Environmentalists are to cycle the length of the Americas, from Alaska to Argentina, in search of solutions to global warming.
10:24PM BST 22 May 2009By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
One pair of cyclists will travel through North America, the land of the gas guzzler, while another team of two will cycle down South America, where virgin rainforest have been cleared for cattle ranches.
The aim is to show how different areas of the world are contributing to greenhouse emissions in an ongoing video blog and 13-part documentary television series called Going South.
But the ground-breaking expedition is also in search for solutions to climate change. Twenty-six innovative projects will be filmed including a scheme to reduce the amount of nappies going to landfill in Oregon, a fish farm powered with biodiesel in Honduras and a project to capture fog for drinking water in Chile.
The Going South team will cycle a distance of 25,000 miles altogether and visit 21 countries over eight months.
The four cyclists, who come from all over the world, all have experience in environmental research, from working on sustainability in the Marshall Islands to researching deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and treating farm animals in Sweden.
The stories of travelling through North and South America will be intertwined with the different personal experiences of the cyclists.
The first team will cycle down North America, from Prudhoe Bay at the top of Alaska to the Panama Canal. Andrew Finlay, 32, a British environmental consultant has just returned from two years as the government environmental adviser in the Marshall Islands in Micronesia.
He said the trip will show contrasting impacts, from widespread logging in Canada to natural devastation wreaked by extreme weather in poorer communities in the US and Central America.
"Travelling the length of the North American continent by bicycle is going to be a study in contrasts. We will pass through some of the richest and poorest countries on the planet during our journey," he said.
"When you travel on a bike, relying only on the energy you generate yourself, you experience the real meaning of a journey and that is truly exciting."
Anna Kortschak, 44, is an Australian who works internationally on arts and media projects with marginalised social groups.
"I look forward to this exciting and wonderful journey," she said. "I want to show the appalling environmental issues, but also the social problems in many regions that we will pass through. I am convinced that this project will make it possible to show all the small, and mostly anonymous, environmental projects that are contributing to a better world. They deserve to be heard. "
The second team will cycle the length of South America, from Colombia to Ushuaia at the bottom of Argentina. .
Javier Godar, 31, is Spanish with a Master's degree in tropical forestry and has recently been awarded his PhD having spent the last four years researching deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
"The South American continent has it all in forms of deep forests, oceans, the Andean mountain range with its ice capped volcanoes and glaciers," he said. "Arid deserts, pampas and salty lakes. There are the old Inca ruins as well as modern bustling cities. We will meet a wide variety of humans, traditions and ideas."
Åsa Brandhill, 30, is a Swedish veterinary surgeon who strongly believes in the animal rights and the need to protect species and the environment.
"I'd like to share my deepest respect and my sincere concerns for the mighty Mother Nature. In the documentary Going South I have a great chance to express both and to reach a wide range of people," she said.