Constanza Hepp

This is a collaborative creation, originally published in the Degrowth.de blog. 

Powered by hardcore conviction, Cooperide is a bloc that will travel from Copenhagen to Paris for COP21, starting November 14. A total of 1400 kilometres in 22 days. And we will do it by bike. Why bike? Simple answer: biking is an autonomous means of transportation free of direct CO2 emissions. It is good for the body and soul, it makes us happy, it’s really cool and it shows that alternatives are possible.

“I don’t have time”

But there is much more to it. Beyond fossil fuels and hedonism, there is a truly provocative reason to bike. One related to the most fundamental difference between biking and travelling to Paris by bus or shared car. Time. Biking takes much more time.

Whenever I approach people with the idea, or randomly mention the project to someone like-minded (namely, environmentally concerned and aware of the importance of COP21), the reaction is generally as follows: eyes widen, lower jaw drops slightly, some kind of aaah or oooh sound. Then, praise on how awesome it all sounds and expression of the desire to join. Next, a short contemplation followed by a conditional phrase containing one of three reasons: I could never bike that much; it will be winter; you’re crazy; or, I don’t have time!

Of course safety, equipment and endurance are points of concern and most definitely issues to consider when taking such a decision, but the queen of all arguments, the most sensible and simply irrefutable reason is: I don’t have time.

Let this alone be a very good reason to do it. To take 22 days to just bike when there are so many quicker (fossil fuelled!) ways to go is to bring forth the evidence that alternatives are possible. To bike for 22 days is a performance of change. Not an abstraction or a conceptualization of the cultural change needed for a more sustainable lifestyle but its embodiment, through movement and a new kind of rhythm. To bike is to question the social order that constrains our time. And to directly explore that this can only be done on the road.

It’s fascinating how a simple act such as biking suddenly becomes an outrageous objection to the capitalistic obsession with efficiency. To the growth-obsessed homo economicus it’s even more scandalous that we are doing it because we want to and not because we have to. This is where the real outrage resides to a mindset convinced that time is money. We say let’s turn time and money on its head.

The false restriction of time

We also encounter this: what crazy people, choosing to travel at such a slow pace. What weird life do they lead to have all that time in the first place? Which is a good question. What does it mean to travel at such a slow pace, to take so much time off in normal working weeks? What kind of lifestyle allows us to have all this disposable time? Well, to be quite honest, our daily routines and activities do not provide us this time at first glance. Not all of us in Cooperide have the time to bike for 22 days to Paris. We are taking the time to do it. We may be anti-capitalists but we do have jobs. So this is where the performance of alternatives becomes a reality. When the thinking, the planning, the conceptualizing and discussing becomes the doing. And with it some serious compromising needs to take place. Those of us who do engage in waged labour have had to do negotiations with ourselves, our superiors and our families to actually take 22 days to demonstrate alternatives and stand against climate change.

The compromise for such a long bike ride goes beyond disobeying and rejecting the prevailing time-constraints and notions of practicality. It is also a conscious step aside. An observation. An experience-experiment.

Taking back our freedom

The more privileged our place in society and in the world economic order, the more accustomed we are to transferring ourselves from one place to another quickly and effectively without so much as giving it a second thought, let alone using our own energy for it. Immediacy is at the touch of any screen. From this taken-for-granted approach to everyday life arises an illusory independence from the world around us. As if all those day-to-day choices, spreading across thousands of kilometres, thousands of highways, landing strips and train tracks, did not amount to anything. This, Coooperide believes, is at the root of climate change.

We believe that climate change is disconnection. Disconnection of humans and nature, politics and people, product and producer. The solution then is to connect, so that’s our plan. Cooperide is the symbolic connection of the failed COP15 in Copenhagen to the COP21 in Paris through a very real, physical journey. A connection done not trough a conceptualization but through, as Heidegger would say, being-in-the-world: our existence in the present. The here and now. The wind in our face.

While biking we are aware of the connection of our body and our surroundings. Being exposed to the cold and the rain is the only way we can grasp, with every breath, the extent of the distance travelled. In this way, as we experience the distance, we also authentically expand our horizon of meaning. It is through this connection – of distance and physical experience – that we come a bit closer to really understanding how climate change is a planetary concern; how it involves and influences every one of us. We are convinced that to tackle the disconnection we must start by experiencing the embodiment of connection. And that means biking for 22 days.

