June 28, 2008 by Ben.

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,

We traveled to New Mexico, Land of Enchantment, to get enchanted - and enchanted we got! Sustainability is a catchword that gets bandied about quite a bit these days, but nothing is actually more "sustainable" than the Native American peoples who thrived on this continent for literally thousands of years.

Indigenous cultures all over the world have, in the deepest sense, embraced real sustainability as a way of life for eons, and we found ourselves inspired and awed by the simple yet profound wisdom of living rightly with the land. In the 1970’s, many of the best lessons on how to live effectively and ethically within nature were collected and re-codified from the world’s most "permanent cultures" by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren into an ecologically enlightened holistic agricultural system called, appropriately enough, permaculture.

We were lucky enough to spend some quality time with Scott Pittman, founder of the Permaculture Institute near Santa Fe, who was trained by and then taught along side Dr. Mollison himself for years - we even got to sit in on one of his very cool permaculture classes. In Albuquerque, we met with Clayton Brascoupé, whose group, the Traditional Native American Farmers Association, melds permaculture design courses with Native American agricultural traditions and is working hard to reverse the decline in farming as well as preserve the biodiversity of indigenous seed varieties. We also had the pleasure of visiting with the iconic Larry Littlebird, who shared with us his incredible vision for HAMAATSA - an indigenous continuum learning center on recently returned ancient lands that will serve as a model for simple, sustainable living for all people. Finally, noted musician, master craftsman, and Native American "Renaissance man," Robert Mirabal, waxed poetic for us in Taos and shared with us some of his invaluable seeds of knowledge. He also kindly provided us with the incredible music in our New Mexico video, for which we are deeply grateful.

Thoroughly enchanted by the people of New Mexico, we now know the wisdom of the past has much to teach us in the future.

Permaculturally Yours,

Ben, Julie, and Mark (your YERT team)

team@yert.com

P.S. Breadcrumbs…yummy! Here are some links for more in-depth information about the topics in this video…

• For all things permaculture, check out The Permaculture Institute’s incredible website at www.permaculture.org. Here’s a quick definition of permaculture from the website: "Permaculture is an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor. It teaches us how build natural homes, grow our own food, restore diminished landscapes and ecosystems, catch rainwater, build communities and much more." If this sounds good to you, take a course. They’re offered throughout the country and you can find one near you at Permaculture.net. Happy planting!
• Clayton and The Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA) are working hard to get indigenous farmers back on the land. There are numerous social benefits to a strong agricultural ethic in almost all communities on the planet, and America is no exception. The group focuses on family oriented farming and provides training, seeds, and support toward that endeavor. To learn more visit http://nativeharvest.com/tnafa.
• HAMAATSA is an incredible project that just might help save the world. Their mission? "To provide servant leadership models for living simply and sustainably on the land; to integrate healing systems from traditional cultures; and to restore indigenous life-ways and land stewardship principles through experiential land-based learning." You can find out all about it at www.hamaatsa.org.
• Robert Mirabal is a one-man wonder. His flutes are renowned, as is his musicianship. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can check out mirabal.com and starroadrecords.com for Robert’s music and the complete scoop on his many hats.

Posted in Video, Ben | 1 Comment »

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 »

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 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 »

April 22, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

We hit the streets of Times Square to find out if Earth Day was on the minds of New Yorkers. Problem is, as any New Yorker can tell you, almost no one in Times Square is actually from New York. Still we did learn a lot about Tuesday and soon found ourselves drawn to Central Park in search of some real Earth Day celebrations. We were not disappointed.

We also have a few exciting announcements to share– the first is that we have re-launched our website! We hope you’ll spend hours browsing around (http://www.yert.com), where you’ll find a handy trip dashboard that lets you check out my mood, Julie’s "preg-o-meter," and Ben’s shower tracker. We’ll be updating the site daily, so you can get the very latest scoop on (y)our journey.

