64-year-old environmental activist
By bike from Berlin to the climate conference
The environmentalist Michael Evertz traveled from Berlin to Dubai by bicycle. photo
© Hannes P. Albert/dpa
“I travel to connect people with each other,” says the passionate cyclist Michael Evertz, who has traveled more than 8,600 kilometers to do so. But even he sometimes has doubts.
Michael Evertz also traveled from Berlin to the climate conference in Dubai – but by bike. The 64-year-old environmental activist spent 222 days on the road to cover the 8,662 kilometers, with a few breaks. Why all this? “I’m on the move to connect people with each other. I want to initiate cooperation – not only to solve the climate problem, but also to other crises of civilization,” he says in an interview with the German Press Agency.
Evertz emphasizes that his tour, which will take him further to South Africa, is not a high-speed race. “But I take the time to talk to people while I’m out and about. And that’s exactly what I’m able to do with this Bike particularly good. That triggers a lot of attention, especially here in the Arab world.” His most important personal insight: “We live on such a wonderful planet and with incredibly wonderful people – and we don’t even realize that.”
From Germany to Dubai, Evertz had to climb a total of almost 50,000 meters in altitude; the daily workload was between 50 and 120 kilometers. He says he felt the heat really hard on his own body, in the hottest summer since weather records began. “I had to overcome long periods in Greece and Turkey with temperatures of 50 degrees. And that is simply unbearable when you are traveling with a bike that weighs 55 kilos complete with luggage – and then have to go up into the mountains.”
There were two moments when he thought about quitting, Evertz admits. “But the next morning when I looked in the mirror I said: No, you have to keep fighting.”