72-year-old activist and grandma Dorothee Hildebrandt cycled through 17 countries, covering 8,228 kilometers (5,112 miles) to raise awareness and stop the ill effects of climate change.
She is a member of the “Grandmas for Future.”
The grandma traversed Europe and the Middle East until she got to Sharm el-Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
Her goal is to raise people’s awareness regarding environmental issues and prod world leaders assembled at the yearly U.N. climate conference (COP27) to initiate decisive moves to stop climate change.
Hildebrandt also wants Western industrialized nations to compensate poor countries for the destruction they have caused due to their lifestyle choices.
During the cycling trip which began July 1, Hildebrandt cycled an average of about 80 kilometres (49 miles) a day. Her Facebook posts got thousands of views and she says she received positive feedback both from followers and people she met along the way.
Who is the grandma?
Dorothee was born in 1950 in Kassel, Germany, but has been living in Sweden for many years. After having raised a family, grandma is now retired and “feeding the travel bug.” She has traveled around the globe – mostly relying on the friendliness of couch surfers to give her a place to stay.
In 2021 she decided, at the age of 71, to cycle from Sweden to Glasgow to raise awareness for the climate. Thrilled by that success, she decided that her next mission is to keep cycling to raise awareness. Because “if a woman my age can cycle that long to protect the climate, world leaders can also do everything in their power to do the same.”
Against all odds
After her cycling trip to the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, Dorothee realized this – “It was not the easiest for me – an untrained 71-y-o woman, to go by bicycle (even it is an e-bike) the around 2,500 km, but I learned a lot. The best thing, I learned, was, that I could make it – I reached my goal, but I also learned about my limits – both physically and mentally as well as the limits of an e-bike battery.”
Her activism and biking, which are well documented on social media, are for the children and further generations of the world, Dorothee says.
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