, but as it drew closer, I saw it to be a red-tailed hawk. Astonished, I calmly watched the bird of prey quickly close the gap between us. I could almost feel the air under her outstretched wings as she silently glided over me two, no more than three, feet above my helmet. If that hawk was seeking my attention, she had it.

Slamming on the brakes, I turned around to watch the raptor gracefully alight on a light pole about 30 yards away. Rolling closer to the pole, but not too close, I gazed up in wonder at the regal raptor while she calmly peered back down at me. The message I received was clear: spread your wings and fly. After maybe fifteen minutes of silently communing with that beautiful bird of prey, I thanked my feathered friend for the propitious sign before continuing on my way. This would be but the first of many hawk encounters to come, encounters that continue to this day. But it was this encounter that cemented my resolve. Lying in bed that night, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life literally on a wing and a prayer. Despite having never ridden more than 100 miles at a stretch on a bike in my life, and having no plans or contingencies for on-the-road survival, I made a promise to myself that I would make the long journey to Washington, DC even if I had to do it on Baby Bike. I had faith that whatever I lacked in experience and resources, if I moved forward with my plan, the support I needed would appear.

Taped to my office wall was my favorite quote penned by the Scottish explorer W. H. Murray, one that I often read for inspiration: "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness; concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way." I was committed. After putting my consulting business on hold, I squeaked by on my modest savings and started doing what I knew best: organizing. Drawing on all the skills I had developed over my colorful career, I threw myself into message development, sponsor recruitment, fundraising, route logistics, procuring equipment, and countless other time-consuming tasks.

Then there was the matter of physical training. Almost like I had intuitively known I would be embarking on such an expedition, I had spent much of the winter outside on my bike, so I had at least a modest foundation to build upon. I managed to get in almost daily workout rides through the winter and spring, but as planning needs grew more pressing, the rides became fewer and fewer. By the time summer rolled around, I was forced to give up training altogether, for I could no longer spare the several hours a day away from logistical planning. I would just have to train on the ride itself, which is how it eventually worked out.

The biggest step was emailing my network of friends and colleagues to announce my plans. The subject line was: “Biking from CO to DC calling for a green industrial revolution.” Hitting the send key was my own version of crossing the Rubicon. There was no turning back. Here are excerpts from that March email:

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

After spending the better part of the past five years working to embolden the U.S. wind industry to step up and lead the green industrial revolution - with limited success - I have decided to focus on what I personally can do in 2010 to help bring about the change we need. So early this fall, I will be riding an electric bicycle from Boulder, Colorado to Washington, D.C. calling for a 100% renewable electricity grid for the U.S. by 2020. 

The purpose of this 10-week bike odyssey is to help begin a new national conversation around America's energy and climate policies, while building grassroots support for this revolutionary green energy paradigm shift. The primary theme of the ride is Americans "taking back our power" by demanding a green industrial revolution that will put unemployed Americans back to work, reestablish our role as world economic leader, and help ensure future generations a livable planet…

Our political system in Washington, DC is clearly broken, with the two major political parties more interested in fighting each other than for the American people they were elected to represent. But the partisanship dividing our country today does not accurately reflect who we are as a nation. If anything, it reflects the degree to which unaccountable corporations have succeeded in diverting attention away from the real needs of the American people. The energy and climate challenges we face are not Republican, or Democratic, issues. They are American, and human, issues... Everyone needs clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, healthy food to eat and a planet to live on.

I refuse to believe that America's best days are behind her, but we need to dispense with Washington's timid "inside the beltway" mentality and start dreaming big dreams once again. There has never been a more important time for America to reclaim our moral standing in the world by reaffirming our economic might as a force for good. This is the message I hope to convey - through the voices of the American people I meet along the way - to our political leaders in Washington, DC. To that end, I will be collecting signatures on an online petition to the President and Congress issuing the 100% by 2020 demand...

I am undertaking this bike odyssey as my personal stand for the future. I hope you will stand with me.

I had no idea what sort of response to expect, but my inbox was soon flooded with enthusiastic replies, including more than a few generous offers of financial support, but those took some time to materialize. By the end of June my savings were depleted. Friends made sure I didn’t starve, but I remember twice during July having literally $1 in my wallet with nothing in the bank for a week at a time. This forced me to get creative about those neglected cans of food in the pantry. When you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, pretty much everything tastes good. In time, the contributions started trickling in, providing enough support to keep me afloat.

