Hi Everyone
I am about to make a complete goose of myself, so I am asking for your help to make sure that does not happen.
This is the story. The Captain Cook Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas vies with the Great Ocean Road in Victoria for being the most beautiful drive in Australia.
Well, on September 11 they are going to close it off to traffic for the Gran Fondo cycling event. For purely selfish reasons so I can cycle this road without traffic I put myself down for the 50km section of the event (just one way; some idiots do it both ways on the same day).
I went through all of the online bumf saying that I would not sue the organisers if an alien creature infiltrated the cogs of my bike’s gears or if I caught monkey pox from a cane toad en route etc etc.
But then one of those infuriating online things happened which said I could not register for the event without nominating a charity to take proceeds from sponsors.
I was going to just self-donate $10 and be done with it, but all the donations and money raised would be made public, so my effort would be pretty weak and humiliating.
I even thought of staging an accident on a different day causing the cops to block the road so I could ride it traffic free, but that seemed a little extreme, and possibly illegal.
So I am reduced to pleading for a few donations to make my ride respectable. The charity I chose was the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Sure, if the idiots who govern us allow 2.5 degrees of global warming nothing will save the reef.
But recent work and evidence shows that re-seeding and regeneration are improving the reef substantially. Importantly, if the idiots who govern us somehow manage to limit global warming to 2 degrees or less there will be some hope for the reef.
That hope will be greatly improved with human intervention with coral seeding. It is happening now. It is labour intensive. Volunteers go out and “seed” damaged sites with new coral. It is promising but not guaranteed.
So I (and the rest of the civilised world) would be grateful if you could contribute to the saving of the reef and the saving of my reputation as not just being a selfish turd who just wants a traffic-free cycle ride on the most scenic route in Australia but as someone who is concerned about Australia’s natural and environmental heritage.
It does not have to be much. One cent a k is just 50 cents, but how about 10c a k for $5 or 20c a k for $10.
And I hope that before too long I will join one of the coral-seeding expeditions and I will report back. That is if my seven-decade-old body survives the cycle trip.
The donation link is here.
Wouldn’t it be great if those “volunteers” (usually marine ecologists with a PhD and over a 100 k of student debt) could be paid to do such important tampering (scientific intervention and research) with the reef? I wish you all the best on your bike ride but I shall be continuing to volunteer my time to the oceans over giving money I unfortunately do not have as a marine ecologist.