It’s Sunday once again, the day of the sun, but the last holiday before the hated Monday… well, not this time: thank God, it’s Easter!

However, the theme of this article is not Orthodox, or any Easter. It is Earth Day, which passed by only five days ago, noticed or unnoticed.

Surprisingly, besides Earth Day, UN called the whole of 2008 The Year of The Earth, perhaps hinting once again to those who might not have heard or felt already that  global warming is an existing threat and they need to do something, that only thinking about producing less greenhouse gases is no longer enough.

Bulgaria also saw various initiatives throughout the day on April 22. However, in the early afternoon the rain started and people working on exhibitions and information tables throughout Sofia’s centre had to suspend work temporarily.

Bikevolution association, of which I am a proud member, organised various events that day as well, because bike transport is something Bulgaria desperately needs and something that would at least cut the greenhouse emissions from cars, if understood correctly.

A map of Sofia was available for people passing by on bikes. It was placed at the information table on Patriarh Evtimii Square, where people painted their own bicycle routes that they use when struggling to reach from point to point in overcrowded Sofia. Passing cyclists also completed a survey sharing the other routes they use to move throughout Sofia. And, apparently, 90 per cent of those who do not yet ride said they would do so if proper infrastructure were available.

Survey results revealed that citizens younger than 40 would ride a bicycle if there were proper bicycle lanes, but that the elderly, although very happy with the initiative, would not ride a bicycle. It seems that the mentality of elderly people here is still preventing them from such pleasant and useful activities. Mothers with infants also spoke to the Bikevolution volunteers, sharing their view that, for example, the infrastructure is not good enough for their perambulators to access underpasses throughout the city. They also wanted improvements and the removal of the thousands of cars parked on the pavements.

A competition between public transport, cars and bicycles also took place that day. And surprise-surprise: the cyclists won in all four destinations! Sofia Public Transport Company assisted Bikevolution during the competition by timing the buses’ time and route via its new GPS system…

Later that day Sofia University’s yard brought together about 200 people with bicycles, monocycles or those without. They signed a petition to save the Bulgarian mountains and took part in a role-playing forum-theatre played by Bikevolution representatives and members of the audience (picture 1). Riding chairs to mark cars, the drivers aggressively hit the cyclist, and later, when he went to a transport commission, he was pressured by Sofia mayor, the chief architect, councillors and transport specialists who could not understand his request for bicycle lanes. The public gave ideas about how to improve the situation and took part in a brainstorming on what the city needs to do to enable residents to ride their bikes freely.

The cyclists moved on in a long row and this time rode their bicycles uneventfully from Sofia University to National Palace of Culture, escorted by police provided by the city (picture 2). There they melted into the procession, which started celebrating Earth Day 2008 in Sofia.

Another part of the events worth seeing on April 22 was the photographic exhibition, which won the first round of the contest Earth from Below (picture 3). These were quite astonishing and remarkable pieces. The Association A Seed organised it, and amateur photographers from the Balkans took part. All pictures can be seen at http://www.aseed.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=556&Itemid=267

The idea came from the famous exhibition Earth from Above by Arthus-Bertrand that came to Bulgaria. Earth from Below, however, was meant not to show how pretty the Earth can look from such a great altitude. Just the opposite – it was meant to show the reality below. And it did. Photos of landfills, poor neighborhoods, refuse packaging installations, piles of street garbage, constructions at mountains or at the Black sea, burning fields or smoking chimneys in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia were to be observed near Ariana Lake in Sofia. The exhibition will take part also in Artmospheric festival from May 1 to May 4, http://artmospheric.org/a