Even more challenging, in the early going when friends weren’t around, were the waves of loneliness that seemed to regularly wash over me as I toiled away, alone, in my small apartment. I can say without exaggeration that I have never worked harder than during those seven months I toiled without a salary. I rode out each of the waves in turn, reminding myself of the promise I had made to myself to see the mission through. One day, I found unexpected salve for the lonesomeness during a remarkable shamanic journey a shamanic practitioner friend made on my behalf.  She conveyed to me that I was not alone, I had nothing to fear, and I had powerful spirit guides watching over me. Lying there, I was told I would be lifted and carried by the wings of angel feathers. I was told these soft feathers would protect me. I was told to imagine ring after ring of the Animal Kingdom encircling me in love and support as I pedaled. I knew all of this to be true, along with other things that were revealed to me during that journey. This brought me to tears and buoyed me beyond measure.

My childhood friend, Matt Cooper, generously dedicated some of his hard-earned vacation time while visiting me to help map out my route, a task we thankfully never completed, thereby freeing the journey from structure and opening it up to spontaneous flow. Another friend, Pete Shanta, also spent days at my place helping me plan, before ferrying me up to Aspen where he mountain biked while I attended an American Renewable Energy Day conference. There I hobnobbed with some of the glitterati of the ecology movement and was buoyed by the enthusiastic response to my cause. This took the form of generous pledges of financial support from philanthropist Ted Turner and Greenpeace’s Executive Director, Phil Radford, along with a personal endorsement from actress/activist Daryl Hannah, whom I had long admired for her fearless activism in defense of Mother Earth.

While there, I got to catch up with my friend, Jim Walker, who shared these thoughtful insights on the coal industry: “First of all, for the most part, the coal industry built up not knowing that it was going to be a possible major consequence for the climate. So the people that are in West Virginia, the coal miners, the honest people that built that industry I have a lot of respect for and they’ve done a great deal for us. They’ve kept the lights on and they’ve done, you know, more than an honest day’s work down in the coal mine. I can’t imagine what it’s like to do that. But now we know. We know that the consequences of putting that much carbon in the air are very, very serious.” Jim continued: “Most of the coal plants, you could retire them, all the coal plants in the United States, very easily in twenty years. If you want to be aggressive, you could retire them in ten years… The lights aren’t going to go off. We’ve built lots of extra gas plants in the last ten years. We’ll just ramp in wind, solar, and efficiency over this next ten years and I think we can have the electric sector be 50, 80, 100 percent renewables in ten years.” While in Aspen, I also got a chance to interview renewable energy crusader Harvey Wasserman, who buoyed my spirits when he said of my upcoming journey: “Your bike ride I think is kind of a Paul Revere situation where we really have to let the people know for sure that this technology is available and this transition needs to be made.”

Later, back in Boulder, ride planning continued, and by mid-August I was broke again. One morning, out of toilet paper, I remembered a free coffee coupon in my wallet and took the opportunity of redeeming it to grab a generous handful of napkins from a dispenser on my way out the door. But what worried me more was being less than a month away from the ride launch and still not having what felt like the most important ingredient: an eye-catching vehicle. It was one thing to have the right message, which I was confident I had with the ten-year 100% renewables goal. It was quite another to have the right vehicle to deliver that message. Few people would care what a middle-aged white guy pedaling through their town on a little red bike had to say about much of anything, let alone the climate crisis. Some might ask how far I had come, or how far I was going, but not many, and certainly not members of the press. I needed a special vehicle to get my message through.

Finding that vehicle became a whole journey unto itself, full of potholes, detours, and dead-ends. It was a herculean task that took nearly six months of searching, with my big-hearted friend, Paul Alexander, doing most of the heavy lifting. To provide a sense of the scope of the search, Paul visited more than a thousand websites in one week alone. Our quarry was an eye-catching bike with an electric-assist motor that would allow me to tout the benefits of electric vehicles. I remember both of us being surprised by the dearth of creative options in the U.S. compared to Europe, where electric vehicle technology was much more advanced. We explored many options, but for various reasons, none of them panned out.

Finally, one morning, with the launch date creeping perilously close, I opened an email from Paul with a photo of a velomobile (a recumbent bike with an aerodynamic shell) with an electric-assist motor built into the rear hub. The second I saw the space age-looking craft I knew the search was over. It was even my favorite color: yellow. Built in Germany by Beyss, the original Go-One3 prototype was inspired by Michael Goretzky, who helped develop Daimler Chrysler’s popular Smart car. Designed as a three-wheeled recumbent, the Go-One trike encloses the rider in a lightweight carbon fiber shell. There weren’t many such trikes stateside, but I lucked upon one on sale through a New Jersey-based distributor. I wasn’t happy about it, but not being able to risk buying such an expensive vehicle sight unseen, and now just weeks away from the launch, I cashed in some frequent flier miles from my wind industry days to fly to New Jersey to take it for a test ride. I was not to be disappointed.

