YERT: The Film - Trailer

June 22, 2009 by Mark.

Get ready for YERT: The Film. This is going to be the full road trip story you’ve all been waiting for jam-packed into a powerful feature-length film, and this new film trailer is the first real glimpse into what it’ll be like. We’re shooting for Sundance, so spread the word to all of your friends and family - we want this trailer to travel around the world.

We need your help!

• We need transcribers. (you earn some cash)
• We need donations. (tax deductible)
• We need your friends. (and their friends)

Also, be sure to check out the synopsis below for a less-quick look at what the film is all about.

Please Transcribe (we just might pay you!)

We’ve got a tight deadline for the first possible entry date into Sundance, and boy do we have our work cut out for us! We’ve been working to transcribe our footage for months, but still have quite a ways to go, and we need an army of helpers– yourself included. And if you can sign up for at least three tapes a week we will pay you $10/tape. If you’ve ever wondered how you can help Mother Nature, now is the time– and she’s paying cash. Send an e-mail to mark@yert.com for more information.

Please Donate (get your name in the credits!)

We’ve put over $160,000 of our own money towards the YERT project and creation of this film. Now we’re asking you, our favorite planetary supporters, to put your money where your angst is and pitch in $20, $50, $100, $1000, or more to help us finish this film while the planet still stands a chance. We think we’ll need between $60,000 and $200,000 to finish as quickly and professionally as possible. You can make a tax-deductible donation to YERT by making out a check to “Pittsburgh Filmmakers” and noting “Conduiting Program: YERT” in the memo line of the check. Then mail the check to “Mark Dixon - YERT, 327 Denniston Ave., Pittsburgh PA 15206″. All donors who request it will get their names added to the credits of our feature film. For donations of $100 or more we’ll send you a free, autographed copy of David Korten’s new book: Agenda for a New Economy, or you can choose an autographed copy of his YERT-inspiring book The Great Turning. Many thanks to David Korten for donating the initial batch of autographed books to make this offer possible!

Tell 5 Friends (in 10 seconds)

If you’ve ever wondered when a tiny action on your part can make a huge difference to YERT, now is that time! Please tell five friends about this new trailer by simply sending them this link: http://www.yert.com/film.php . That’s all. It takes 10 seconds. You’ve done it before, or maybe you haven’t, but we hope you’re inspired to do it for us right now. Extra points if you “favorite” us in YouTube. Even more extra points if you Digg, StumbleUpon, or share us on Facebook (use the links to the right of the video player one this Trailer Page).

Synopsis

YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip) is a groundbreaking adventure and a celebration of the American spirit in the face of adversity - a thought-provoking, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious, documentary about the courageous and creative individuals, groups, businesses and leaders of this country who are tackling the greatest environmental threats in history. Called into action by the ever increasing threats of planetary catastrophe (from climate change to toxic pollution, from water scarcity to habitat destruction), the three of us - Mark Dixon, Ben Evans, and Julie Dingman Evans - upended our lives, pooled our collective life-savings, and set off on a first-of-its-kind, 50-state, year-long journey of discovery to personalize sustainability and to answer a critical question: ARE WE DOOMED?

On July 4th, 2007, with camera in hand, tongue in cheek, and packing ourselves, our supplies, and our filmmaking equipment like sardines into a used hybrid car, the YERT team set out from the Rachel Carson Homestead in Pittsburgh, PA to document environmental sustainability in every state in the union in a single year. We wanted to find out: What can Americans do to save the planet? What are they already doing? Why aren’t we all doing more? Is it possible that doing right by the planet is more economical, joyful, and fulfilling than not?

But this film isn’t just about documenting change, it’s about living it. We were on a mission to personalize sustainability, and as the National Academy of Sciences pointed out back in 1990, humanity is currently “conducting an uncontrolled experiment with the planet.” So as we traveled and filmed, we decided to BE the experiment - we would never turn on an incandescent light bulb, we would radically reduce our water usage by any means necessary, and, above all, we would attempt to generate zero waste, keeping all of our garbage (and recyclables) with us for the entire year…in our packed-to-the-gills hybrid. To pull this off, all of our garbage each month would have to fit in…a shoebox. We scoured the country, conducting over 800 interviews, amassing nearly 600 hours of footage, and bathing ourselves in America’s unique approach to environmental sustainability - the good, the bad, and the weird. We found everything from a 92 year-old caveman who’s built an entire cave community in the mountains of Idaho to an electrical engineer working to repower America with solar roadways; from outrageous green personalities like Missouri’s Eco-Elvis and Florida’s Earth Man to incredible new businesses like Tom Szaky’s Terracycle in New Jersey that’s making a mint turning garbage into almost anything; from the utter devastation of Mountain Top Removal coal mining in Appalachia to the revolutionary agricultural genius of Wes Jackson and the Land Institute in the Kansas heartland.

