About
Kate
Kate has organised a number of bike rides in mountains for charity. Her first trip was in 1987 from the mouth to the source of the Rhone (with Mandy Raynard) raising money for Scottish War on Want. This was followed by an 1,100 mile solo ride through the Rockies from Fort Collins to Albuquerque plus a ride through the Yukatan jungles (with Gunar Platais) to Merida, Mexico for Oxfam and Idea (International Development Ethics Association).
Her longest trip so far was a ride along the spine of the Andes from Caracus, Venuzuela to Columbia, Equador (with Antje Peters) raising money for Oxfam and Idea again. She has also taken part in an Oxfam organised ride in Israel and Jordan and cycled in the Scottish Highlands and the Picos de Europa, Spain. In addition to cycling she enjoys hill walking and sea kayaking.
Kate has a lifelong commitment to environmental and animal welfare issues, and is particularly interested in the values dimensions of these topics. Whilst an academic she had a special interest in figuring out what is being said in academic contexts about ethics and values in environmental issues that is useful and how to communicate that to professionals in other fields. She has worked with conservationists, vets, engineers and business executives. She left university in order to focus on practical and political applications of environmental values and to work experientially outdoors to help people with motivations for life style change.
Kate studied philosophy at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Fort Collins, Colorado and taught environmental ethics for many years at Lancaster University before going freelance in 2000. She was awarded a NESTA Fellowship in 2002 to develop Outdoor Philosophy, short courses that combine inspirational experiences of wild places with critical thinking about our relationship with the environment. In addition to running Outdoor Philosophy courses Kate is now a half time senior lecturer with the Outdoor Studies programme at St. Martin's College, Ambleside.
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