5,000km kayak trip to save the planet

by JANE HANKS
AN AUSTRALIAN environmental campaigner has arrived in Paris after an epic eight-month and 5,000km kayak journey to highlight his calls for next month’s UN Conference on Climate Change to halt fossil fuel extraction and begin conversion to renewable energy.

Steve Posselt set off from Canberra in January and paddled to Sydney before taking a plane to the Gulf of Mexico and heading up the Mississippi.

Once he reached New York he flew to Bristol, crossed southern England and the Channel to arrive in Calais where he followed the coast to Le Havre so he could travel up the Seine to Paris.

One of his special achievements was to paddle past the Statue of Liberty in New York and then, last week, paddle past the quarter-size replica that is on the Ile aux Cygnes in Paris.

Calling it his Connecting Climate Chaos trip, the 62 year old said he wanted to show that Australian bush fires, super hurricanes in the US, freezing temperatures in Eastern US, UK flooding and drought in France are all connected.

A civil engineer in the water industry, he says Australian policy to increase coal mining is wrong and is helping destroy one of its most iconic natural features, the Barrier Reef.

He has done other trips to create awareness of ecological issues but said of his Australia-France challenge: “I must be able to look my grandkids in the eye and say that I tried my best.”

As he arrived in France he told Connexion : “It was physically difficult and there were dangerous moments. I think I am the only person to have ever paddled up the Lower Mississippi in a flood which was quite an experience and even going along the French coast I came up with some tricky currents.

“But the most difficult aspect was that, despite my support team it has been enormously lonely and difficult to get my message across. On other journeys I have had media interest. But though I was initially invited onto the Australian TV Today show, for example they cancelled and I think that was as soon as they knew the reason for the trip.”

Mr Posselt says it is hard to tell whether it has been worthwhile. “I know I have touched some people. In France there was a cry from the beach and the man then emailed me to say how inspired he was by what I had done.

“In the end I think it is ordinary people who will make change happen. It is up to you and me to make a difference by the way we vote and the way we live.”

To read more about his adventure see kayak4earth.com