Several months in, an unexpected pregnancy instantly and dramatically changed life for all of us (particularly Ben and Julie, who had been told they could never have children) and pushed the team to the brink. Facing the potential derailment of the entire project, the team had to grapple with new challenges and questions - How long could two dudes and a pregnant woman survive in an enclosed space? Would we all be able to finish the trip? Would the needs of the pregnancy wreck the team’s environmental goals and challenges? Were Ben and Mark up for birthing a baby in the Alaskan wilderness? As both Julie and the garbage expanded, would the car actually explode? And as our personal journeys progressed and we dug deeper into the causes of climate change, it became clear that creating a sustainable world is about much more than simply combating global warming. Everything is tied together, and we began to connect those dots. Efficiency, renewable energy, and technological advances are critically important, but we can’t begin to address climate change unless we also address how we grow our food, how we use our water, how we measure our economy, how we approach human health, how we create/protect community, and, ultimately, how we find fulfillment and understand ourselves. Global warming is but the most dire symptom of some very fundamental issues about how our species functions on the planet. As the godfather of green building, Bob Berkebile, reminded us, we must “move beyond the current environmental movement which is about doing less harm. Our responsibility is not to do less bad, but to do something creative, and regenerative, and restorative, and loving.”

It’s taken more than 150 years to get ourselves into this mess, with America leading the way. The science tells us we have 5-10 years to get ourselves out of it. The question is, will America be leading the way or…are we doomed? You’ll just have to watch the movie to find out.

YERTfully Yours,
Ben, Julie, and Mark - Your YERT Team
team@yert.com

Posted in Video, Julie, Ben, Mark | No Comments »

Cloth Diapering to the Max: We are going to try them all!

November 17, 2008 by Julie.

Just a quick note to say that, unbeknownst to my dear husband, we are going to try one of every kind of fitted cloth diaper i can find. We have bought gdiapers, used kissaluvs with covers and Fuzzi Bunz “All-in-ones,” all fine, but now I am out to find the diapers that rock mine and baby’s socks off, and are the easiest to use, clean, travel, etc…and stay out of the landfill! Stay tuned for complete review in about a month, when I have secured all our purchases and had a chance to try them out…Moms, feel free to weigh in here…

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

How Facebook is changing the World one filter at a time…

November 15, 2008 by Julie.

I confess I don’t really remember when i first joined facebook - was it 2005? - when my NYC agent first “friended” me and I “accepted.” I don’t really remember when i started signing on regularly and enjoying people’s “status” lines changing. All I know is that this thing is a social network with wings and I am happy to climb on board. Today one of the virtual “groups” that i joined sent me an email that hints that it so much more than a social network.

Yes, the YERT group on facebook proved mighty useful during our year on the road - Several times we landed a friendly place to stay just because somebody forwarded our message. My babysteps blog automatically posts, which is a lovely thing. It’s super easy to post photos and videos and thus keep abreast of everyone’s happinesses and growing families and accomplishments. Just recently, high school acquaintances have started popping up in my inbox, and I realize I have the opportunity to kindle relationships with people I had not really known in the hormone-laced haze of high school - who I may only now be able to fully appreciate and only now realize that i have important things in common with.

There are some annoying aspects of the network, like the endless applications that show up and seem to multiply within seconds. (I thought they were fun at first and allowed a “green” application called “Lil Green Patch,” an application which asks you to “help take care of so-and-so’s plot - there’s a deer in their yard - you’ve saved 62 square feet of rainforest…” I presently have 237 “Lil Green Patch” requests and I am unconvinced that any rainforest anywhere is being protected from slashing and burning just bc i am watering my friend’s virtual garden of strawberry shortcakes. Call me a cynic, but I have just stopped watering.)

I am, however, intrigued by the Causes application. Today I was particularly elated to find out that one of the virtual “groups” that i joined has actually made a very REAL difference. It may seem small but it is a brilliant example of how, together, making some noise, we really can initiate change. The group was called “Take Back The Filter: Help Convince Clorox to Recycle Brita Filters!” which takes you to this address where people could add their names to a petition asking the manufacturers of Brita filters to take back and recycle their product so that it won’t become more needless landfill. And guess what? It worked!!!
How about that? And probably it wasn’t just facebook - I am sure the website reached many more people in different ways - but that is how I found the petition and added my voice, and I am proud and thrilled to have played a little part. I enjoyed similar satisfaction during YERT when I wrote CamelBak a letter and returned our water bottles due to #7 plastic and BPA and, a few months later, learned that CamelBak was changing its bottles due to consumer requests! We were heard. And heeded.