The velomobile that awaited me came complete with a lithium-ion battery pack mounted on the rear rack, which powered a 350-watt electric-assist motor built into the hub of the back wheel. When I took the happy-colored trike out for a spin, I had so much fun I didn’t want to get out. Everywhere I went, it turned heads and made people smile. Heck, it made me smile. Then when people started taking pictures, I knew I had something special. It was the perfect ambassador for my mission, except for one little detail: the price tag. It was then that I remembered my retirement nest egg, and over the strenuous objections of my financial advisor, liquidated my modest IRA to pay for this Lamborghini of bikes. Even with the tax penalty, it was enough to cover the cost of the trike and pay all my bills.

I will never forget the day the trike was delivered to my apartment. Prying open the large wooden crate in the gravel driveway, I felt like a kid at Christmas. In the days to follow, I happily rode the velomobile all over Boulder, but I couldn’t figure out what to call it. Among the names I overheard others call it were Space Pod, Banana Bike, Lady Gaga Egg, and Coolest Thing Ever (I heard that one a lot). My personal favorite was from an excited University of Colorado student who gushed that it would be like riding around in your “own private spaceship.” He’s right. For me at least, when I swing my legs over the edge of the sleek shell and settle myself into the cockpit’s reclined seat, it is about as close to feeling like a real rocket man as I am probably ever going to get. Then one afternoon, bouncing around names with my friend Andy Dieringer, he said it was a trike that looked kind of like a rocket. Given the green energy moon shot theme, why not call it a rocket trike? So that is how the rocket trike got its name. If you're wondering about Baby Bike, I donated it to a local bike shop that spruced it up before sending it to Africa as part of a bike giveaway program, where hopefully it found an owner it fits.

Thrilled to finally have my head-turning vehicle in hand, I continued ticking down my slowly shrinking to-do list: clean apartment; move stuff into storage; buy gear and food; create media list; draft online petition; write press release; get logo designed; create sponsor decals; and produce promotional video. I was leaving on a trip with no sense of when I might return, and my preparations reflected that reality. Eventually, enough contributions materialized to finance the entire undertaking.

Since I was traveling solo with no support, scheduling events ahead of time was out of the question. There was no way to predict how far I would make it on any given day. A planner by nature, this took me awhile to get used to. With no set schedule or itinerary, nearly all of my encounters would end up being the spontaneous kind. Little did I know at the time how much mysterious power this would impart to the undertaking. Traveling without support also meant I had to bring everything I needed to survive with me. There was room for only two saddlebags on the back of the trike, so almost everything had to fit into the equivalent of two medium-sized backpacks. Compared to most people, I already lived like a minimalist, but an expedition like this one required taking minimalism to a whole new level.

The two pieces of equipment most indispensable to my enterprise were a laptop computer and smart phone. The laptop was not just for email and surfing the web. It would become my mobile film production studio for editing and uploading videos to my YouTube channel and for posting photos to my website and social media sites. The smart phone was also more than just a phone. It would serve as my camera and as my video camera for conducting person-on-the-street interviews. When tethered to my laptop, it would also provide essential Wi-Fi access for what would become my nightly ritual of recounting the day’s happenings.

Here is what else I packed: a two-person tent; rain fly; tarp, lightweight sleeping bag; felt liner; inflatable sleeping pad; mini pillow; fleece pants and jacket; AllEarth Renewables baseball cap; Montbell rain jacket; rain pants; mini stove; packets of freeze-dried food; pouches of Café Mate tea; packets of Justin’s Nut Butter; Sierra cup; first-aid kit; trowel; bike shoes (for when it got too cold for bike sandals); bike socks; an extra pair of shorts; a few T-shirts; a few pairs of underwear; a pair of jeans; mesh toiletry bag; camping soap; razor; Band-Aids; toothbrush; toothpaste; dental floss; chain lube; and spare bike parts, tubes, and tools.

For quick access, in a fanny pack that fit above the seat behind my head and conveniently doubled as a headrest, I stashed my wallet; debit card; headlamp; Swiss Army knife; lighter; spork; pens; mini can opener; and zip-lock bags for receipts and other miscellaneous items. Stashed on the floor of the trike was a box of 500 business cards; my coffee mug; sunscreen; and a two-liter water bladder with an attached hose that allowed me to rehydrate as I pedaled. Along with two American flag bike jerseys, I bought a new bike helmet; clip-in bike sandals; bike gloves; a flagpole; and a small American flag to fly. Finally, to ensure my wheels didn’t roll away while I slept, I purchased a sturdy lock and a six-foot cable that wrapped like a snake around the trike’s rear fork.

