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Episode 34: Kate Rawles
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Joy is...Waking Up.
Dr Kate Rawles is giving the world a wake up call. She is an outdoor philosopher, with multiple degrees to their name, a writer, cyclist and activist who is passionate about the need to find urgent, intelligent and effective responses to our multiple environmental challenges. With a love for endurance, she uses what she terms ‘Adventure Plus’ journeys to communicate on environmental issues and inspire positive change. Her book, The Carbon Cycle, Crossing the Great Divide, based on a bike ride from Texas to Alaska exploring climate change, was shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Festival Adventure Travel Book Award, 2013 and her upcoming book, The Life Cycle, sets our focus on Biodiversity as she cycles over 8,000 miles from Costa Rica to the southern tip of South American on a bamboo bike she built herself. Having left academia, she now lives in Cumbria and works freelance running courses that harness the power of wild places to support personal and professional positive action on environmental sustainability, alongside her activism and writing.
I spoke to Kate as she emerged from the tornado that finishing a book project entails, and I was increasingly struck, as we spoke, of the urgency of the stories that she is platforming through her writing and speaking. She is a passionate and knowledgeable communicator and, though peppered with Kate's chuckles and wry humour, many of the themes that we touched on are both shocking and vital. We discussed why statistics are not enough to wake people up; bikes as magicians and how to start conversations; the problems with a conquering mentality and being one animal amongst many; adventure as a means and metaphor for raising awareness and inspiring action; the hidden catastrophe of biodiversity loss and paying witness to both the tragedy and beauty of our relationship with the earth; the big 'Cs' of activism, and not having to be an expert.
Kate's book The Life Cycle; 8000 miles in the Andes by bamboo bike, is out with Icon Books on June 1st 2023.
Web: www.outdoorphilosophy.co.uk
FB: www.facebook.com/biodiversitybikeride
TW: @CarbonCycleKate
Inst: @CarbonCycleKate
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