Photo by Jenny Sherman

We park our 36-foot school bus on top of a giant sundial in front of the student resource center at the University of Wisconsin Steven’s Point. Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man sits high upon a wall behind us. It is early morning, and I watch a handful of students stroll to class through the dew-covered windshield.

A girl asks me about the bus and our message. She informs me that Da Vinci was the first to note that the geometric patterns of a leaf match the branches of the tree it came from, and I admire a large oak next to us while imagining these patterns.

I can already tell this campus will bring a positive experience.

She directs me to my morning cup of coffee and I make my way back toward the bus, passing several smiling faces along the way. “You guys are awesome,” someone says while admiring our solar panels. “This bus is sweet, it smells like egg rolls!” a visitor says coming up the stairs. “I’m jealous of your adventures,” another says as she’s leaving.

Biotour: a brief history

BioTour began in August 2006 when two friends decided to take a road trip across the country, but didn’t want to go broke doing it. They bought a 989 Bluebird school bus converted to run on vegetable oil – read: free fuel - and Ethan Burke and Alan Palm drove it from the East Coast to Burning Man on waste restaurant grease.

As they stopped in cafes, at gas stations and rest stops, and, of course, behind Chinese restaurants, the positive reaction and support from truck drivers, park rangers, gas station attendants, policemen and passersby inspired the recent college graduates to turn their BioTour into an sustainability education non-profit.

Beginning its fourth cross-country tour this fall with two buses and a chase car, the BioTour stops in communities, K-12s, colleges and universities proving to people in this petroleum-guzzling country that there are viable fuel and energy alternatives.

Photo by Jenny Sherman

The crew shows onlookers – sometimes dozens at a time - a vehicle that once ran purely on diesel that is now powered by a waste product that smells like fried food.

After peeking crowd interest, BioTour invites them in for discussion on current issues. These range from high gas prices to mountaintop removal coal mining to rainforest depletion to confined feeding operations.

One example raised in several of the final visits of the Spring 2008 tour, created perplexing debate: In the face of pervading food shortages around the world, are biofuels good or bad?

There is no short answer to a question like this, but starting a discussion is the first step to spreading knowledge and finding solutions.

A BioTour visit includes a formal presentation outlining the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, then demonstrates a “fill-up” by pumping school cafeteria grease into the gas tank.

Local bands can power up with the solar panels on the bus’s roof, and oftentimes, drum circles will start in the center of campus.

The idea is to create excitement around a growing Sustainability movement and encourage participation in the democratic system. While crossing 43 states, we’ve met passionate and concerned individuals who make changes by actively involving themselves, and who most certainly will be this country’s future leaders.

the future?

While Alan is doing an interview for the local news and Ethan and Fernando explain the vegetable oil-conversion kit in the engine, I take pictures, listen and observe. At my periphery are books and articles describing our current energy crisis. Jack Johnson sings, “the cars were all spitting diesel fuels” on the stereo.

Two students outside argue the probability that we’ve reached peak oil. This frame of mind harasses me. Do I run and return to a less mobile, more established and blissfully ignorant lifestyle that smells less of French fries and more of chemically laden room deodorizers?

Photo by Jenny Sherman

No, instead I feel exhilarated. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep from driving through the night, maybe it’s the coffee kicking in. But more so I believe it’s the people - young people - who are interested in making a difference.

There is no better sensation than knowing people do care, that they are listening, and that our message will captivate them enough to be passed along.

community connection

For more on BioTour, or if you’d like to jump on a bus, find us at www.biotour.org.

For a step by step guide on converting your own vehicle to veggie oil, check out How to Stop Paying for Gas and Run o Free Veggie Oil in 8 Easy Steps.

Feature photo by pingnews.com. Photo above by seanmcgrath.

Do you think tropical diseases only occur in developing countries? Think again.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says diseases are spreading to temperate regions thanks to global warming.

Warmer temperatures and greater moisture extend the geographic range and season for disease-vector organisms such as insects and rodents. Below are diseases that could have you feeling the sting of global warming.

Malaria

Malaria is spread by the Anopheles mosquito infected with the Plasmodium parasite. Warmer and wetter climates trigger increased mosquito abundance, biting rates, activity level, and accelerated incubation of their parasites. Winter temperatures must drop below 16ºC to prevent a malaria outbreak the following spring.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that warmer temperatures will put 65% of the world’s population at risk of infection—an increase of 20%. This news is especially frightening in light of increased resistance to the chloroquine treatment drugs. Malaria has already hit Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, and New York.

Photo by otisarchives2.

Dengue Fever

Dengue fever is spread by the Aedes mosquito infected with the Flavivirus virus. The geographic range of the mosquito is limited by freezing temperatures that kill larvae and eggs, thus limiting transmission to tropical and subtropical regions.

But studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture predict dengue’s encroachment upon temperate regions due to small increases in temperature.

The mosquito has spread as far north as Chicago and the Netherlands and to higher elevations of the Andes. With no vaccine, “breakbone” fever is considered the most serious mosquito-borne viral disease affecting humans.

Encephalitis

Encephalitis is an arthropod-borne disease present in many forms, including St. Louis, equine, La Crosse, and West Nile. New York experienced outbreaks of both West Nile Virus (WNV) and St. Louis encephalitis in 1999 during its driest and hottest spring and summer in a century.

Those weather patterns favorable to outbreaks—heat and drought followed by heavy downpours—will likely occur more often with global warming. Small stagnant pools of water that accompany drought are big enough to support breeding mosquitoes but not populations of the frogs that prey on them.

Photo by pingnews.com.

Bubonic Plague

Bubonic plague is spread by rodents and their fleas infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that global warming promotes outbreaks of “black death.”

A 1ºC increase in springtime temperatures is predicted to lead to more than a 50% increase in the prevalence of the bacterium.

A study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene reports a 60% rise in plague cases in New Mexico following wetter than average winters and springs. Wetter conditions enhance food resources for rodents and promote flea survival and reproduction.

Cholera

Cholera is a waterborne disease present in drinking water and food contaminated with the bacterium, Vibrio cholerae. The WHO links the spread of cholera with increases in sea surface temperature, sea level rise, and El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

The U.S. EPA reports that algal blooms, which can be accompanied by cholera, become more frequent with warming temperatures. Cholera-harboring zooplankton also proliferates in warmer water temperatures.

Photo by otisarchives2.

What you can do

The IPCC warns that global warming will result in human mortality from infectious disease. Unlike the typical U.S. approach of emergency response to epidemics, a preventive approach would preclude unnecessary suffering, infection, and loss of life.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides information on prevention, vaccines, and epidemics. Below are things you can do to reduce your chance of infection.

Often policymakers do not take action on environmental issues unless it affects human health so maybe this will be their wake-up call to do something about global warming.<

Feature photo by Programa No Gubernamental de Protección a Defenso. Photo above by KyleEJohnson.

Organizational Overview

Being a delegate with Witness for Peace is one of the most unique and interesting travel experiences available to the passionate, social justice minded traveler. Witness for Peace hosts groups of American delegates interested in creating peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by learning about and working to change U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America.

Specifically, “Witness for Peace concentrates on issues such as peace in Colombia, fair trade, labor rights and international debt relief.” (http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=75). The organization is committed to non-violence and dedicates pre-trip training sessions to the principles of non-violent and grassroots organizing.

Volunteers who participate in a nine-day or two-week delegation learn about policy advocacy, international peacemaking, conflict mediation, cross-cultural sensitivity, diplomacy, and foreign policy, while also gaining an insider’s look at a country in a way that wouldn’t be possible on one’s own. If you want an intimate look at daily life in Latin America and are ready to challenge your understanding of the world, a WfP trip is definitely for you!

Personal Experiences: Volunteering with Witness for Peace in Colombia

As a Witness for Peace delegate to Colombia I had the opportunity to see the effects of US drug war policy on Colombia first-hand. Witness for Peace (WfP) delegations to Colombia are the riskiest of the organization’s trips as the country is in the midst of a 40 year old civil war and traffics most of the world’s cocaine.

Though a WfP delegation is not for the cautious traveler, these trips are neither reckless nor ill-conceived. While there is an inherent danger of traveling in the region, all precautions are taken to ensure a safe return.

Feature photo by Programa No Gubernamental de Protección a Defenso.

The background on Colombia:

Through Plan Colombia, the US funds the destruction of crops and coca fields on the Colombian-Ecuadorian border zone of Putumayo, a sparsely populated region of the Amazon. In the drive to eradicate coca crops (the raw material for cocaine), however, the US gives billions of dollars in aid to a Colombian military rife with corruption and boasting one of the worst records of human rights abuses in the world.

During my two weeks in Colombia I got an intimate look at the results of these policies on everyday Colombians.

WfP believes that the truth can best be reached by hearing all sides of the story, so throughout our trip we met with people with many different vantage points on the politics of Colombia and the US war on drugs. These included human rights activists, clergy working for social justice, military officials, farmers growing coca and farmers growing food, US Department of State officials, and community leaders.

Our bus was boarded by right-wing paramilitary troops, we saw oil pipelines recently bombed by the left-wing guerrillas, and visited coca farms and processing sites which turn raw leaves into coca paste, soon to be cocaine.

