September 28, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

We’ve got some great news! YERT was featured on this week’s edition of "Living on Earth," our favorite national environmental radio program. You may have heard this program on iTunes or any number of public radio stations across the country. We hope you enjoy the show!

Click to listen to YERT on Living on Earth!

Or download this mp3 file directly.

Also, a YERT friend and interviewee, Tony Kvale, founder of Kvale Good Natured Games, is trying to get ahead in an online competition at Forbes.com. He’s gotten into the semifinals, but needs YERTy help to cross the line in the top five! Can you take a moment to vote for him– and help propel a thoroughly green game company into the minds of Forbes readers? Thanks for your help!

There are two options for voting (takes just a couple minutes):

1) http://boost08.perfectprize.com/voting/
Straight to the ballot itself. Check off Kvale games, submit & follow instructions.

2) http://www.KvaleGames.com/?p=VoteHenry08
Gives an overview of Kvale Games, spells out the voting steps, and only involves an extra click.

And finally, a quick update about the YERT team… Ben and Julie (and their beautiful new baby Bailey) have moved temporarily to Pittsburgh while Ben performs with the Pittsburgh City Theater. Erika continues her work with Ashoka in Washington, DC. In the meantime, Mark has jumped into Pittsburgh’s green community, and is working to secure funding to complete the YERT film and related curriculum and discussion materials. Our primary video camera (Canon XH A1) was damaged by sparks during the road trip, so "she" is in the shop right now, getting ready for new life documenting whatever else we encounter in these early stages of YERT Part 2!

We also have to apologize for the dearth of new videos for your entertainment. We haven’t forgotten about them, but we need a little time to put some cash into YERT and generally sort out our lives before we can continue at full steam. But continue we will! We’re also on the hunt for unpaid interns who are interested in new media, film, and marketing experience– there are plenty of ways that students young and old can get involved and get some cool experience at the same time. Please spread the word to friends and family– and film teachers (and their students)!

That’s all for now. Thanks for sticking with us all these months (and years!), and we’ll be in touch again very soon.

YERTfully Yours,

Ben, Julie, Erika, and Mark (Your YERT Team)

team@yert.com

YERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERT

Posted in Events, Mark | 1 Comment »

September 14, 2008 by Mark.

After much delay I’ve finally assembled a new survey to share. Inspired… or should I say, concerned by recent chants at the Republican National Party’s convention to drill, baby, drill, I have decided to open the topic for discussion on this blog. What do you think we should do about the apparent shortage of oil and/or our dependence on foreign oil? You can vote in our handy poll below:

Apparently I’m not the only one who is confused by the chant, particularly that it was hollered with pride, as if this “so last century” technology will lead us into a new era of prosperity and innovation. It won’t. But Thomas Friedman puts it much better than I could in his Op-Ed Piece in the NY Times:

“As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”

Ponder that. Then let me know if you’d like to change your vote.

Posted in Issues, Mark | No Comments »

August 23, 2008 by Mark.

I’m going on vacation for a week or so, starting tonight. Somehow my father managed to retire just a month or so after YERT finished its travels, so now he’s taking the family on a boat ride in Maine. Fortunately, I’m considered family. I’ll be back soon, but in the meantime I hope that you can all enjoy your summers.

There have been plenty of things happening in YERT-land these days. We had a great Homecoming party at the Rachel Carson Homestead, complete with a donation of about 50 organic and fair trade chocolate bars by Theo Chocolate in Seattle. Needless to say we were wired. And we received a warm welcome to Pittsburgh, where I’ve since discovered so many green events in September that I’m not sure how I’ll ever sleep again!

YERT was also interviewed by Living on Earth a couple of days after the party, and they plan to run a YERT segment on their nationally syndicated show sometime in late September. We’ll let you know when to listen for it on the radio. If you’re looking for a good planetary radio program, I think that Living on Earth sets the bar.

