Riding down Cape Town’s main road pushing a trolley, clad with a 3 metre tree made from recycled plastic bags gets it’s fair share of attention. Taxi drivers hooting, shop owners poking their heads out, ladies offering to help push and children giggling. Moving trolleys are a common sight on Cape Town streets, mostly being to used by the homeless to transport their wares, or by the self-employed street recyclers, who fill them up with paper, metal or plastics in return for cash at the recycling depot. But this trolley had a path of its own.
The 7km route was an opportunity to promote the Cape Town Moving Planet event. One of over a thousand events globally taking place on the 24th September 2011 to promote our fervent need to move beyond fossil fuels. In Lagos, Nigeria, 350 spring-stilt walkers will join thousands of mrarchers, Accra, Ghana will rally 40 000 youth in a grand climate festival and in Cape Town, South Africa, Desmond Tutu will jump onto his skateboard to join the ‘Tread Lightly’ parade through the streets.
The organisers of these events are all volunteers with a tiny fire burning inside them. A fire that is starting to spread through the world, gaining momentum everyday. It has not been easy to organise events of this scale and these volunteers are often becoming mediators rather then organisers. When ego gets thrown into the melting pot, we tend to forget the real reason why we are here: to come together, united, with a common cause for the betterment of humanity and the beautiful planet that we live on. Well done organisers! You are doing a fantastic job, and with only 2 weeks to go, I can see the fire burning bright!