Ah! My baby is waking up on my lap now so i’ll close but i want to encourage everyone out there that your voice can and DOES make a difference - however you use it - be it a letter, a phone call, your name on an emailed petition, FACEBOOK, what you buy or don’t buy…It’s your VOTE, and it may seem small, but it’s REAL and it’s powerful. Use it!

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

Oh Yes We Did… Now what do we do?

November 11, 2008 by Julie.

It’s hard to believe a whole week has passed since America enthusiastically said Yes we can! and elected Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. This overwhelming vote for change, for Unity, and Peace thrilled most of America to pieces Tuesday night just as it now inspires us for the great hard work we have yet to do. America may be limping, but we just got a new PT and we can do this if we are all ready to walk a bit together. WE must support our new leader by getting off our duffs (apologies to those of us who already don’t spend much time there) and BEING the change we wish to see…there’s so much opportunity here, for our human habitat, for civil rights, for global relations…
So…what exactly do we do? Keep sending money to the Obama team as the new administration? I doubt many people can keep that up. Keep up to date on all the political goings on through our media of choice? Sorry: passive. Keep trying on a personal level to “go green” in our lives? Of course we should, but that won’t be enough. It’s time for each of us to make some beautiful noise, if we haven’t already: contact our local representatives on a regular basis, go to town meetings, become involved in our communities, and support the new administration in its work by letting government AND corporations know that we want things to change, and how.
We now have THE opportunity to make real change happen. Let’s ride the wave!! Don’t let this opportunity pass us by. Let our policy makers know that we care, we are aware, and we EXPECT new and better laws and protections for ourselves, our children and our environment.
President-Elect Obama said we have a lot of work to do. He’s right. But his election proved to a lot of us that things really CAN change so we can all, as a beautiful woman once said to me in the NYC subway, “Be encouraged.” I, for one, feel recharged. Thank you, America. Let’s pull up our boots together and see what we can do.

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

Some words to keep the faith now we’re NOT on the road…(borrowed from Not So Big Blog via no impact man…)

October 21, 2008 by Julie.

Anne from Not So Big Blog quotes from Edward Abbey, “cranky environmentalist/mystic of the desert southwest”:

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.

“So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.

“Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

Eco-Mothering, week 6

October 12, 2008 by Julie.

OK so YERT finished the traveling part of the project. I left 2 months before the very end to nest and Ben left a couple of weeks out to join me and get ready for a totally natural birth with our midwife and doula at a nearby hospital.

July 18th at 2am we started having serious contractions…and labored at home for 7 hours…

July 19, 11am - After 33 hours of hard labor, 4 bags of IV saline fluids, antibiotics, pitocin, stadol, and a C-section… there emerged 6 lbs, 13 oz of beautiful Bailey Bee out of my belly and into this wonderful Life. How surreal.

That was 6 weeks ago yesterday, and I am wondering, Where did the time go?

I am recovering well, I even like my smiley little C-section scar Bailey has gained 3 lbs and grown 3″ on mama’s milk! So, THAT is going very well. There were some other things I had planned for parenting, however, that have gone the way of the totally natural birth we hoped to have… Some of you may know that we eschewed all manner of plastic, packaging, consumerism, etc., at our baby shower in the spirit of YERT. We planned to use ONLY cloth diapers and wipes, BPA-free baby bottles if we needed to pump breastmilk, and to continue making no trash…I bought clothesline and put it up in Mom’s backyard and I swore we would NOT have a television on near our baby… it all seemed so DO-able before the birth.

Now, 6 weeks out of the gate, the truth is…parenting a newborn is no walk in the park. Suffice it to say, our best laid plans were not able to soothe our fragile nerves when lack of sleep and colicky baby had us climbing the walls after the first week… And there are some pretty cool and convenient contraptions out there that really do help semi-conscious, frayed, in love parents - not the least of which is the brilliant PACIFIER. God Bless the individual who came up with the idea of popping a rubber nipple in crying baby’s sweet little yap to calm them when nothing else can.

And so, there are pacifiers in the house, and disposable diapers and wipes for trips in the car. The hairdryer has been known to stay on for 20 minutes straight - not drying anyone’s hair at all (the most amazing tool in the colic toolbox) and I do not turn away gifts of any kind from well-meaning friends, no matter how inefficiently I imagine they were made or whether or not they were imported from possible sweatshops in China. (However, we do have lead testing sticks and are not afraid to use them.) Diapers get washed in the hottest water possible to avoid passing thrush and then popped in the dryer bc, well, we can’t keep up with how fast baby wets them if we try to dry them outside on the line. And at 3am when baby is not sleeping, we are reminded of what a comforting pal can be found in the old TV.

sigh. It’s ok. At first, I beat myself up over how poorly I was managing being an eco-friendly mom but now I am relaxing and letting myself off the hook for not being perfect…I know that some things are going to get easier and we will be able to re-introduce them as Bailey gets a little bigger.

