HISTORY

For over a decade, Rode RAGE has been helping communities around the globe while raising awareness for climate change solutions.

Many young leaders have developed through our program over the years; we are so proud of the effort that each and every Rode RAGEr has put in to helping the Rode RAGE team grow.

Take a scroll down memory lane and see our wonderful work from previous years. 

Euro Rode RAGE 2018

AIMS

  1. Raise awareness of everyday things that everyday people can do every day to reduce greenhouse emissions.
  2. Raise awareness that Australians are the biggest per capita emitters of greenhouse emissions but that it is people from other countries and wildlife that pay the biggest and most immediate penalty for our pollution.
  3. Raise awareness of the link between climate change and the ongoing world wide crisis of refugees.
  4. To learn about European history / culture, WWI & WWII and the ways in which these things have impacted on the creation of the world in which we live.
  5. To give our students an opportunity to learn more about history, culture and themselves and to better equip them to face the challenges of a 21st century life.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Spending 3 weeks with a group of excellent humans with a variety of life experiences, views, hopes and dreams.
  • Volunteering with Care4Calais and Mobile Refugee Support, NGOs which work on the frontline assisting refugees from all over the world who are currently in the areas around France and Belgium.
  • Touring the battlefields of The Western Front, Normandy and Europe and learning of those who gave so much so that we may have so much.
  • Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum & Memorial and Weiliczka Salt Mine
  • Exploration of Paris (cycling the Champs Elysees, The Louvre, Eifel Tower etc) Amsterdam & Berlin.

Khmer Rode RAGE 2013, 2014 and 2020

Why?

Climate change is with us whether we like it or not, but there is something we are doing about it.

Climate Change has not gone away…..recently the US Dept. of Energy announced the biggest 12 month increase in emissions EVER and the current world wide emissions are worse than the worst case scenario predicted by the IPCC in 2007.

27,000 children die every day from (in part) climate change related factors and species extinction is higher than any time since the Cretateous meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs and 70% of all plants and animals within a few years, 65 million years ago.

Australians are the biggest per capita emitters in the world and in recent years we have experienced higher food and petrol prices and the most severe droughts, storms, floods and fires ever…our children can expect worse …but the harshest penalties are being paid by people in the Third World and animals who did little or nothing to create the problem…. For them it is literally a daily matter of life and death.

We wanted to do something to address this unfairness.

 

 

KHMER RODE RAGE III SUMMARY

When: Dec 28, 2019 -Jan 16th , 2020
Where: Cambodia / Thailand /Australia
Why:

  • To raise awareness of everyday solutions to reducing greenhouse emissions available to everyday people….everyday.
  • To raise funds for sustainable wildlife, humanitarian, energy and food programs to assist our global neighbours who do not have the same opportunities that we do…and to draw the links between climate change, wildlife endangerment and extreme poverty.
  • To provide our students with opportunities to learn first hand about the consequences of human activities and to make a real and practical contribution to sustainable solutions.
  • To equip our students to become youth leaders for a sustainable future in their communities and beyond.
  • To read and honor the words of Weary Dunlop inscribed at the Hellfire Pass Memorial on the Thai Burma-Railway, “When you go home, tell them of us and say, we gave all our tomorrows for your today”. And to give thanks to those who gave so much so that we may have so much.

Following on from the successes of two previous Khmer Rode RAGEs, Kokoda Rode RAGE, Reef Rode RAGE and Euro Rode RAGE…. the Rode RAGE team want to stop talking about climate change and again roll up our sleeves and in the spirit of the Starfish Story roderage.com.au/home/starfish-story/ do something about it.

Australians are the biggest per capita emitters of greenhouse pollution, and we are seeing the damage all around us, but it is people in developing nations and wildlife who are paying the biggest and most immediate penalty.

The team dedicated 2019 to a variety of activities to raise funds and awareness for Jimmy’s Village School https://www.facebook.com/groups/jimmysvillageschool, Nekry International School http://www.nekry-edu.com/en_US/ and  Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand  www.wfft.org, we travelled to these centres in January 2020 to physically lend a hand and to deliver the funds raised. The team also be worked with Bicycles for Humanity  bicyclesforhumanity.com/   to fill a shipping container with bicycles, books and playground equipment to assist the students of the schools and the village of Takeo in Cambodia.

