Pollution – Ecotopia Biketour

Dealing with persistent oppressive behaviour on the Biketour

2017 September 26, 2017 September 26, 2017

Every year, a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds join the Biketour. Like in any group that does not consist exclusively of people, who have already intensively reflected upon power structures, situations happen that are experienced as more or less oppressive by some people. As none of us is perfect, we will make mistakes. That’s okay, because the Biketour aims to be a space that is open. A space where people who have never thought about mechanisms of oppression before can learn about them. Sometimes though, some specifically difficult personalities are joining, who regularly show inappropriate behaviour.…

This year’s theme

ola July 2, 2016 April 28, 2017

It seems like trying to live in a sustainable way in a mobile community we constantly find ourselves reusing other people’s trash. We can’t grow our own but we try to keep our carbon footprint as low as possible, finding alternatives to buying new. Obviously, Western European trash is very different from the trash we see in the east of the continent. Last year in Scandinavia we were able to source nearly all of our food (and even clothes and shoes!) from supermarket food skips without much effort. We had a dumpster diving team on the rota every day and…

Bike and buslanes in Tirana

daniel July 26, 2009 July 26, 2009

Thursday morning, after saying goodbye to Lisa and Felix, the biketour had a rendez-vous with people from ECAT, a Tirana based NGO which assist the government on environmental and technical issues. As Tirana is totally overcrowded with cars, the city has a problem with small particle (soot) pollution. To fight this silent killer the local government started to promote public transport and cycling in town. After visiting several towns in France and Germany, ECAT made a plan to construct combined bike- and buslanes. These will encourage citizens to make more use non-polluting transport options. ECAT invited The Biketour for a…

The Smelter of Veles

daniel July 10, 2009 July 10, 2009

On the 7th and 8th of July the biketour visited the town of Veles. Veles is well know for it is high level of pollution. The pollution is mainly due to a very old iron smelter build in the early seventies by a German company. The smelter produced high polluted smoke which is blown by the wind in the direction of the town of Veles. What impacts the health of Veles’ people even wore is a big hill of heavy metal dust laying a round next to the old factor. The factory is close now for 5 years, but the…