I can hardly believe we were ever without this little girl and, though YERT seems a lifetime away, I know that what we did this last year may have more impact on her life than we could ever have imagined going in. I can’t wait to see how it plays out.

And then, there is the election.

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »

Slideshow of YERTBaby Bailey from week 1 on Planet Earth…

July 28, 2008 by Ben.

Posted in Events, Julie, Ben | 4 Comments »

BEN’S BIG BELATED BABY BLOG!!

July 24, 2008 by Ben.

Julie and I are thrilled to welcome Bailey Elise Evans into the world!! She arrived at 11:14 am on Saturday July 19th, after 33 hours of intense labor and, finally, a successful C-section. We had decided to try to have as natural a childbirth as possible and, to that end, availed ourselves of some Bradley “husband-coached childbirth” classes. This made for a very interesting hands on and profoundly participatory birthing experience for myself as well as Julie. In spite of our best intentions, sometimes life has other plans, and because of some extenuating circumstances, after many hours of labor, we were left with no other option but to have a C-section. It may not have been the optimal situation, but when a healthy baby and a healthy mother are the necessary outcome, one’s perfectionism flies right out the window. I have never been so proud of anyone in my life as I was of my wife for those 33 hours - I was literally moved to tears by Julie’s courage, strength, and unbelievable focus during what became a very long and intense labor. What a truly amazing woman. Never have I been so in love…never, that is, until little Bailey showed up.

Bailey arrived as 6.85 pounds and 19 1/2 inches of life-changing wonderfulness - we are completely smitten! Holding a newborn in your arms as she falls asleep on your chest to the sound of your heartbeat has to be one of life’s most sublime pleasures. People always said, “Just wait. Having a child will change your life.” I always believed them, of course, but there really was no way to wrap my mind around the depth of that change and the capacity of my own heart to leap out of my body with love until I cradled that piece of soft innocent magic in my arms for the first time. Then I got it. It just hits me like a wave - completely heartbreaking love every time I look at her. I know there’ll be many more life-changes to follow from parenthood, but I swear I could spend the rest of my life in a rocker with my tiny baby girl and be in absolute heaven.

(Also, our apologies for the belated announcement, but the C-section made life a little more interesting and even less restful than we had anticipated. We’ve just returned from recovery in an internet-free hospital and have each had a total of about 14 hours of actual sleep in the last seven days…literally. Julie and I had no idea that after 3 days of zero sleep you actually start hallucinating - now we know.)

That said, enjoy these pictures from Bailey’s first couple of days. Lots of love to all the YERTians! And now….sweet slumber…..

delirious with joy and sleeplessness,

Ben & Julie

PS - Julie’s breastfeeding right now, or I’m sure she would have written this blog. Poor thing is a nursing machine :).

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

Bailey Elise Evans is Born! Woohooo!!!

July 19, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

I just received a very happy text message from Ben and Julie– their brand new happy, healthy baby GIRL, Bailey Elise Evans, was born at 11:14 AM today, July 19, 2008. Feel free to add congratulatory comments to this blog entry, or e-mail them directly at ben@yert.com and julie@yert.com. More details coming soon…

Cheerioio,
Mark

Posted in Events, Julie, Ben | 7 Comments »

YERTies in the family way, and counting the days….

July 14, 2008 by Julie.

haha well…

just thought i would check in since we have bypassed both of the projected “due dates” and I am sure there are some people who are wondering if we just neglected to make any announcement.

We haven’t forgotten. (How could we??) We’ve had “false labor” a couple of times now but are patiently waiting to see when little one wants to come out. I have stopped making predictions but I have heard that very many babes are born during the Full Moon, which would be Thursday/Friday of this week. Surely, she isn’t waiting to be a Gemini!!! haha. I have had to put the Baby Book I am building on hold…

We have been walking 40 minutes twice a day, and have tried quite a few natural labor “enhancements” but, so far, baby just seems pretty darned comfortable in there. And, frankly, I am pretty comfortable too! Fortunately, our midwife thinks our baby is not so big…so far…(though I keep thinking that the longer she is in there…the bigger she gets!)

We will keep posting. Bags have been packed for 2 weeks already, and everything seems to be ready at home…cloth diapers ready to go!!! OK baby, you are good enough to wait for. xox your mama

Posted in Issues, Julie | 1 Comment »