A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey Across the United States

David Goodrich was head of NOAA’s Climate Observations and Monitoring Program, and served as the Director of the UN Global Climate Observing System in Geneva, Switzerland. When he returned to the US he embarked on an epic bicycle journey across the country and he found a nation and a people in denial about climate change. This contrasted sharply with his experience in Europe.

“The discussion is much less loud and there’s a far greater acceptance of human induced climate change. It’s not a grand debate.”

Starting on the beach in Delaware, David rode his bike 4,200 miles to Oregon, and he writes about his experience in A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey Across the United States.

“In a lot of ways, climate is something that people don’t necessarily want to discuss, that was almost the surprise. You could talk about the drought, you could talk about the local weather, you could talk about, on the coast, about tidal flooding, but once you mentioned the “C” word it’s like “oh you’re getting into politics,” and people kind of shut down about it.”