After having clip-in pedals installed at my local bike shop, I had a few more minor modifications made to the trike courtesy of the friendly staff at my local hardware store, McGuckin. A car shop tricked out the trike with a blinker system that was powered by a flexible solar panel draped over the rear saddlebags. Affixed to the trike’s joystick steering column was a throttle for engaging the electric-assist motor, a bike bell, and a second solar charger to keep my smart phone charged while I pedaled. I affixed two solar-powered CATEYE headlights and a solar-powered rear light to make me more visible to cars. I then installed a phone mount to the roof of the trike, to allow me to film as I pedaled. The final touch was drilling two small holes into the floor to allow for drainage when it rained. The end result was eloquently described by my friend and local energy efficiency expert Larry Kinney as “not just a bike,” but an “elegantly-designed light vehicle of carbon fiber that demonstrates the potential for efficient transportation systems–and speaks volumes about improving environmental quality in ways that are pleasing to Mother Nature.”

In the ten days between when I officially launched the ride and actually started pedaling east, I took advantage of Boulder having more climate scientists per square mile than anywhere else on the planet to interview some of those scientists, and other experts, for my YouTube channel. One afternoon I pedaled up the steep hill to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where I spoke with one of the world’s top climate experts, Dr. Kevin Trenberth. Kevin explained to me, in clear and simple terms, why society’s alarm bells should be going off: “The changes that are occurring now are occurring a hundred times faster than they have occurred in the past from geological causes, and so the reason to be concerned is not because of climate change per se, it’s because of the rate of climate change.” When I asked Kevin what he thought of climate deniers, he didn't hold back: “Many of these people are not only merchants of doubt with regard to climate change, but also with regard to tobacco and acid rain and a host of other issues. And so a lot of this is ideologically driven, in part. Some of it relates very much to vested interests... the American Petroleum Institute is one that has lobbied as a strong denier of the need to do anything about this kind of problem.”

On another day, I rolled down the street to interview the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Dr. Mark Serreze, who shared this sobering warning: “What I think our elected officials really need to understand about the Arctic and global climate in general is that climate change is here. It is not something that we look out as something potentially 50 years out there that we don’t have to worry about and maybe our children or grandchildren will. It is here, it is now, and we’re the cause of this. We see a great backlash these days from the so-called skeptics who will try and seed doubt as to the cause of climate change or even the existence of climate change in the first place. Some of them have an agenda, I’m sure. Some of them are probably just plain ignorant, and ignorance is one thing that we can fight through knowledge… The Arctic is simply that canary in the coal mine leading the way, demonstrating things that are in store for the rest of the planet. I really think that’s what we need to understand and get across. This is not some theoretical thing that’s happening. It is happening now.”

Before leaving Boulder, I also sat down with Sandy Butterfield, former chief engineer of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Wind Technology Center, to ask if he believed the U.S. could achieve the goal of 100% renewable electricity in ten years. Here is Sandy’s discerning response: “It is absolutely ambitious. There’s no question about it. But could we do it? I think we can do it. I think that the opportunity here, though, is for us to recognize that this isn’t simply us solving a problem and it’s all cost. This is an opportunity for us as a country, and for us as a people… The rest of the world is embracing these opportunities. Do we have a chance to catch up? I think we do. I think we absolutely do.”

The theme of American leadership would come up again while speaking at the inaugural meeting of the University of Colorado (CU) Energy Club, where more than 60 students packed the room. The enthusiastic response to my talk was proof positive that, at least at CU Boulder, renewable energy is catching fire with students. After the meeting, I interviewed the club’s president, Scott Wooley, who challenged the cynics by saying: “People tell my generation all the time that things aren’t possible, that this is just the way it is and that we should sit back and enjoy the show. These are the same things that people said to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King... Just because it’s the way it works now doesn’t mean that that’s how the future’s going to happen. Your generation put a man on the Moon… something that we did in the span of ten years, something people said was impossible.”

