February 4, 2008 by Julie.

K so we are coming to a sort of compromise…

For those of you familiar with our journey, you may find this repetitive, so pardon.
But, for anyone who happens to be reading this for the first time, here’s the nutshell: we are 3 people on a yearlong roadtrip to every state in the union, documenting environmental sustainability as we find it… I became pregnant somewhere in about the 3rd month of the trip and things started getting more challenging…

We have a shoebox that rides around in the car with us, collecting every single piece of garbage we create…Every month it gets emptied and counted, then stays with us in the car, usually put into a cereal box, also garbage. (Incidently, I am suddenly reminded that today is the 1st day of the 8th month of our journey and we can now put last month’s shoebox into…some other container…to be carried around with us till the end…) *We do consider recyclables as waste in this experiment, since there is waste in their downcycling and much energy and water used in the recycling process, but at the end of the trip once they are counted they will be recycled. Or even better, reused!

Anyway, there have been a few times here and there that I have played the pregnant card on this journey and, shoebox be damned, I bought some freaking yogurt or milk when i craved dairy or drank a bottle of water when i felt unsure about drinking water from the motel bathroom sink. At first, this was rather upsetting to the team but eventually Mark decided that the baby, being an unplanned part of this trip w/different needs than we had anticipated for ourselves, should get her own shoebox, thereby freeing the rest of us from the guilt of breaking from our ‘no-waste’ commitment. (*note: we still aren’t 100 % positive that ’she’ is a girl but that is what my gut is telling me. Apologies in advance if you are a boy, my darling. You must be in touch with your feminine side.)

That said, we are still trying very hard to remain true to our commitment of making as little waste as we possibly can on this journey. I am going right now to start reading No Impact Man’s blogs from the very beginning and see how far I can get. I encourage any of you who are interested to do the same, as he’s a wonderful read, with some great ideas.

And for now, i will go back to obsessing about baby names and being mildly frustrated that I still have a week before the next ultrasound so that i can hopefully narrow down the search to one sex…Here a picture of my belly so that you can predict - What are we having? Is our little YERTian jackaroo or jillaroo…??? What will it be? Mystery solved in 7 dys!

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February 4, 2008 by Julie.

Well, I have fallen in love with New Orleans. Granted, it’s wintertime and cool; sweat wasn’t running down every crease of my pregnant body (maybe I would feel different in the dog days of August) and I never saw the city before Katrina hit, or experienced the crime after, but I have to say that, having lived in NYC for 9 yrs, the Big Easy seems to slide the Big Apple a creaky wooden chair saying, Man, sit down for awhile and listen to this jazz…And i didn’t even get to see the nightlife! ANd we were told to be careful where we walked at nighttime…

We got to New Orleans hoping to see how the rebuilding is going down there in the aftermath of the Hurricane - is it ‘green?’ Are people interested? Is there funding? It seems that there is indeed ‘green’ rebuilding happening but it is not the norm - Katrina devastated so much of the population and the infrastructure of the city that New Orleans had its hands full just trying to get people evacuated to safety and attempt reconnection and massive cleanup, much less sit down and rethink how to contruct over half an entire city in a thoughtful and sustainable way.

And yet, even now, some 2 1/2 years later, there are people living in tents under the freeways and many more homeless people than before the storm. Will homes be built for them? - and if they are not built sustainably, then what? What if the same lack of foresight in initial design/ engineering that caused the levees to fail during Katrina likewise prevails in the rebuilding of New Orleans infrastructure? This great opportunity to start from scratch - put some real thought into what is truly sustainable - could be lost and we could see a slipshod and hurried rebuilding of New Orleans that will leave the city and its people vulnerable still…i really hope that is not what happens…

We visited with Ken Ford, a longtime resident of the Chalmette neighborhood, who explained how Exxon’s ever-expanding petroleum plant poisons the air and water where he lives. One swipe of his fingertips across the backyard patio table demonstrated how much soot accumulates within a few hours - airborne pollutants that are accumulating in the air on a constant basis, changing the composition of what residents are breathing. Ken should know; he is living on half a lung and has been keeping track of air quality in Chalmette for quite some time…

Next to his house, an abandoned playground sits empty, with broken swings and not much hope of coming back to life as the area is not considered safe for children to be running around. It stands next to a tall air monitoring tower…A man in his truck wants to know if we are there to help fix the swingset cause he will do whatever we need to help us if we are…he just wants a place for his little daughter to play…When I ask him if he thinks that breathing air from the refinery might make it hard for his little daughter to breathe, he says he imagines it does but he’s lived there all his life and what are you going to do?

