Danny, Tom and Ben will be competing in the Rickshaw Run (as recently seen on TV's Top Gear, although that was the easy one).  Basically this involves getting in a battered old Tuk Tuk (three wheeled lawnmower) up near India's Pakistani border and driving/willing/forcing it to Kochi near the southern tip of the country - at least it's downhill... We've got less than three weeks to complete the 1000 or so miles and, despite two engineering degrees between us, very little useful knowledge about internal combustion engines - there's nothing a bit of well placed duct tape or WD40 can't fix though, right?

So why are we doing this?  

The environment is a hot topic these days.  Listening to the radio a few weeks ago I was struck by a figure quoted from the WWF's Living Planet Review, 2018.  It stated that in the last 40 years we have witnessed a 60% drop in all vertebrate life on earth.  

That is shocking.  

And we are the cause.

The No. 1 cause of the decline is habitat loss and degradation, which accounts for nearly half of all threats (except to fish to which we can only (only?!) attribute 28%).  And this habitat loss is happening predominantly in the rainforest.  

In the same 40 year period we have destroyed half of the world's rainforest.

So this is why we have decided to back Cool Earth during our gallivant across India.

Cool Earth don't necessarily adopt the approach you might expect.  They don't put up fences, they don't chain themselves to trees.  What they do is support the forest communities and use your funds to improve their way of life, their livelihoods and make it more profitable to maintain their way of life, in the forest, than it is to sell out to the loggers and corporate farms.

Strong Village - Safe Forest

And it works.  Cool Earth and their partner villages have saved over 900,000 acres of rainforest!  And these areas stay saved, that's the key.

And look, if you don't believe me - 

“Helping Cool Earth to halt tropical deforestation makes a real difference. Perhaps the biggest difference we will make in our whole lives.”

Sir David Attenborough

Big Dave wants you to donate.