This young leader then shared what’s at stake: “For my generation, as we grow up into this context of climate change, and ecological damage, and social injustice, renewable energy is… the central piece that connects everything. Energy is integrated into all of our lives, from the ski lifts I love to ride on to the light bulbs that are lighting this interview... it’s a little bit daunting, but it’s not just a problem. It’s a challenge and it’s an opportunity for all of us as a generation, as people who have been put in this situation, to come together and to fight for a single cause of supporting all of our values at the same time.” He closed by stressing the need for U.S. leadership: “Renewable energy is about setting an example that the rest of the world can follow. And if the developing world takes America as their example as we are today, we won’t have a future, none of us will. And so, for me, renewable energy is leadership. We have to be the beacon of light that moves the whole world forward.”

My final interview before continuing east was with Jack Groverland, Minister of Boulder’s Unity Church. I wanted to know about the large solar array on the church’s rooftop which I learned had slashed the church’s monthly energy bills by more than 75 percent. But Jack, being a minister, wanted to go deeper: “Underneath all of this is the truth that we share with our congregation and our people, and that is we’re all part of this beautiful planet. And you just have to be marginally awake to realize that we have to be more responsible with how we treat this planet that gives us life... We have to be respectful of it. How can we best fit in here and work to help lower the carbon footprint and possibly have some small little impact on this global warming that’s threatening future generations? I appeal to all of the religious community to sit down with your board of directors and talk to your congregation and say whatever it is you believe about heaven and where it might be, you still can think that while we’re here, while we’re all here on this planet, we should do the best that we can to make sure we’re facilitating the harmony and the beauty that we can give to our children and our grandchildren and generations to come. That’s always been the bottom line for us… we had to stretch to get this project going, but once it started, people felt so good about it that it actually increased the regular tithe that we receive. People are proud that they have been part of this solar project.” After the interview, Jack’s wife, Norma, surprised me by loaning me the church’s beautiful Earth flag, which I would have flown along with my American flag but for its large size. But it made it into one of my saddlebags, folded up, for the journey to DC.

Then there was finalizing the language for my online petition, the tool I would use to engage people in my mission. The idea was to collect signatures on the petition from people I met along the way and from others following the journey online, to be delivered to the White House and members of Congress at the ride’s conclusion. After months of drafting and redrafting the language, this is what I settled on:

IT'S TIME TO RENEW AMERICA WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY.

GREEN ENERGY: America has enough solar, wind and geothermal resources to meet all of our electricity needs.

NEW JOBS: Millions of new jobs will be created by shifting tax breaks and subsidies from polluting fossil fuels and dangerous nuclear power to energy efficiency and clean, healthy renewables.

CUTTING CARBON EMISSIONS: A national moratorium on new coal plants, followed by a phase-out of existing coal plants, is required to cut carbon emissions to 350 parts per million or less (the level top climate scientists say is needed to secure a livable planet).

BACKING COAL MINERS: Displaced coal miners deserve guaranteed retraining and healthy, safe green-sector jobs.

SUPPORTING OUR VETERANS: Veterans returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan have earned retraining and re-employment in the green jobs sector.

DEMOCRATIZING ENERGY PRODUCTION: We need policies to ensure that Americans who produce renewable energy at their homes and businesses can profit from selling that energy to the grid.

AMERICA’S OPPORTUNITY: We must act quickly to reassert our global economic competitiveness, revitalize our economy and secure our energy independence.

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DO HEREBY CALL UPON THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL GOAL OF A 100% RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY GRID BY 2020.

This is America. We can do it.

One of the last orders of business was the production of a promotional video for my website urging people to sign my petition and follow the ride online. The short video opened with dramatic footage of Apollo’s Saturn V rocket blasting off with the iconic voice of NASA launch commentator Jack King announcing, “Liftoff,” before hearing President Kennedy famously ask: “Why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? We choose to go to the moon!” The video then playfully panned to footage of my three-wheeled capsule rolling by as I reminded viewers: “When President Kennedy announced the moon shot program for America, he didn’t say we’re gonna do it in 30 years, he didn’t even say we’re gonna do it in 20 years. He said we’re gonna do it by the end of the decade… It’s time for a green energy moon shot for America.”

The last thing on my to-do list was a visit to the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine for a trike fitting and check-up on my 48-year-old knees. My doctor and his staff got a kick out of seeing the rocket trike and gave this middle-aged recreational cyclist the kind of attention you would expect for a tour pro. He was, in fact, flying to Spain the following week to work with Tour de France winner Alberto Contador. Knowing I was in the hands of the best in the business gave this weekend warrior a big boost of confidence.

After seven long months of planning and preparation, it was finally time to share my green dream for America with America.

Now that you have the backstory, let’s get back on the road.

NOTE: The written form of WORLDFIRE is the authoritative version. Any inadvertent errors in transcribing the recordings are mine and mine alone.