Of People And Earth
Alfonso Tascón

The Earth holds a unique natural wealth. For more than 200,000 years, modern humans have been sharing the planet with an astonishing diversity of incredible creatures. However, many ecosystems and communities across the world are experiencing the negative impacts of the ecological imbalance that the development of our societies is imposing to the planet. As a result, we are experiencing dramatic changes in our climate system which are occurring faster than ever before and entail a wide range of new challenges never seen by our civilization. Therefore, we must act now.

But to implement effective action against it, it is essential that we understand what is at risk, where and how. We need to improve our knowledge of our home if we want to succeed at preserving our planet while ensuring the sustainable development of every nation. Because of this, I have decided to bike from Costa Rica to Ushuaia (Argentina) on a journey that will take me across some of the most incredible and remote places on Earth, for 15 months. My goal is to film a movie showing how climate change is affecting the lives of different people across Latin America. At the same time, I will give voice to those who are actively trying to respond to the challenges posed by a changing climate with the aim of promoting solutions at different levels. For this purpose, I will interview a diverse array of people along my journey, and I will use my expertise in the fields of ecology and climate change to frame their perceptions and knowledge under the umbrella of science.

I hope this initiative will help to answer some of the of the many questions that our society is struggling to answer as a whole: “How does climate change exactly work?”, “In which ways will it affect us?”, and most importantly, “What can we do about it?”. This project aims to show how we, People from different parts of the world, interact with planet Earth, our only home, and how we could modify our behaviour to adjust it to its limits, in a realistic way. It also aims to expand our knowledge about the topic, while framing it in an easy-to-understand manner. Because in the end, we only protect what we love, and we only love what we understand (Baba Dioum).

Posts

Covid-19 pandemic and its relationship with the climate crisis

In this video, I talk about some of the reasons why we, humans, struggle to deal with crises, taking the example of the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis

Episode 5: Permaculture in the Jungle

In the fifth episode of the journey, I show you how life is going at the International Permaculture Community during the quarantine in Panama.

Coronavirus situation in Bocas del Toro, and how it will affect the journey

In this post, I explain the situation in Bocas del Toro, Panama, and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic for my journey.

Episode 4: People of the Paradise

In the fourth stage of the ride, I traveled from Puerto Viejo to the amazing archipielago of Bocas del Toro, in the Panamenian Caribbean.

Episode 3: beauty under threat

In this third episode, I will tell you about my journey to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and I'll talk about the main environmental issues that people and ecosystems are facing here.

Episode 2: Bananas and pineapples. From La Selva to the Ocean

In this second episode, I'll talk about how monocultures of bananas and pineapples affect the environment, and how some initiatives are trying to farm them in a more suistanable way.

Episode 1: from the Cloud Forest to La Selva

In this first episode of "Of People and Earth" project you'll see how it's been the first week of journey, where I had to face unexpected bumpy roads, mighty rivers and steep mountains.

A pioneer in the "guerrilla"

Mauricio Ramírez, manager and owner of the Curi-Cancha Reserve in Monteverde, Costa Rica, tells us about how climate change is challenging the management of nature reserves.

Cycling across Latin America to understand Climate Change

During 15 months, I will bike across 8 countries with one objective: film a movie to show how climate change is affecting people´s lives across Latin America.

Get In Touch

Do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to know more about this initiative, or if you are interested in collaborating.