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.



Saturday, January 12, 2008

Tornado Warning (Malkolm)


“Y’all know we’re in a tornado watch zone?”

A man leaned out of a truck window. We must have looked an odd sight, three sopping cyclists, squatting in the mud, eating lunch. “Just letting y’all know.” He pulled away, leaving us alone with the rain. Texas had greeted us with headwinds, Louisiana with freezing temperatures, now Mississippi was welcoming us with a downpour and a tornado threat.

We packed up our lunch and cycled on: puddles and pavement below, and massive, dark thunderheads above. I remembered a line from a comedy paper, “If you see a tornado coming, lie in a ditch. If you are already lying in a ditch, do not sit up.” I had laughed when I had read that, but it didn’t seem that funny now.

A few hours later we pulled in to a small town, and headed for an RV park. Wendy walked into the office, I stayed outside and minded our bikes. Through the window I could hear Wendy’s conversation with the clerk. “The weather will be gettin’ worse.” The clerk said. “It’s a tornado warning now. Our other RV park up in Hattiesburg was hit by two tornadoes today – that’s just twenty miles north. Watch out.”

We decided against tenting, and traipsed into a small cabin. If we see a tornado we plan to take refuge in the bathroom of the cabin, which is less likely to get smashed into a pile of sticks. If you want to find out if we survive – y’all will have to read a future blog!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Malkolm,
This is your uncle writing. Are you there? Copy? Are you in ditch? Copy?
Malkolm? Come in Malkolm? We need to hear from you...
This is Alexandra and Pip.how are you?is dip with you?if so how does he like the sound of a big storm coming?
Bye!