Anne Rolfes, Program Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, (you can find info on Bucket Brigades in other communities at www.bucketbrigade.net) explained how giant corporations like Exxon will name the plants after the communities they are in close proximity to (ie: “Chalmette refinery”) in order to stir a sense of local community pride and avoid being targeted or sued as a polluter. She showed us how special buckets with vacuum bags are used to take air samples that can be checked for pollutants and then acted upon if the results are nasty (which they usually are). Anne admits that community organizing around this issue is much harder now, after Katrina, but she remains undeterred and steadfast in her determination to help clean up the air for the people of New Orleans and Louisiana. They are lucky to have her.

On the green building front, we talked with a young New Orleans native named John Moore who studied green building in Atlanta and returned home after Katrina to help Global Green with reconstruction in the 9th Ward. He was very happy to show us the first nearly completed building - a passive solar, very energy efficient abode that will serve as a sort of demo to the community as other houses are being built. (And yes, as some of you may have heard, Brad Pitt did help make a lot of this reconstruction happen. John vouched for Brad’s being an upstanding guy who happens to be an architectural buff and, fortunately for New Orleans, a philanthropist with some considerable green.)

Tomorrow’s blog: how the Bayou is faring in the wake of Katrina and from the glut of oil refineries on Louisiana’s fragile coast. Also, how the BAGmonster went over at Mardi Gras…

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February 1, 2008 by Julie.

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.

Coming home for Christmas - to Kentucky and my mother’s house - was something that my wonderful husband built into our YERT itinerary just because. And I bless him for it - It was almost as if Fate knew we would be finishing up the 1st trimester of pregnancy and needing some prenatal care, and some rest…

I admit that being home with Mom for the holidays was sooooo nice! Opening boxes of maternity clothes sent from dear friends and family and seeing what might actually fit, poring over pregnancy books… Hearing the baby’s heartbeat for the very first time and seeing the little jelly beano jumping around, little tiny hands and feet going… - all this made focusing on YERT and work very, very difficult!!

Nevertheless, we made fun contacts in Louisville, once Mark got back from his visit with family. We interviewed Mayor Jerry Abramson who is particularly excited about his bicycle initiative and some of his environmental staff, and visited with Gary Heine of Heine Bros Coffee, a local cafe that serves only organic fair trade coffee and composts its grounds into Vermiculture - worms to make compost! - they make some of the very best dirt around, out of your organic food scraps. We tried to get Mom on board with composting. She claimed fear of rats so we recommended that she get one of these worm bins.

Ben and I are looking very forward to joining up with Gary when we get back to Louisville to help with an initiative to bring organic gardening back to the inner city. We have a lot to look forward to, staying with Mama once the little one is born…and probably a lot to learn about how to be sustainable in REAL LIFE, with baby and pets and all…

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February 1, 2008 by Julie.

The past 2 months have found me not enjoying writing - my own fault bc I defaulted to simply cataloguing our travels and interviews without commenting on what we are finding and how we feel about it. How I feel about it. So - here’s what was exciting about Kansas! - curl up with coffee and enjoy…it’s a long one…

GREENSBURG, KS.
Bob Berkobile, architect extraordinaire at BNIM Architects, helped bring about awareness that led to LEED certification for buildings in America. Bob was happy to talk to us about the amount of green building that is happening in Kansas City but what he was MORE interested in was sending us to Greensburg, KS, a community laid flat by an F5 Tornado, May 4, 2007, that is asking to be rebuilt apropos to its name - green - or at least greener than it was. (Here is a link to NPR’s All Things Considered special called “Kansas Town’s Green Dreams Could Dave Its Future.”) As far as we know this is the 1st time a team of architects and city planners have been handed the opportunity to literally redesign a town from scratch (excepting New Orleans/Hurricane Katrina, where the damage was so extensive and the need for assistance so immediate that time for building green was not available and is only now being seriously considered). The majority of the townspeople are still waiting in FEMA trailers on the outskirts of the old neighborhoods for the rebirth of Greensburg as an example of truly sustainable development.