We also documented the destruction of food crops and the sicknesses caused by the coca eradications, which we presented to the US State Department officials during our meeting with them. All in all we got a very well rounded, in depth portrait of the country in a short time, and with many moments I will remember for the rest of my life.

Rarely while traveling have I gotten such a complete picture of what daily life is for someone so different from myself than that of farmers living in Putumayo, Colombia. Walking through their farms and seeing their crops, coca fields, and the military presence, I gained a greater understanding of the daily pain and sacrifice that life in a war zone can require.

When I think of the trip, brief moments of struggle and strength flash through my mind: a 65 year-old woman digging into the mud to pull out a WfP delegate’s shoe that had been sucked off his foot and into her muddy field; a farmer crying as he spoke of the fish dying off when his pond and fields were fumigated for the fourth time, destroying his livelihood yet again.

I will carry these stories and these lives with me forever, along with the beautiful ways Colombians cope with their hardship through warmth and kindness and sharing generously with others.

Photo by adman_as.

The Trip: Logistics

Every delegation is accompanied by two WfP staff members, Americans who live in the country and act as translators throughout the trip. There are 12-14 delegates, including two trip leaders who organized the trip from the US and are particularly expert in the topic of your delegation.

Once you pay for your international flight and delegate fee (around $1000), everything is arranged for you – all meals, hotels, and in-country transportation, as well as trainings and scheduling.

You are well informed of health and safety precautions and background material on the country before you leave. There is also a full day of training at the start of your trip which addresses cultural awareness, the principles of consensus process and non-violence, as well as the historic and current political reality of the country you’re visiting.

Back Home: The Lasting Lessons of WfP

In addition to providing an amazing travel experience, WfP helps give travelers the tools they need to create change at home. At the end of the trip you learn how to use what you have seen and learned to influence change in US foreign policy.

With your fellow delegates, you develop talking points to discuss with your elected officials, receive helpful advice about writing letters to editors of newspapers and other publications, and are assured of ongoing support from your contacts at WfP. This program and the training I received helped me to become someone who meets with and contacts my elected officials about the issues that are important to me, in Latin America and beyond.

Check them out on the web at: witnesforpeace.org

For more information email: witness@witnessforpeace.org

Photo above by Cross-Cultural Solutions.

We’ve all heard about the importance of sustainable tourism, ecotourism, voluntourism and a multitude of other buzz worlds that help locals benefit from travelers. But as individuals, it can be difficult to believe we’ll ever be in a position to really make a difference.

However, we never know where tomorrow may take us. The stories and examples below show how one traveler can make a difference. There is no reason why we can’t–why you can’t–change the world. Read on.

Help

Ellin Yourgsen was enjoying her break in Thailand when the tsunami hit on December 27, 2004. She gave up the rest of her gap year travel plans to help out wherever she could.

From helping in the removal and burial of bodies to building temporary shelters; she was just one of tens of thousands of travellers who gave (and are still giving) anything they could to help those who needed them most.

www.tsunamivolunteer.net

Photo above by subcomandanta.

Educate

In Africa alone 6,000 people die of AIDS each day; that’s more than the combined total of deaths from war famine and natural disasters.

Volunteer on sex education projects and you’ll be helping to alleviate one of the biggest issues facing humanity in the 21st century. If this doesn’t appeal, simply give out as many condoms as you can afford (while keeping back a plentiful supply for yourself, of course).

www.worldvolunteerweb.org

Unite

What better way to link two different cultures than to get married. Jasmine Avissar, an Israeli Jew, and Osama Zaatar, a Muslim Palestinian, have truly bridged the gaps of a cultural and religious divide since meeting in Jerusalem in 2004.

Sadly, not everyone has welcomed the union between these two bitterly divided states, yet if one can start, could others follow?

http://projecthope.ps

Photo above by locket479.

Enjoy

Matt Harding loved travel so much he danced for his entire journey (well, kind of). His loosely termed ‘music video’ has shown the world to millions and opened people‘s eyes to the wonders of the world.

Whether this has had any benefit to the international community is questionable, but another person’s travel videos have never been so entertaining.

www.wherethehellismatt.com

Observe

When Charles Darwin stepped onto the Galapagos Islands in 1835, he was a young man part way through a world voyage. The species he saw on the islands and from future explorations led him to develop his ideas on natural selection and evolution.

Twenty-three years after his first voyage he published The Origin of the Species, a text that revolutionised our thinking on the world.

www.darwinfoundation.org

Share

The very basis of helping and volunteering relies on a person sharing something with another, whether that be time, a particular skill, material goods or something else.