Our second bit of happy news is that we were recently featured on Voice of America! We were contacted by Rosanne Skirble at VOA, who spent an afternoon with us while we spoke to people walking along the Mall in Washington DC. We had a blast with the interviews in every direction, and we think you will, too. She also highlighted a few folks/groups/ideas that we had covered in some of our videos: The Intervale in Vermont (from YERTpod10), Scott Brusaw at Solar Roadways (YERT Conversation 19.1), our Melting Arctic (from Bear Necessities), and bike commuters in Oregon (YERTpod22). We’ve seen text and audio versions of the interview so far. Fingers crossed for the video version coming soon…

That’s all from NYC– next state: OHIO!

YEaRThfully Yours,
Mark, Ben, and Julie

Your YERT Team (team@yert.com)

P.S. For more ideas about Earth Day in New York, check out these websites.

• Central Park Conservancy
• milliontreesnyc.org
• Earth Day NYC
• Official Earth Day 2008 Action Center

Posted in Events, Video, Ben, Mark | 1 Comment »

April 20, 2008 by Mark.

No point in having a dreary Earth Day, so spice things up this Tuesday with a few YERT videos! Whether you’re presenting Earth Day information to a school, getting together with friends, or even planning your own eco-film fest, we’d love to help you keep it entertaining. Consider this an open invitation to show YERT videos at your event– just do your best to let us know where you present them! We’d love to know how it goes…

And we think you’re likely to enjoy these particular vids:

YERTpod24.5: Revolutionary New Energy Source
http://www.yert.com/video.php?post_id=798798#SignTop

Bear Necessities
http://www.yert.com/video.php?post_id=163256#SignTop

YERT Conversation 19.1: Solar Roadways
http://www.yert.com/video.php?post_id=602928#SignTop

Chico Eco Elvis
http://www.yert.com/video.php?post_id=565364#SignTop

Happy YERTH Day!
Mark

P.S. If you’d like to download higher resolution version of any videos on the site, let me know which ones and I’ll send along the links. In the meantime, here are links to higher-resolution versions of most of the vids from above:

Bear Necessities
http://www.yert.com/video/BNwCreds8_640×480_3.mp4

YERT Conversation 19.1: Solar Roadways
http://www.yert.com/video/SolarRoadways_HD3-SD24p.mp4

Chico Eco Elvis
http://www.yert.com/video/ChicoElvis3-SD24p.mp4

Posted in Video, Mark | 1 Comment »

April 16, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

There are all sorts of things brewing here at YERT, thus the gap in videos– but there is no gap in news! So we must update you…

- THIS SUNDAY: YERT Party in Brooklyn, NY
- EcoDaredevil Award
- New YERT.com Website
- YERT Earth Day. YERT HDAY? YEaRTh Day?

THIS SUNDAY: YERT Party in Brooklyn, NY

It is true! We’ll be gathering with good friends at 3pm on Sunday, 4/20/08, at 224 Degraw Street, Apt. 1 (garden apartment), Brooklyn, NY. You can check out the eVite here or the Facebook event here. Please RSVP because we’ll be preparing food and we want to make just the right delicious amount! See you there!

EcoDaredevil Award
We recently connected with awesome oceanographer Dr. Wallace J. Nichols and found out that he’s putting together a cool new environmental award called the EcoDaredevil award. He’ll be co-presenting it with Evil Knievil’s granddaughter, Krysten Knievel, at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment on Earth Day (April 22!). One brave Duke student, living on the dramatic edge of environmental activisim, will receive the award. We hope that this snazzy prize will spawn the creation of countless new YERTful innovators around the country, and we can’t wait to learn about them. YERT is a sponsor of the award and we’ve included additional information about it at the bottom of this e-mail. Take a look!

New YERT.com Website
We’re in the final steps of launching a new YERT website, with maps and schedules and shopping and blogs and more YERTy information than you could ever want to know, all in one place. The new site can grow better than the old one, so we hope to share more gradual improvements with you as this project expands. You’ll see it show up sometime during the next week or two, and we hope that you’ll be gentle with us as you try it on for size.

