Doctor pedals climate change message to Glasgow

Jet McDonald with his bike and ice block

A doctor is cycling to the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow while towing a block of ice.

Jet McDonald has taken a week off work to ferry the washing up bowl-sized block to the international summit.

The 50-year-old, from Bristol, set off on Monday and aims to complete the 400-mile journey by Sunday.

Upon arrival, he plans to leave the ice block as close as he can get to the negotiations "as an image that we really need to act now".

He told BBC Bristol he believed the melting ice block would provide a really "strong visual image" for the effect that climate change is having on the planet.

He added: "If we don't act, that melting ice is just going to continue melting.

'Don't talk, act'

"And all of the climate changes that we are seeing in the environment are going to continue unhindered.

"So that action needs to be now. Not just talk.

"Hopefully that melting ice block alongside the negotiations will really make that clear."

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Dr McDonald plans on riding between 50 and 60 miles a day and is doing the challenge in his scrubs.

The keen cyclist - who has previously pedalled from Bristol to India - said the distance would not be a challenge for him normally, but he has to wait and see what effect towing the ice has.

In preliminary runs, the block lasted a day before melting.

Therefore to arrive in the Scottish city with some ice, he has strategically planned his route so he can start each day with a new block.

He explained: "I've got a network of fellow cyclists who are putting me up every night.

"They are going to freeze a block of ice for me in their freezer.

"And then the next morning I am going to carry on to the next place.

"Hopefully all seven days I will have an ice block that will last me the whole way to Glasgow."