Gary Myers, a trained doctor, left his home in Oklahoma to help victims of election violence in Kenya. He faced a daily barrage of extreme injuries-most caused by machetes-inflicted by those with opposing political views.

Many would have lost limbs and sometimes their lives, were it not for his extensive training.

www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Explore

Rosie Swale-Pope, who is 52 years old, is currently running across the UK in her last leg of a run that has crossed Europe, Asia and North America- she is expecting to reach the finish line in the middle of August 2008, having raised thousands for various international charities.

In 1983, at just 16 years old, Fyona Campbell set out to walk around the world. She crossed four continents- Europe, North America, Australia and Africa- and walked 32,000 km while raising over £120,000 ($230,000) for charity.

www.survival-international.org

Give

Shortly after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, David Savage was so moved by the state of Romania’s orphanages that he moved there to help: setting up a small team of volunteers and later building a school, community centre and holiday home to give these under privileged children, many whom are HIV positive, a brighter life.

He was awarded an MBE in 2003 and still continues his work in the small town of Cernavoda, south east Romania.

www.nightingaleschildrensproject.co.uk

Photo above by Island Spice.

Conserve

The destruction of the world’s rainforests- ‘the lungs of the world’- is one of the greatest threats to our natural world. 25% of western medicine is derived from rainforest plants and we can only guess what cures still lie hidden.

With 50,000,000 tribal people still estimated to live in the world’s rainforests, the need to preserve their world and way of life has never been more apparent.

www.yachana.edu.ec

Donate

Half the world- that’s three billion people - live on less than two dollars a day (of those about 1.5 - 2 billion live on less than one dollar a day).

One billion children (that’s half the world’s children) live in poverty and around 30,000 die each day because of that poverty. In comparison, the travel industry is expected to generate almost $7 trillion this year alone.

I’ll leave you to do the math…..

www.stopchildpoverty.org

Founder of The Uncultured Project with an impoverished Bangladeshi widow and her two children. Above photo and feature photo by Shawn.

With volunteer tours growing in number, more and more tour operators are including fundraising minimums either within tour fees or as an additional requirement for tour participants. Learn the basics of how to raise funds for your cause, organization, or favorite volunteer program.

1. Start close to home.

The people who will inevitably be the most invested in your cause are those that know you and can see your passion.

Start with friends, family, and acquaintances. Speak to everyone you know about the cause and be specific about your needs. Don’t be afraid to ask for dollar amounts from those around you!

The best requests highlight your personal involvement and ask for specific amounts of money for specific goods. Write to your address book and don’t forget to include friends who have long since been out of touch. What better way to spread the word while getting in touch with old friends?

2. Utilize local and small businesses.

Often small businesses are happy to provide goods in exchange for getting the word out about their services. Try asking small restaurants to provide free or discounted food for a dinner and charge a small entrance fee.

Or throw a dinner party at your home and ask friends to donate potluck dishes. Getting publicity in local newspapers, company newsletters, on radio stations, etc., will introduce you to a wealth of possibilities for gaining both corporate and individual sponsorship.

Photo by Maryann

3. Find a common interest.

Though your cause might be across the ocean from your home, there are always local networks that share similar goals and are great avenues to access funding.

Is your cause education related? Tap into local high schools or universities. Is it sports related? See if teams in your area would be willing to provide sponsorship or in-kind donations. Raising money for a particular country or group? See if there are locals from that country who can mobilize their networks. Check online groups, such as MeetUp.com to find people who are passionate about the same cause.

4. Be a social butterfly.

Organize a karaoke night, pub quiz, or concert with local musicians willing to share their talent. Better yet, do a clothing or book auction with your friends. Everyone brings a few items and you can buy items back for a set donation. You refresh your wardrobe/bookshelf and recycling is good for the earth!

Make sure that any event has minimal costs to you and as many costs as possible are donated in-kind.

5. Share your talents.

What is your skill? Yoga, surfing, karate, tennis, cooking lessons? Raise money by offering to share your talent with others!

Additional Tips

Know your cause.

The easiest way to put off potential donors is to not have answers to basic questions:

Any responsible voluntourism operator or NGO should be able to answer these questions. If you aren’t sure yet where the money will go, try to be as specific as possible with friends, family, and potential donors about how you will make decisions about putting the money to work.

Find a responsible charity/NGO.

As a fundraiser it is your responsibility to make sure your donors are putting their money into a sustainable and responsible project. Consider:

Match.

Be sure to also ask donors to check with their employers. Their donations might be easily doubled with company matching plans!

Say thank you.

Be sure to acknowledge donations and follow up after your trip or once the funds are spent.

Community Connection

For an extensive list of great orgs to support or research, please reference the Organizations Page at Matador.