We drove down to this tiny little town, and were met by a charming young woman named Alanna, whose home and consignment shop were flattened by the twister. Alanna toured us around a devastated landscape of trees cut off at the knees and some crumbled foundations, open basements and rubble where the neighborhood once was. She told us that not everybody there is interested in going green, bc not everybody understands what “green” really means, and some are not certain it will take…

The hope is that rebuilding Greensburg sustainably might actually infuse some life back into the town. Like many older towns in the southern midwest, Greensburg was considered to be a “dying” town - its young people leaving as soon as possible with no intention of returning. Residents hope that the new Greensburg might bring new businesses and create a viable economy, attracting new citizens to town as well as bringing back some of its young people. (Discovery channel is also stationed there to document the greening of Greensburg, as long as that may take.) We are happy to report that Alanna is encouraged and staying put!

LAWRENCE, KS:
The Local Scene - Our wonderful host, Tom Fox, hooked us up with a young man named James Roberts. James, an Environmental History student at KU, brought us to breakfast at a local cafe near the University, where we joined a tableful of passionate, interested, and concerned students - business majors, architects, engineers, and ecologists who were happy to be put on film. Next, James took us to a little shop that sells bags in association with the KU Reusable Bag Program, and then on to one of the culinary highlights of our trip so far - and I expect I may get flack for this one - Local Burger.

What is Local Burger, you might ask, and why would someone who is trying to be environmentally conscious be supporting an establishment where the main product is meat? Well, it was delicious. Are you not moved? I had no intention of eating any meat there when I met adorable owner Hilary Brown, no matter how fresh her alternative to fast food. But what intrigued me about Local Burger is that the food is entirely organic and all of the meat locally sourced, grass-fed and grass-finished on farms that Hilary visits on a regular basis (no feedlots, antibiotics or hormones here).

Once we pled vegetarianism, Hilary kindly brought us out some quinoa burger bites with her special sauce. They were gone within moments. She brought us more. We finished those too. Then Hilary discovered I was pregnant and she insisted that this meat was especially good protein for the baby, being so fresh and free of hormones, antibiotics and stress (as the animals are offed by a sharpshooter and die without even knowing what hit them). So, what do you think happened? I ate an elk burger. Immediately, with cheese and extra pickles, and it may have been the most delectable thing I have eaten so far on this trip. Thank you, Elk, for becoming part of me and my little one. You had a happy life free to roam all around eating grass, like you were meant to do, and I am so thankful for your life.

I should mention that Ben, although mostly committed to being a vegetarian for this trip, made a major exception to support this establishment. OK not just to support the establishment - he was salivating over my elk cheeseburger and my unexpectedly delirious reaction to it. I did’t blame him. It was better than any burger i have ever had. Absolutely everything that we ate at Local Burger was beyond delicious. Hilary is an amazing chef who really cares that the food is real good, and real good for you. We were pleased to support this wonderful totally local alternative to fast food but I realize there is an important question here: Can the supply of locally-sourced, organically-raised meat keep up with increasing demand as the population grows or is the only answer for a rising population to let go of raising animals on land that can be used to grow food directly for people? Something to think about…

***OH - One particularly important thing happened in Kansas this year - For the first time, a community effectively stopped a coal-fired power plant from going forward! Our new friend, James, was part of a large group of students and townspeople who joined together to oppose new coal power plants from being built in Kansas, by voicing their concerns at a public commentary. Public hearings had to be held another day to accommodate them. Public opinion was so strong against the plants that they were denied permits. We think this is the 1st time a coal plant has been denied a permit based on CO2’s being judged a pollutant!!! Go, Kansas!

THE LAND INSTITUTE, Salina, KS:
We finally got to Salina and Wes Jackson (brilliant botanical geneticist and all around regular good guy). This was our 1st originally scheduled KS interview that got hammered by ice and snow…SO Exciting!!! Wes talks about changing the way we grow food in order to be a truly sustainable society. He has been working for 30 yrs on creating food crops which are perennials instead of annuals, designed to be hardy year after year without having to be resewn, refertilized, renurtured with the great lot of inputs that are believed to be required now. John Schmidt showed us all around the greenhouse and here Ben and John are making angels in the snow…

Jackson also believes in polycrops, to be sewn in one field and harvested altogether. He is confident this can be done, and has a perennial grain that is almost farmer-ready…but thinks it won’t be ready to sew commercially for possibly 20 yrs. Oh! Do we have the time? Uncertainly isn’t keeping Wes Jackson from doing his work. It’s so cool! Thank you, Wes…

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