… the world’s got me!

In the last few weeks I have been part of a two different bike actions.

The first is the regular Critical Mass reclaim the streets ride ~ this happens the last friday of every month where a collection of cyclists meet at the Albert Park fountain at 5.30 for a ride through the city. Critical Mass is a concept that is done worldwide and is based on a few key principals relating to safe cycling and bike riding advocacy.

The second was the inaugral Frocks on Bikes ride which took place last saturday along Ponsonby Road, a significant amount of people (with a great percentage wearing frocks ~ both boys and girls) met at Western Park and took to Ponsonby Rd to do their part for climate change. This is a great way to encourage people to come and cycle ~ cycling in big groups is fun and safe and also it shows the public that bike riding is a valid altetnative to motor vehicles.

This time in the lead up to the 2008 General Election has seen plenty of organisations getting out there and taking action on issues that matter.

Last week SAFE activists boarded busy inner city buses dressed in pig costumes and squeezed into tiny seats to highlight the little space a pig has when rasied in stalls. This is to coincide with TV spots currently airing on TV3 & C4 as part of SAFE’s LovePigs campaign.

Earlier this morning two teams of Greenpeace activists halted a major conversion of forest land to intensive dairy farming. The first team locked themselves to heavy machinery and the other have used rotary hoes to write CLIMATE CRIME in 5m-high letters into the fresh pasture. Click here for more info + photos.

What can we do to help? Aside from getting our orange overalls and taking action by locking ourselves to heavy machinery? I just came across this cool website called Ripple which uses the internet to generate money for charity. You could become a supporter of SAFE or Greenpeace who are two charitable organisations doing imperitve work to protect the welfare of our animals and our planet.

What other things can we be doing in an attempt to get proactive about issues we care about?