Climate Ride, Friesen

Loren Friesen is the visual communication coordinator for the bike ride.  A videographer, photographer and motion graphic designer living in San Diego, California, Loren will be documenting the trip through pictures and videos.  

Loren calls Fresno, California home, but as the son of Mennonite Central Committee workers, he also spent time living in Vietnam and India when he was growing up.  Loren studied communication and media at Fresno Pacific University.  After graduating in 2019, he volunteered with MCC in Durban, South Africa for seven months before returning home at the start of the pandemic.  

Besides taking photos and videos, Loren also likes to play soccer, surf, hike and run and has recently been enjoying San Diego’s coast-side bike routes as he trains for the trip.  

When Loren thinks about climate change, one of the things that worries him the most is the lack of policy addressing it.  He believes that for people to make changes in a capitalist society, economic incentives are critical.  “If it is profitable to address climate change,” Loren said, “then we’ll do it.”  Policies can provide the economic incentives needed to mobilize people to change their ways.  Loren sees the need for mass changes as not only a challenge, but an opportunity to “make our cities greener and our public spaces more intimate with the earth.”