Activist bikes to Brazil for ecology

On Sept. 17, Paul Joseph "P.J." Park loaded up b_is custom, Dutch-built, $2,700 touring bike with mounted waterproof gear bags and headed south from his home in Washington, D.C., for a 8,000-mile trip. His destination: Natal, Brazil.

An avid environmentalist, Park, 26, is on a mission to promote cycling as a means of transportation and to garner support for the Climate Stewardship Act, a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Senate to cap greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from car and truck exhaust and from coal-fired power plants. At each stop, Park has asked people to sign a petition in support of the bill. The federal act would cap greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 at 2000 levels, and would require compliance by all U.S. businesses and industries, Park said.

The bill will subsidize technologies to "jump-start the market to help corporations to meet the caps," Park told NCR during a stop in Raleigh, N.C., early in his trip.

Park said past efforts to curb emissions that cause acid rain were "a resounding success" in reducing acid rain damage. A reduction of greenhouse gases is also an. achievable goal, he said.

"In my everyday life I try to live a lifestyle that relies as little as possible on burning fossil fuels," Park said. In Washington, he rode his bike six miles each way to work, limited his use of electricity and persuaded his family to buy "green power," an option where a utility company allows customers to supplement their energy needs with renewable energy sources.

Before he left home, Park's family and friends held a party and fundraiser that collected about $1,400 for trip expenses.

Park, who lived in Brazil with a local family in 1999 while he did two months of volunteer work, speaks Portuguese, Brazil's native language, and Spanish.

In February, he reached Mexico.

On his journey Park has met Canadian anarchists, peasants who have offered him food and lodging, and many kind people who have befriended him. His lone flat tire came when he ran over a nail in Raleigh.

[Patrick O'Neill is a freelance writer living in Raleigh, N.C.]

By PATRICK O'NEILL

Raleigh, N.C.

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