There are three causes which I try to support. The first two focus on eliminating poverty. The third, global warming.
Education
It’s hard to walk yourself out of poverty if you can’t read the street signs. I first came across Room to Read when planning the Lhasa-Kathmandu bike ride that Nicolas Bertsche and I organised.
Entrepreneurship
Kiva is the most wonderful thing I’ve come across in ages. You can loan money to budding entrepreneurs who are too poor to raise the money themselves. It’s microfinance for each of us and it great and satisfying fun to assemble a portfolio of businesses that you’ve been a “Micro-Angel-Investor” in.
Bikes
Global warming is complicated. Bikes are simple solutions. Bike-friendly cities matter. Segregated cycle lanes are the best way to do this for most places. There are several organisations and cities which are taking the cities back from the automobile.
London: I gave up riding when I moved to London…it was simply impossible. But Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has pledged have Transport for London make the place a cycling city.
New York: A city like this needs more cyclists! And it looks like it’s starting to happen, with the city’s first ever segregated bike path.
