LONDON: A woman dubbed “the human swan” has said she is feeling excited as she prepares to launch a world-first circumnavigation of mainland Britain to raise awareness about climate change.
Sacha Dench is making the 4,800-km journey to mark the Cop26 UN climate change conference taking place in Glasgow later this year.
She will take off from a location near Glasgow on June 21, weather permitting, in an adapted electric paramotor, flying anti-clockwise around the coast and returning to land in the area around six weeks later.
The Australian is known for global expeditions with migratory species but has turned her focus to climate change after losing her family home to bushfires last year.
The UN Cop26 event is set to be held at the Scottish Event Campus from November 1-12, despite activist Greta Thunberg suggesting it should be postponed again due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dench told the PA news agency: “I’m going to be trying to fly a complete circumnavigation of mainland Britain in an electric-powered paramotor, and I’m doing it to try and demonstrate just how far we can go in terms of decarbonising our transport and our lifestyles in general.
“The real thing we’re hoping to do though is make use of the journey... I have to stop frequently to change batteries... land and speak to people who have solutions for climate change, because there are lots of people with brilliant ideas, brilliant projects already in train, that I think can show us that whilst Britain drove the industrial revolution, we can drive the green revolution too.
“We’re doing it in the run-up to Cop26 — if Britain is going to host the global conference on climate change then it’s the best time for the whole country to rally behind big actions, big bold actions from the politicians.”
Asked how she feels about the journey she said: “I’m feeling excited, feeling a bit nervous, I’m feeling excited about it, I’m really interested to see how the country responds and I’m most fascinated to hear the stories of people all around the country.
“I think it’s going to be a really interesting and inspiring journey, and who knows how the electric paramotor will fare? No-one has ever done a long journey in an electric powered paramotor before, but I’ve got an excellent ground crew and team behind me so we’ve got the best chance of success that we can try for.” — dpa
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