Kokoda Rode RAGE 2015

AIMS:

  • In the 100th Anniversary of ANZAC, to give thanks and respect to those who gave so much for our benefit.
  • To physically lend a hand and to raise funds for the ongoing projects of the Kokoda Track Foundation.
  • To offer our students a significant personal challenge and an opportunity to learn, grow and become leaders within their own communities.
  • To highlight that Australians are the biggest per capita emitters of greenhouse emissions … but that it is people in developing nations and wildlife who pay the biggest and most immediate penalties for our pollution…. And that we think this is unAustralian.

Having already ridden from Darwin to Melbourne in 2009 and from Ballarat to Pt Douglas in 2014, in June/July 2015, a group of Rode RAGE (Ride Against Greenhouse Emissions) students will tackle one of the world’s most daunting challenges …. To walk The Kokoda Track.
Along the way we will take the time to work on educational and health community development projects run by The Kokoda Track Foundation as well as raising funds to support their ongoing programs.
Our group will also lay poppies and other personal items from members of the RSL and 39th Battalion Association as a mark of respect and gratitude for what was given so that we may enjoy the lives we have today.

Reef Rode RAGE

3996km from Ballarat Town Hall to the Port Douglas Beach, including a 24hour track race in the RACQ Tachnology Challenge along the way.

Why:

  • To raise awareness of everyday solutions to reducing greenhouse emissions available to everyday people….every day.
  • To raise funds for sustainable wildlife, humanitarian, energy and food programs to assist our global neighbours who do not have the same opportunities that we do…and to draw the links between climate change and wildlife endangerment & extreme poverty.
  • To highlight the danger that the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest may not exist for our children.
  • To provide our students with opportunities to learn first hand about the consequences of human activities and to make a real and practical contribution to sustainable solutions.
  • To equip our students to become youth leaders for a sustainable and just future in their communities and beyond.

Outback Rode RAGE 2009

After 10 years of research and development, 3775 from Darwin Town Hll to Ballarat Town Hall to Parliment House Melbourne , two world titles and on the back of the success of their 2008 Sydney-Ballarat Rode RAGE, the students from Damascus College ’s Energy Breakthrough Team think its time to stop talking about the problems of Global Warming and concentrate more on the solutions.

 

With the students having reached speeds of 115kph during their recent win in the World Future Cycle Challenge, Team organiser, Mark McLean says that they anticipate completing the challenge in 11 riding days and plan to be welcomed home on the steps of Parliament House Melbourne by Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Innovation Gavin Jennings and World Vision CEO Rev. Tim Costello.

 

Along the way the students will visit as many communities as possible to give out information as to the options that are easily available to ordinary people, groups and communities to reduce their greenhouse emissions. The team will broadcast a live web cast (our one day Sydney to Ballarat Rode RAGE in 2008 attracted over 220,000 individual hits from 63 different countries …we envisage 2009 being much bigger) from the bus and from inside the solar vehicle, have our position shown on google-map, and be able to send and receive e-mails via this website.

 

The event will also raise funds which will be donated to projects conducted by the Alternative Technology Association – International Projects Group, which provide sustainable energy solutions to communities in Timor who do not have access to the opportunities we have in Australia . To address the more immediate needs of hunger and poverty, and to draw the link between climate change and extreme poverty, funds will also be donated to Caritas and World Vision projects which provide sustainable solutions to assisting people to develop ongoing streams of income and/or food in Asia, Africa and Europe.

 

Thus we aim to make a real and immediate difference across 4 Continents as well as an indirect but just as real difference across the whole planet.

 

Through their experiences in the Energy Breakthrough Team, our members have become aware of a number of groups and organisations which offer affordable products which will give everybody the opportunity to become part of the solution to Global Warming as well as a variety of easy steps that can be taken every day, by every body in Australia and now we want to share our learning with as many people as possible, whilst simultaneously assisting people in our global village who do not have the same opportunities that we do.

Sydney Rode RAGE

1009km from Sydney Opera House to Parliament House Canberra

to Ballarat Town Hall in 23hours 48mins. 

AIMS

  • To raise awareness of solutions to greenhouse emissions
  • To raise funds for sustainable energy and food programs

Energy Breakthrough and Races

Each year we compete in a variety of track races around the country including Wonthaggi Human Powered Grand Prix, Victorian HPV Series races at Casey, Bendigo and Knox, Australian International Pedal Prix Super Series races at Mt Gambier, Adelaide, Loxton, Busselton and Murray Bridge as well as the RACV Energy Breakthrough in Maryborough Victoria and the Fraser Coast Technology Challenge in Maryborough Queensland.

“We’d rather make a friend than win a race… but we try to do both.”