"On 5 June 2023 (World Environment Day) I set off to visit 30 local communities over three months covering 3,000 miles around the British mainland. To do this I built a bike from a kit supplied by the Bamboo Bike Club, with steel reinforcements at the joins.
I experienced the extremes of our own climate within the first month.
I got sunburnt blistering ears then rode through torrential rain that made my hands freeze during the wettest July on record. Along the route I visited projects that varied from rewilding and food-foraging schemes, to lobster hatcheries and beach clean-ups.
The toughest point on the ride was the stretch from Strathcarron in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow. It rained continuously for five days and I was riding 70 miles a day. My hands got so cold I had to pop my fingers into my mouth to warm them enough to change gears.
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Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
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