A historic moment to make our voice heard

This COP21 will be, in one way or another, a turning point for the planet. It is a historic moment that gives us the opportunity to make our voice heard, to outweigh hope with action and find inspiration in an unprecedented gathering of people demanding political change and climate justice. A time to implement alternatives, to observe, to inspire and re-produce environmental activism. To imagine together and act collectively towards a future where livelihoods are not trapped by the constraints of the economic system but are created, meaningfully, in an everyday experience of the world around us.

If we don’t have the privilege of time we are simply snatching it. Appropriating it. Which is in itself a privilege, just as much as the fact that we are able to make such philosophical inquiries. Nevertheless, the conviction stands. We choose to let the chains of our bikes set us free.

Petra van der Kooij

On a regular Thursday morning at work one of my colleagues came in and reminded me about a guest lecture by John Whitelegg on Future Mobility and the City happening that day. Well, yeah, why shouldn’t I go, I thought. The mobility paradigm – the curse of our society.

We want to travel further, we want to travel faster and we want to travel ever more
comfortably, Whitelegg began. From there he introduced the question that has occupied his mind for many years: How can we break down the growth perspective underpinning the mobility question and come to an alternative system of transport? Achieving this lies, for him, in revealing the false assumptions of the efficiency of our current infrastructure and the negative consequences it has on human health, on the climate, on equality and so on.

Namely, he continued, time is stolen not given by new modes of transport. Instead of time saving through faster transport, we travel longer distances. This is not all; time is also stolen from pedestrians with traffic lights that force you to cross the street faster. In short, cars are given priority.

As he continued to talk and point out concepts such as time-space appropriation, hegemony, fetishism and problems of scale in relation to climate change, I mentally connected to Theo, also from Cooperide, who joined me for the lecture. It was if we were listening to our own manifesto. Only this time it was backed up with years of
research and additional evidence to show that sustainable alternatives are possible!

We call it disconnections; he calls it time-space fraught. We call it walls that close our eyes for reality; he calls it the structural bias as fundament of the mobility system. We want to show that lifestyles in one place deny lives in another; he warns of the unnecessary injuries as a result of our transportation system. We both stress the denial of the normative character of reality mystified by false rational efficiency. And we both find the same solution: cycling.

As Cooperide, we will cycle for a period of time to show that alternatives are possible. He envisions structural changes in behaviour and society. However, we both aim for breaking down walls to show false structures with real consequences. We do it ourselves to connect the disconnections we found in nowadays society. We cycle to break with the false restrictions of our lifestyles. We change our behaviour for a better world and with this act we contribute to the structural changes Whitelegg has in mind to make the city and the world a better place. A world of zero air pollution in cities, zero greenhouse gas emissions from transport and zero deaths and serious injuries. With the introduction of just one tool, which is as simple as the bicycle.

Petra van der Kooij

It was a Friday, it was deep winter in Sweden, it was the evening we decided to bike from Copenhagen to Paris – to connect places, to connect people, to connect symbols and to make a stand against climate change. Once the idea was born, the next step was to decide the route. It was clear to us that passing through Germany’s controversial coal region was a great way to strengthen our message, raising awareness of what is happening there and making it clear that this is not how we want our energy to be generated.

And we are not the only ones. In August I joined a large action organised to stop the lignite mining activities in the Rhineland. Our message? “Stop digging, keep it in the ground!”

Germany is considered progressive in its energy policy and use of renewables. Yet at the same time, coal extraction in the country is still going on – and is even set to increase in the coming years. This makes the area around the mines on of the saddest places I have ever seen. It is surrounded by empty villages. Villages that still show signs of the life that was once there. Roses growing in the gardens, an apple tree giving apples and the sign of the bakery that provided the people with their daily bread. But the people are all gone. They’ve left their homes so the coal extraction can continue.

Everyone involved in the action this summer disagrees with this policy and wants to stop these actions. It’s why we came together from different places across the globe – to stand in solidarity for people that are already facing the consequences of climate change and to make it clear that if we want to keep the temperature rise below 2oC we need to to keep the fossil fuels in the ground. This August we were more than 1,000 people walking through the bright morning light. We faced the police and reached our goal, the lignite mine. The action succeeded and we stopped the mining activities. This time just for one day, but the message is clear. We must step up and stop coal extraction – and the irreversible climate change that comes with it.

The Cooperide connects to and extends this message, taking it all the way to Paris in December. Show your support and keep up to date with our plans and preparations by liking our Facebook page and sharing our news.