Cyclist rides along a wind turbine blade for our amusement and climate change fundraising
Danny MacAskill's latest video uses bike tricks to raise awareness about renewable energy
Professional cyclist Danny MacAskill has just released a video where he heads to the top of a wind turbine and rides along one of its blades, far above the earth. While we’re accustomed to people doing this sort of thing, risking their lives so we have something to tab over to during lunch and stare blankly at while chewing like dazed cattle, MacAskill’s stunt has a greater purpose: Raising awareness about (and money for) renewable energy.
Before he touches god’s face with the top of his helmet, the video shows MacAskill warming up with some other, still very impressive bike tricks while interspersed title cards explain that he’s released the clip “to show us the scale” of our environmental problems.
Tasked with “[busting] the myth that renewables are small scale,” he heads to a wind turbine factory to launch into front flips off of pipes and perform other stunts using industrial materials, all as part of an effort to demonstrate how much of our energy currently comes from renewable sources.
He eventually climbs a ladder and up to the top of a (thankfully unmoving) turbine. MacAskill then grabs his bike and takes a leisurely ride to its tip, miles of fields and farmland spread out far, far below him. The scale of the whole thing is, indeed, impressive, and its helped MacAskill drive $355, 370 of funding toward Re:wild at the time of writing.
A behind-the-scenes video has more of MacAskill preparing for the big stunt, discussing the spread of wind turbines in his native Scotland, Glasgow hosting the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), and what it feels like to stand high above the earth on top of a turbine. (It is, in short, very windy.) Regarding the finale of his video, he says it’s “it’s so high up it doesn’t feel high in some ways. It’s unrealistically high up.”
To help make MacAskill’s willingness to risk turning into a red smear worth it, head to Re:wild’s donation page.
[via Digg]
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