Meet the Warner family of Massachusetts.  Their family has two of the youngest riders, 12 and 14 and the oldest rider at 82 years old.  Their story, told below by Lee Ann, is a tale of courage and a call to action.

“Several years ago, My sons and I were diagnosed with Hashimotos disease and were told we’d need to be on medication for the rest of our lives.  After much medical searching, we finally found the root cause of the problem - a very high build up of mercury and lead in all of our systems.  Even though we were vegetarians, ate mostly organic foods and had no lead or mercury in our home, we found that we were not immune to the world we live in.  It is now beginning to be understood that lead and mercury can be inhaled when we breathe, and there is a lot of lead and mercury in the air mostly from coal-fired power plants and incinerators that not only are a huge cause of global warming but also pollute our world and make us sick.

Where we live in bucolic western Massachusetts, approximately 1,800 pounds of mercury are deposited each year from the midwest coal fired power plants.  The municipal incinerator about 30 miles away from us dumps about 800 pounds of lead into our air each year.  As climate legislation is worked out that will hopefully reduce the emissions from coal plants, we are very concerned about a loophole that allows incineration of wood and construction and demolition debris to receive renewable energy credits and therefore subsidies that would allow this incineration industry to compete with truly green sources of renewable energy.  Burning of these biomass items unfortunately emits 1.5 times as much carbon dioxide as coal and a host of toxins.  Here is info and a link below:

http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/2009/08/burning-forests-for-electricity/

Finally, we are all recovered, need no medication, are robust and looking forward to challenging ourselves to this tremendous bike ride and meeting with our representatives in Washington to speak for those not as fortunate as ourselves.  It is very important to keep momentum moving on both climate and clean air legislation, which go hand in hand.

Looking forward to meeting you,  Lee Ann Warner”