May 26, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

Water is one of those topics that keeps surfacing on this trip. But unlike a spring, we appear to be seeing the fall of water availability across the country. With explosive growth in Las Vegas and equally explosive shrinkage in Lake Mead (Vegas’ water supply), the stage is set for interesting times ahead - especially as Vegas begins trying to tap into other Nevada water basins.

We went to the source… of the water… with Dan Greenlee, a field scientist for the USDA’s “SNOTEL” program. SNOTEL stands for “SNOwpack TELemetry,” which is basically a system of sensors at “over 660 remote sites in mountain snowpack zones” in the Western United States and Alaska. This system gives scientists and policy makers a pretty good prediction of water supplies for the coming year.

Then we rolled on to Las Vegas—a city with perhaps the most sensitivity to the water supply. We all know that growing fast in a desert can be a recipe for trouble, but Doug Bennett, Southern Nevada Water Authority Conservation Manager (we met him in Las Vegas), is working hard to put his city on a path towards destruction… of lawns! That’s right, one trick up his water conservation sleeve is a $1.50 payment for every square foot of lawn that residents destroy.

And, of course, we sat down with Elvis at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel to discuss the finer points of water conservation.

In the Flow,

Ben, Mark, and Julie (and Erika)

Your YERT Team

team@yert.com

P.S. Breadcrumbs! For more information about the topics in this video, check out the links below…

• SNOTEL: From their website, The US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service “operates and maintains an extensive, automated system designed to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States and Alaska. This system… operates over 660 remote sites in mountain snowpack zones.”
• Southern Nevada Water Authority: This organization is essentially waging war against water scarcity, using a barrage of innovative programs including the “Water Smart Landscapes Rebate,” which, according to their website, pays $1.50 for “every square foot of lawn converted to water-smart landscaping.” We even saw dedicated “lawn demolition” companies when we drove through town. Cool.
• We’ve tried a few composting toilets during YERT, and they really don’t smell! And heck, why would you want to put poop into fresh drinking water anyway? For more information, check out the “scoop” on wikipedia, and you can also watch our video “YERTpod24: Non-Invasive Ways to do Holidays in Hawaii” that describes the composting toilet in service at the Lova Lava Land eco-resort.

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Posted in Video | 3 Comments »

May 24, 2008 by Mark.

YERTians,

Just wanted to send a note out to the world to let you all know that we’re still on the road– and we miss Julie’s blogging skills! We’ve got all sorts of blog entries backed up and waiting for the light of day, including…
- Blue Green Alliance interviews in Ohio
- A Subaru plant creating zero landfill waste in Indiana.
- A localvore challenge in Wisconsin, complete with local beer and cheese. And fresh fried cheese curds.
- Eco-innovations, games, foods, and ideas in Minnesota.
- A methane, wind, and solar-powered landfill in North Dakota. And kite surfing on grass.

We’re currently visiting our 46th state (just 4 more to go!), which happens to be North Dakota, and tomorrow we head into South Dakota. Then on to Wyoming, Montana, and then Alaska. Rest assured that we’ll keep at this YERT stuff well after the travels are complete. We still have a zillion videos to edit and we’ll be posting those for months after the trip is done. We’ll be expanding our outreach efforts and work to align ourselves with people and organizations pursuing similar goals. We are also planning to produce “YERT the Movie,” a feature film to share the highlights of the YERT year. And there will be all sorts of fun ways to get more YERTy, like transcribing videos, raising funds, hosting YERT parties, selling YERT ChicoBags, blogging about YERT stories, and, of course, creating a tidal wave of enthusiasm that pushes YERT onto Oprah. Or Letterman. Or Colbert.

We are also planning to have a few YERT finale events around the country. Right now it looks like there will be events in Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, and Pittsburgh, PA. We’ll be announcing dates and venues soon.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you. During our finale events we’ll be sharing stories from YOU, our faithful YERTians, about all the ways that this has been an environmental year for you. Has the YERT adventure caused you to change a habit? Go a little greener? Or not? Whatever the case may be, we’d love to hear from you about it all. We’ll post the best stories to our blog, and may even include some in our videos and film. Send your stories to team@yert.com. Include a photo of you being extra green if you’re extra motivated.

That’s all for tonight. The longer we travel the more challenging it is to stick to the rigors of this road-tripping schedule, so just to keep up we have to sleep a little more. Exercise a little more. Work a little less. Thanks for sticking with us through it all. This is only the beginning…

Cheerio,
Mark

Posted in Travelog, Mark | 1 Comment »

May 21, 2008 by Julie.