We’re still working on videos, but it is taking longer than expected to turn them around in this post-road-tripping life. Nevertheless, we’re still hungry to process the footage and can’t wait to share it with you. It will come when it comes. Thanks for your patience…

Until September, YERTfully Yours,
Mark

P.S. I don’t mean to get political, but if you think that “drill here, drill now” is a good plan, send a note my way and I’ll be happy to share with you a few of the complications that arise from that “strategy.”

Posted in Events, Mark | 1 Comment »

July 31, 2008 by Mark.

Hey, YERTians!

We’re wrapping up the TRAVEL portion of our YERT adventures with a grand finale party in Pittsburgh. Mark, Ben, Julie and Erika will be in attendance, along with friends and family and much much more. In fact, we’ll be finishing the year at our first stop after hitting the road: the Rachel Carson Homestead. Read on for more details, and the video down below will take you back to the YERT launch and Rachel Carson’s home…

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Your Environmental Road Trip (YERT.com) is headed into Pittsburgh for the finale event of their national road-trip adventure, and they’d love to see you there! Ben, Mark, Julie, and Erika spent the last year traveling to all 50-states, interviewing over 800 citizens and leaders about environmentally pressing issues, then turning the footage into quick, fun environmental videos at YouTube and other sites online. You can learn more and watch over 40 videos at http://www.yert.com. The free festivities begin at 3:00 PM (to 7:00 PM) on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at the Rachel Carson Homestead, and everybody is invited! Read on for more details…

The team brings with them news of the “YERTy-est Awards,” some green tunes, and the fastest comprehensive rundown of the entire trip that you may ever see. The infamous “Bag Monster” will make an appearance for the kids. We’ll also have ALL of our garbage from the year on display for you to admire or critique if you like. All 45 pounds of it– cleaned, of course– they had to travel with it for an entire year. You can get a feel for the YERT project best by checking their latest video about Permaculture.

Contact Mark Dixon at mark@yert.com or 415-672-5537 for more details. The Rachel Carson Homestead is located just outside the city of Pittsburgh at 613 Marion Ave., Springdale, PA 15144. Hope to see you there… and everybody who attends the event will receive a free YERT ChicoBag! (While supplies last)

Here’s the event on Facebook.
Here’s the event on eVite.
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And here’s our launch video, the very first “YERTpod” — YERTpod1: LaunchPod, complete with video from our launch party and also footage of the Rachel Carson Homestead.

See you there!
Mark

Posted in Events, Mark | 1 Comment »

July 4, 2008 by Ben.

50 States in One Year? CHECK.
Happy 4th of July, 2008! So here we are - one year later, one year older, and one year wiser. We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last 366 days - through 50 states and nearly 45,000 miles of travel (excluding the ferry from Alaska and the plane to/from Hawaii), we’ve logged over 450 hours of footage and interviewed more than 800 people. And we’ve only accumulated a mere 43 pounds of trash & recyclables over the course of 12 months - including junk mail! We’ll be taking suggestions of what we should do with it - perhaps sculpt it into a giant “garbage unicorn.”

Life-Changing? CHECK.
We left on our 50-state YERT adventure on the 4 of July, 2007 and, my oh my, how our worlds have changed in just 12 months! Julie and I are expecting our first child any day now - conceived and “baked” on the YERT trip. Mark, through this adventure, met Erika, who valiantly jumped in for Julie and me as baby duties took over in these final weeks. And we’ve all gained some really good new habits and learned an incredible amount about how better to live on Planet Earth - all of which we will continue to share with you over the coming months. We still have all sorts of fun videos to create before we declare this project complete, and our first priority is to finish at least one video per state. So to those of you out there in Ohio, Texas, Alaska, and the 25 or so other second-half states: HANG IN THERE! Your videos will be coming out ASAP. We’ll be targeting one video per week, with a few breaks built into the schedule.