YERT Earth Day. YERT HDAY? YEaRTh Day?

Earth Day is coming up on April 22 and we recently realized that YERT videos could make for a great way to celebrate this aweseome planet of ours. Dr. Nichols will be sharing YERT videos with his audience at the Nicholas School (see the press release below), and our shorts will be making EarthDay appearances all over the country for a few lucky viewers. If you’d like to show some YERT videos for some friends (or even larger audiences) but want to do it with high-quality video, send a note our way– we have all the videos available online in 720×405 resolution (16×9). We’ll let you know where you can find them. In other Earth Day news, Voice of America will be airing web, radio, and TV stories about YERT as a part of their Earth Day line-up. Some portion of their 100 million viewers/listeners around the world will get the scoop on YERT, and we can’t wait to meet them. Our partnership with Care2 is also kicking into gear leading up to Earth Day, and they’ll be showing some YERT ads on their website to spread the word. You can check out our Care2 group here.

We recently shot our 350th hour of footage, and we’re not done yet! In fact, we have nearly 3 months to go before we reach all 50 states. We’re still planning to release more videos throughout the last few months, but once the trip is done we’ll work intensively to release videos for all the remaining states. After we catch up on all of the state-by-state video we’ll embark upon the creation of the YERT film! Stay tuned for more details about that, including ample opportunities to get involved.

Happy YEaRTh Day,
Julie, Ben, and Mark

http://www.yert.com

EcoDaredevil Award!
FOR RELEASE ON: April 15, 2008

Event: First Annual EcoDaredevil Award

Date: Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Contacts: Kelly Ricaurte, t: 202.351.0482, m:
415.806.3052, kricaurte@oceanconservancy.org AND Wallace J.
Nichols, Ph.D, m: 831.426.0337, wallacejnichols@mac.com

More information: ecodaredevil@mac.com www.ecodaredevil.com

INAUGURAL ECODAREDEVIL AWARD TO BE PRESENTED ON EARTH DAY DURING
RENOWNED OCEANOGRAPHER’S KEYNOTE ADDRESS

DURHAM, N.C. — Widely-acclaimed oceanographer and Ocean Conservancy
senior scientist, Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D, will announce the winner
of the first annual EcoDaredevil Awards in conjunction with his
keynote address at the Duke University, Nicholas School of the
Environment, on Earth Day, April 22, 2008. [6pm at the Bryan Center,
Duke University, Durham, NC] The award, inspired by the spirit of
legendary motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, will recognize young
people from across the nation who, through science, policy or personal
action, have taken a particular risk and shown exceptional courage and
creativity to challenge the status quo and successfully solve or raise
public awareness for an environmental issue.

Also on hand at the inaugural event will be Knievel’s granddaughter,
Krysten Knievel of Chicago. Miss Knievel is the youngest daughter of
current daredevil Robbie Knievel. Miss Knievel is making the trip to
co-present the award with Nichols following his address.

“I think this is a very distinctive and important honor,” Knievel said
of the award, inspired by her grandfather. “Having lived his life in
Montana and the way he dedicated his own life to taking risks and
thinking outside the box, I know my grandpa would be proud to know he
inspired such a unique award to honor those characteristics in others.”

This year marks the inaugural award, which will be given to a member
of the Duke student community. In the future, multiple EcoDaredevils
will be honored nationwide. The award, currently sponsored by Ocean
Conservancy, Ocean Revolution, Tree Media, Clark Fork Watershed
Education Program and YERT.com is chosen by a committee of individuals
that include members of various national and regional conservation
organizations, students and the scientific community at large. Future
awards will include a call for nominations and be presented at a
different Earth Day event each year. For information visit www.ecodaredevil.com

In preface to the awards ceremony, Nichols will present an Earth Day
keynote address to the Duke University, Nicholas School of the
Environment, titled, “Jump the Chasm: Are you an EcoDaredevil?” A
boyhood reveler of Knievel, Nichols will speak to the need for our
young scientists and policy makers to think and act daringly in order
for our civilization to “jump the chasm” of environmental challenges
in the 21st century and beyond.

Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D. is a scientist, ocean activist, author and a
dad. He’s senior scientist at Ocean Conservancy and a research
associate at the California Academy of Sciences. He works with many
non-profit organizations, youth, fishermen and researchers worldwide
to build an Ocean Revolution. For more information visit www.oceanconservancy.org
and www.wallacejnichols.org.

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Posted in Video, Mark | 2 Comments »

March 28, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

(Hang with YERT in Washington D.C. on Sunday night at 7PM! Get details to this event, including the full street address, here.)

A key objective during our visit to Hawaii was to explore the impacts of invasive species on this beautiful, isolated island. How do new plants and animals arrive? Why do they thrive, or fail? And why is Hawaii a hotbed for genetically modified food research? Then it hit us like a ton of bricks—WE are the most invasive of the species!

Our world turned upside down as we began to scrutinize each of our vacation habits, and we learned that measures we previously considered extreme were far from it. Prefer a simple room? Try a yurt, or even a repurposed VW Bus. Low flush toilet? Try a composting toilet, entirely solar powered. Anitra at Lova Lava Land showed us how simple it was to vacation lightly on the planet and still have a blast.

If you seek more comfort than a stylish (but old) VW Bus can offer, then you might have preferred our other destination. We enjoyed an extraordinary bamboo cottage at Kahua Institute’s Maui Retreat Center, using it as a home base while exploring the island—where we found countless human specimens invading the streets to celebrate Halloween! We hunted for invasive insights from lions, clowns, Transformers, and even a life-sized martini.

Conserving Vacation Days,

Ben, Julie, and Mark (Your YERT Team)

team@yert.com

P.S. And now for the Breadcrumbs! If you’d like to learn more about the topics covered in this video, check out the information below…

• BioBeetle – If it weren’t for the recent arrival of the BioBeetle to the islands, we might have had an even larger footprint! Both BioBeetle and YERT are not convinced that biofuels are the way to go as “the” solution for our energy woes, but we can all totally get behind BioBeetle’s 100% recycled veggie oil fuel. After helping us rent their cute green diesel VW Bug, these folks even loaned us maps, books, and TUPPERWARE while on the island. We even got hugs. Talk about a full service car rental company…
• Lova Lava Land – Ben edited most of the Iowa "corn challenge" video (YERTpod14) while at LovaLavaLand, which meant that it was almost entirely powered by solar energy! If you have a good pair of shoes, then you’ll have no problem walking around on the beautiful (but sharp) lava rocks at this simple-riffic vacation spot. Budget vacationers will enjoy the price and you’ll be well hosted by Anitra.
• Kahua Institute’s Maui Retreat Center – Home to the oldest bamboo farm on Maui and, and according to their website, the first two bamboo structures in the U.S., it also became the site of our very own Step It Up event back in November. This lush Hawaiian haven offers classes and work-study opportunities on sustainability and embodied spirituality for anyone looking to transform bamboo or themselves from an "invasive" into a more sustainable "beneficial non-native".
• Dr. Christopher Dunn, Director of the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, introduced us to plants that should and shouldn’t be on the islands, and explained why it is important to pay attention to having the right plants in the right places at the right times.
• Daniel Gluesenkamp, Biologist at Audubon Canyon Ranch, is Ben’s cousin living in San Francisco, and quite possibly one of the more knowledgeable and passionate conservationists we’ve met on the trip. He’s not from Hawaii, but a visit with him in California just before our flight put invasive species high on our radar for Hawaii.
• Christy Martin gave us the technical low-down on invasive species in the Hawaiian Islands. She is the Public Information Officer for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species (CGAPS for short), and we learned that she’s constantly on the alert for snakes and other exotic pets/pests that shouldn’t be “vacationing” on the islands. Even the dirt on our shoes can carry the seeds of a new pest. Tread lightly…