Mom has always had flowers, since I can remember, which she took very good care of: lilies, iris, tulips, pansies…

But Dad planted a garden, with radishes, carrots, beans, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, canteloupe, pumpkins, even corn! I remember the first time we all helped him seed…and the first time we pulled up the mutant carrots… But Dad cared about that garden as well as for it. He watered it, tended it, and then we would bring in the bounty. Only thing was, Dad didn’t cook. And neither, really, did Mom. I am trying to remember eating this gorgeous bounty but, aside from swallowing soggy things boiled in bacon and salt water, which is how you “prepare” vegetables in the South, I do not recall ever eating any of these wonderful fruits of our labor at anything near their natural form…

Today, Mom and I had to go buy a tea kettle to replace hers that started spewing water all over the stove. On the way home, we had to wait for a train so we killed time at St Matthews Feed & Seed store. I thought to myself: It’s now or never, and walked straight over to the tomato plants. Real food. Plants you can grow which make no garbage and keep giving you food. It’s miraculous! I have grown plenty of plants in my house but, other than herbs, I have never bought and planted plants to grow food for my family. This is a first! We bought cherry tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, cilantro, lemon mint, and seeds to start green beans.

“You don’t know if any of these seeds are GMO?” I asked the store lady. “Huh?” “Genetically modified - these are just seeds right, they haven’t been messed with or anything?” She looked at me like I was asking her to bicycle to the moon so I took our little packet of seeds and thanked her, then we paid and skedaddled. The little plants are waiting hopefully outside in their pots for the day, coming soon, when I will put them in the real ground for them to take root and start really growing…like the baby in my belly…

We can grow things. That’s amazing.

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

May 20, 2008 by Ben.

Saturday April 19th we had a wonderful “green” baby shower as detailed in the blog post entitled “Showering with 30 friends really can be a clean “green” experience!”

Sunday also proved to be very fruitful as Mark and I headed out to Times Square to probe the minds of New Yorkers (although, as any New Yorker can tell you, Times Square is mostly tourists). After several colorful encounters and reeling from the multi-sensory stimuli, we sauntered over to Central Park for a little Earth Day Celebration in Central Park. Here we found all manner of planting going on, as well as a concert, numerous activities, and booths offering “green” wares and services of all kinds. We could have stayed for hours, but our YERT party was calling us, so we hopped the subway to Brooklyn.

Our YERT party in Brooklyn was hosted by our good friends Amy and Zach who put on quite the shindig. It was definitely one of the best YERT parties thus far and we managed to hook up with some old friends as well as make a few new ones. One of our new friends, Megan Dietz (sent our way by our new friend Cathy at Columbia), is actually starting a cool new eco web-zine called The Sunny Way. Megan’s a hoot to boot and was nice enough to share some of her environmental insights with our camera. She’s an advocate for the concept of going beyond “doing no harm” or “less bad” and really actively “doing good” for the planet. Inspired. Another friend we made that evening was Tim Murphy, who’s been working on a film about currency, among other things. Having covered a few examples of local currencies ourselves along the road, we eagerly picked his brain which is chock-a-block full of all kinds of insights about the nature of money and how taking control of our own currencies at a very fundamental level is one of the most empowering things humanity can do to become fully actualized and part of a sustainable planet. Tim also helped arrange an interview for us later in the week with Dr. Ari - one of Sri Lanka’s greatest spiritual/social/environmental leaders. Suffice it to say, we had a rockin’ good time.

Posted in Events, Travelog, Issues, Ben | 1 Comment »

May 18, 2008 by Julie.

YERT mama checking in… confessing to some trash-making on the home front in Louisville, whilst the remaining explorers make out across Minneapolis in search of green drinks, BagE-Wash and bees…

When I got dropped off of the road part of YERT, I knew that being trash-free would become a bigger challenge - mainly due to food preparation since, suddenly, all the packaging that the three of us had mostly managed to avoid (by not finishing people’s cartons of milk or OJ, or boxes of cereal, etc) I would now be coming face to face with in my mom’s own fridge. I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve been a little frustrated but, seriously, what do you do with a kitchen full of already packaged food? Not waste it, surely?

“Mom,” I’d said, pointing to her little under-counter bin, “this garbage bag is going to last us until the baby is born. So don’t throw anything in there that you don’t want hanging around for the next 2 months.” She’d just looked at me, big eyes. “OK.” she’d said. I’d had a feeling it might take a few days to catch on. I did pull a couple of banana peels, a few pieces of junk mail and the occasional kleenex out of there but for the most part, and no thanks to my tirades and nagging, Mom started getting the hang of it. It has been 3 weeks.

I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to take garbage out…I really was. But, I am not kidding, the trash had started to stink. I couldn’t figure it out since all we’d been putting in there was plastic, plastic and plastic. And waxed food cartons that had been washed very well. This morning I found the culprit - a disposable diaper. Yum. We had a little visitor a few days ago who isn’t quite potty trained yet and I hadn’t told his sweet mama that we were trying to keep the same garbage until July.

It’s not her fault. Anyway, I was fooling myself if I thought I could keep packing the refuse down to make that bag last another week, much less another month. So, regrettably, Mom and I took the garbage out, and took video to record the unhappy event. I have to say, though, I am so proud of mom for her efforts!! We have only one very small bag of garbage, compared to 3 BIG bags of recycling going out tomorrow, and that is a BIG change. I wonder if the garbage men will notice? Almost makes me want to get up at 6:00 am just to watch them them scratch their heads in wonder at how we manage…but not quite…

AND, yesterday, Mom turned in her gas powered lawnmower for $50 at the recycling facility in Louisville and then we went to the hardware store to pick her up an electric, battery-operated lawn mower (for which she also got a $50 rebate. She’s hoping it will pay for itself in saved gas costs, and she feels good about not polluting or using oil), and today we bought a few more CFL (Compact Flourescent) bulbs. Next on the agenda…. could it be that Mom is considering retiring her old van and buying a Prius???

Posted in Issues, Julie | 3 Comments »

May 13, 2008 by Julie.

YERT mama checking in on the site…and just noticing from the shower checker that YERT daddy has not taken a shower in 12 dys.
I can honestly say that I left the road part of the trip just in time.

I have been home for just about 10 dys now. Last weekend, I accompanied my brother Tony and his wife Heather here in Louisville as they picked up red wrigglers (worms!) from Breaking Grounds (related to Heine Bros Fair Trade Organic Coffee). Tony and Heather were the first people to buy worms from the newly established compost/wormery, along with another Louisville lady. I interviewed Brian B, the new worm wrangler, and got a first hand look at worm eggs which i had never studied so closely before. I hope to start volunteering on Sundays, bringing worms to the ignorant masses…

At home, we are finding the NO GARBAGE challenge to be nearly impossible. Firstly, we have a lot of food to use up in Mom’s fridge and cabinets that is highly packaged and, secondly, there are certain things that Mom cannot get on board with yet. I have to learn to be gentle or this will be fruitless. She did not sign on for the YERT experience. Hiding her papertowels and kleenexes and chiding her for flushing the toilet is, so far, not charming her. I have got to be more creative and maybe come up with a way of making NO TRASH more fun.

So far, I think it is mainly annoying. For both of us. I just didn’t realize how much easier it is to make no trash when you are all 3 dedicated and you are eating out half the time and not absorbing the waste that comes from restaurant food…or from the households that are so kindly offering us to partake in their juice, milk and cereal…

…To be continued…

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

May 7, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

Clear the decks– it is time for spring cleaning! It seems that we have stumbled into the season of things breaking, and so we celebrate by cleaning the car’s nooks and crannies in preparation for the final 3 months of journey. This week we present to you "YERT Blert 3: Breaking In 9 Months Out."

We have some major shifts to discuss this time: Julie leaves the trip to nest and prepare for baby. Mark’s girlfriend Erika joins the team in May, and Ben leaves in early June to make sure he’s home in time for the baby birth. Then Mark and Erika head up to Alaska for state 50 and the official end of the journey. Oh yes, and we have more garbage. See all this and more laid out in plain view in YERT Blert 3.

We also have a few tidbits of news we’d like to share:
1. We have an awesome Facebook group that gets more frequent and informal news than the Official YERT mailing list. If you’d like to get more insight into the inner workings of the project, join our Facebook group here.
2. We have no place to stay in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. It is like nobody lives there. Prove us wrong! Send us the contact info of friends and family who live in those states and we’ll send you a free YERT ChicoBag if we stay with them.
3. What was that? A YERT ChicoBag? That’s right. You can buy official YERT ChicoBags at our website. We’ll have free shipping for one week only, so put your orders in right away! (ChicoBag is a reusable and self-stuffable shopping bag. Totally destroys the problem of forgetting your reusable shopping bags!)

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more YERT videos and we’ll check in again at the end of the journey!

Fixin’ to Finish,
Mark, Ben, and Julie, Your YERT Team

team@yert.com

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Posted in Video, Mark | 2 Comments »