World-Changing? CHECK.
While our lives may have changed, the world around us has also changed dramatically. Gasoline prices have risen about 50% in the last year from an average of $2.93/gal in PA when we started to $4.57/gal in CA today (and $4.07 in PA). Oil futures have more than doubled in the past year from about $70 to $145 per barrel. Only San Francisco had banned publicly funded bottled water when we started - ten days ago, a majority of 250 US mayors voted to “phase out” government use of bottled water. Only one US city (San Francisco, again) had banned disposable plastic bags when we started - now that movement is spreading across the globe and numerous cities and organizations around the world have either severely curtailed or begun to ban the use of plastic bags. Numerous “green” TV channels, shows, and environmental initiatives and legislation have taken off in the last year - “green” is going mainstream…big-time. This country is finally turning a corner, and it’s been exhilarating to witness this over the past 12 months - to “hang 10″ on the “green wave” as it sweeps the nation - and to have helped turn the tide in some small way. It hasn’t been a perfect process, and huge challenges lie ahead, but there are certainly encouraging signs that people everywhere are starting to wake up.

Party! Party! Party!? COMING…
To celebrate the completion of the road trip, YERT will be holding two finale events, and you’re invited to both. You can expect stories and videos and photos and fun, at special venues with unique environmental features.

The first is a shindig in San Francisco at The Temple – the perfect location for a sleek meet and greet. It kicks off at 6:00 P.M. on Friday, July 11, at this renowned club with its very own sustainability coordinator and a slew of groundbreaking initiatives in place and on the way. And the place just looks cool. Please RSVP on eVite or Facebook.

The second is our Grand Finale in Pittsburgh at the Rachel Carson Homestead – Join us for our final gala at the home of the famous author of “Silent Spring,” on Saturday, August 9 at 3:00 P.M. Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book opened the world’s eyes to the unintended consequences of chemical pest management and essentially jump started the modern environmental movement. YERT’s first stop was her home, and it will be our last stop, too—at least on this particular adventure. Please RSVP on eVite or Facebook.

YERT’s Feature Film? COMING…
It seems that there are few better ways to tell a story these days than in the form of a feature-length film. So for as long as we can scrape up enough money to pay for food, we’ll be working to compile our footage down into a feature-length film with YERTy zip and eco-fun built into every moment. We’ll need plenty of help for the film, so if you’d like to volunteer for a role, make yourself known by writing to us at team@yert.com. We’ll need outreach coordinators, video watchers, musicians, editors, and some angel investors - not to mention things that we don’t even know we need yet.

Start Spreading the News!
If you think that YERT’s story is worth spreading around, we’d love it if you did just that—spread it around! We’ll be presenting audience comments at our finale events, and we’d love to include yours. Just send a note to team@yert.com. You can also help us enter film festivals, screen our videos at your school, tell all your facebook friends about us, or invite us to give a presentation to your community. We’re open to ideas and want to share, so drop us a line. Make it YOUR Environmental Road Trip.

Thanks to YOU!
This trip wouldn’t have been what it’s been if you hadn’t been a part of it - if you hadn’t tuned in, given us suggestions, helped us when we needed it, inspired us, fed us, housed us, and given so generously of yourselves in so many ways. If nothing else, this year on the road has reaffirmed our faith in the incredible goodness of the American people and of humanity in general. As we heard recently in the New Mexico video, “we’re all in this together” - and together we can meet any challenge. This entire journey has done nothing but confirm that. Our deepest gratitude to all of our YERTian friends out there who have helped make this entire project possible made this adventure truly special. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! And stay tuned - this is just the beginning…

sincerely,

Ben, Mark, Julie, and Erika - Your YERT Team

Posted in Events, Erika, Travelog, Issues, Ben, Julie, Mark | 5 Comments »

June 19, 2008 by Mark.

SAVE THESE DATES! YERT will be celebrating the end of its travels with two rockin’ events. The first is in San Francisco on July 11 at the Temple Nightclub. The second is in Pittsburgh on August 9 at the Rachel Carson Homestead. RSVP on Facebook (SF)(P’burgh) or eVite (SF)(P’burgh) and bring your friends!

Dear YERTians,

YERT took a power trip in Arizona—to explore perhaps the cleanest and most plentiful power source available in that desert state.

