‘I am passionate about the need for urgent, effective and suitably radical responses to our multiple environmental challenges. Having recently returned to the UK from South America and The Life Cycle ‘adventure plus’ biodiversity bike ride, I feel hugely optimistic about the potential for using adventurous journeys in the movement towards profound and positive change.’
A former university lecturer, first in environmental philosophy and then outdoor education, Kate now works freelance. Her overall aim is to help deliver a massive wake up call: raising awareness and inspiring effective, intelligent action on some of our most urgent environmental challenges. She has lectured at numerous universities and organisations and is a powerful and popular public speaker. She set up and runs Outdoor Philosophy courses, using the power of wild places to support personal and professional positive action on environmental sustainability and to explore all important questions about values and worldviews, particularly in relations to humans and the natural world.
Outdoor Philosophy, sea kayaking, near Arisaig, Scotland
Kate has written widely on environmental issues. Her book, The Carbon Cycle, Crossing the Great Divide (Two Ravens Press, 2012; Rocky Mountain Books, 2013; Word Power Books 2nd Edition, 2016), based on a bike ride from Texas to Alaska exploring climate change, was shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Festival Adventure Travel Book Award, 2013. Other ‘adventure plus’ journeys include the Gyre to Gaia ocean plastic pollution sailing voyage with Pangaea Exploration.
Kate grew up largely in Scotland, bar a few years in Penzance, and now lives in Cumbria with her partner, Chris. She is a keen sea kayaker – preferably around remote, wildlife-rich islands – hill walker and bookworm, as well as a cyclist. Kate is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of The Adventure Syndicate, an Ibex Earth biodiversity ambassador, sits on the Food Ethics Council and holds sea kayaking and mountain leader qualifications. She has a PhD in Environmental Philosophy from Glasgow University, a Masters in Applied Ethics from Colorado State University and an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Aberdeen University.
Kate and Woody in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru