Malkolm is cycling on! He is now cycling from Alaska to Washington DC, and then continuing on to the UN Climate Change conference in Cancun in December.
It all started with Bird Year, Malkolm and his parents' year-long, fossil-fuel-free journey in search of birds. Cycling a total of 13,133 miles (21,144 km), they identified 548 different bird species and raised more than $25,000 for bird conservation. Bird Year turned them into confirmed cyclists and taught them that climate change was more serious than they had thought.
In 2009, Malkolm biked from Whitehorse to Ottawa as a part of Pedal for the Planet: the project called for the Canadian Government to become a leader in the struggle to come to grips with climate change. The Harper Government did not even meet with the young cyclists.
Malkolm is now 18 and just finished high school. On August 24, he dipped his foot in the Pacific Ocean in Skagway, Alaska. Then headed up and over the White Pass to the Alaska Highway on his journey to Washington and on to Cancun.



Sunday, May 27, 2007

Marathon Birdathon (Malkolm, May 27)


This weekend we put the last two syllables of the word “marathon” back into the Yukon Birdathon. Ken, Wendy and I are recovering today, after 16 hours of frantic birding and a few hours of deep sleep. We traveled about 50 miles, scouring marshes, spruce forests and a putrid sewage lagoon. We finished our birdathon along the Yukon River admiring a singing Warbling Vireo, or 77th species. The star bird of the birdathon was an Eared Grebe, only the fifth Yukon record. It was conveniently swimming alongside a pair of our more common Horned Grebes for comparison. I thought that it was considerate, although the grebe no doubt did not have our welfare in mind.
Wendy hopes that our Bird Year will not be as exhausting as the birdathon. If it turns out to be, either we’ll end it with loads of species – or we’ll finish it halfway through, in a hospital with fatigue-induced something.
(to the left is Malkolm's drawing of the Eared Grebe)

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