Our first stop? APS (Arizona Public Service) is a utility company that has opened up the closest thing we’ve found to a solar power playground. Dan Lonetti and Steven Gottfried showed us all around the “APS STAR Center,” where we saw the latest and greatest solar panels being tested in the heat of the Arizona sun. The day didn’t end before Steven (and Flat Stanley) blew our minds with a tour of the Saguaro Solar Trough Power Plant, which uses advanced solar hot-dog-cooking-style technology to heat mineral oil that ultimately powers a turbine—creating electricity!

Our next stop took us on over to Jack Ehrhardt, Planning Director for the Walapi Tribal Nation, who showed us all around the solar powered airport that they’ve established at the lip of Grand Canyon West. We can’t wait to show more of Jack to you. You’ll see why…

Sun of a Gun!

Mark, Ben, and Julie (and Erika)

team@yert.com

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

• Saguaro Solar Trough Power Plant – From the APS website: “This facility is the first solar trough to combine an organic Rankine cycle turbine engine with a parabolic trough solar field. The plant generates 1 MW of power.” This facility can eventually be coupled with a thermal storage tank that saves the superheated mineral oil underground during the day and recalls it in the evening when the sun has set but demand is still high. Read their brochure about the plant, too.
• Wikipedia includes this generic note about solar trough technology… “The overall efficiency from collector to grid, i.e. (Electrical Output Power)/(Total Impinging Solar Power) is about 15%, similar to PV(Photovoltaic Cells) and less than Stirling dish concentrators.” And more info from the Department of Energy here.
• Scottsdale Green Building Program – Anthony Floyd knows his stuff when it comes to building solar power (and other green features) into a building. He is Scottsdale’s Green Building Program Manager and shares a few words about the city’s green building process here, and a presentation he authored that is overflowing with stats and information here.

Posted in Video, Mark | 1 Comment »

June 10, 2008 by Mark.

After nearly a year of continuous YERTy travel and 49 states to his name, Ben boarded a train yesterday morning in Montana near Glacier National Park to begin the journey home to Kentucky. That’s right, he’s answering the call of his “Dad Duty” and joining Julie to nest at home and prepare for the birth of their first child.

Ben brought an enthusiasm for YERT and all things environmental that never seemed to die, even when it seemed like everybody around him was about to do just that. He always managed to find one more person, one more interview, or make one more call to make the most of whatever time we had in a particular state. Also, as the consummate b-roll hound, there was never a shot that he didn’t get excited about and he would always go the extra mile to get it just right.

And then, of course, there was Ben the comedian. He’d make the YERT team laugh, and he brought that sense of humor to the “stage” and the editing suite as he painstakingly made sure that we had enough laughs to keep folks on board.

There were some tense moments if we didn’t agree about one thing or another, but we always knew that we were all acting in the best interest of the project and we’d ultimately sort things out.

Here’s a big blog high-five and gigantic thanks to Ben for devoting his blood, sweat, tears, and scent to YERT now, then, and well on down the road as we begin the monumental task of finishing the remaining short videos and then embark upon… the YERT Film. (Erika and Mark will be driving up to Alaska for about the next 5 days. Stay tuned, but don’t hold your breath as we hunt for Internet access in the Canadian wilderness.)

Posted in Events, Travelog, Ben, Mark | 7 Comments »

May 30, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

Ben, Erika, and I took a few days in our 48th state– Wyoming– to participate in the age-old tradition of volunteering on a farm for a few days. The farm feeds and houses us, and we provide labor. And it is awesome. We signed up with WWOOF.org to find a farm willing to take us, and find one we did. We’ll be back online by Monday, with plenty of stories to share, but in the meantime we have to apologize for the lack of updates at YERT.com. We have just enough Internet to write this blog entry, but not much more than that.

Tomorrow we help with a cattle drive. We can’t wait…

Back Soon!

Mark

Posted in Travelog, Mark | 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 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

YERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERT

Posted in Video, Mark | 2 Comments »