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Posted in Video | 1 Comment »

March 11, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

(We’re headed to Washington DC soon (3/29-4/6), and want to know what you’re eager to see! Politicians? National non-profits? Maybe even watch us try to meet with President Bush? We need to get started on our DC focus, but we need your input, so send it along today! …And now for the rest of the show…)

Welcome to California, the motherland for the mother lode of Mother Earthly events. We knew that we’d be frustrated by the screamin’ YERT schedule while we tried to take in all the green mother-ness in the state, so we did our best to bring the state to us: we went to a couple of conferences. Our first conference was Bioneers, and we were blown away…

The place was filled with creative, intelligent people motivated to change the world. If you’ve never heard of Bioneers, then just imagine a group of pioneering innovators in fields spanning biology, technology, spirituality, sociology, and everything in between. Bioneers are working hard to bring out the best in humanity and make it stick.

We caught up with one of the folks working to make things stick: Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink, who connected the dots between oil, the environment, and—wouldn’t you know it—peace! Amazing what you can do with a few extra billion dollars. We were also delighted to meet Kristin Rothballer, who once worked in development for the Bioneers Conference, and is now the Managing Director of Green For All. The brainchild of Van Jones and Majora Carter, Green For All is working to bring the green revolution to people of all socio-economic backgrounds—not just the Prius driving elite.

One of the most incredible discoveries (at least for a YERTian) was a one-stop shop for all eco explorers: the Ecology Center in Berkeley has a phone number that anybody can call to get any eco-question answered: 510-548-2220 x233. The service is free—you just have to pay for the call to the 510 area code. Now if that doesn’t motivate you to explore a new eco-alternative, I don’t know what will. Give ‘em a call!

With Change,

Julie, Ben, and Mark (Your YERT Team)

team@yert.com

P.S. And now for Breadcrumbs! If you want to learn more about the topics in this video, check out these resources:

Green For All – We met Kristin Rothballer, Managing Director of Green For All. Knowing the talent that Kristin brought to Bioneers, you can rest assured that Green for All is going to make incredible positive waves in this country. From their website… “Green for All has a simple but ambitious mission: to help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.” That’s all based on the premise that “a national effort to curb global warming and oil dependence can simultaneously create good jobs, safer streets and healthier communities.”

Ecology Center (and Hotline!) - Amy Kiser, Development Director for the Ecology Center (in Berkeley), gave us the rundown. While we are ticked by their eco-hotline, they also provide a variety of other community services that they can describe best: “We address the public need for non-commercial information about ecologically-sensitive practices and the numerous toxic threats to society and the environment. In addition to our Environmental Resource Center, we provide direct services including Berkeley’s residential curbside recycling pickup, the three Berkeley Farmers’ Markets, the Farm Fresh Choice food justice program, Terrain magazine, the EcoHouse demonstration site, and a wide range of fiscally-sponsored projects.”

WiserEarth.org – We were entertained by Adam Burkett, Web Designer for WiserEarth.org. When he pulled out his leaf business card, however, we knew that we had a magic man on our hands. He’s currently helping make magic at WiserEarth, too… which is essentially a community networking website devoted to social change.

ChicoBag – Meet ChicoBag before they became a YERT sponsor! We caught up with Founder Andy Keller, who shared the scoop on ChicoBag’s birth. We still think it is the ultimate re-usable bag, but you can decide for yourself… We’ll be offering official YERT-branded ChicoBags for you to buy in the next month or so. Stay tuned!

Medea Benjamin has made a name for herself as the Co-Founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink. You’ve probably seen her on TV singing for social change in a pink shirt. We can’t get enough of her, and we always like to find folks who can eloquently connect the dots between war and sustainability. Also, if you haven’t heard, Global Exchange (among other things) runs fair trade stores in SF, Berkeley, and Portland, OR.

Conscious Goods Alliance – This bus tour is spreading the word about a variety of eco products. We enjoyed the fact that they’re also on a road trip of sorts, though you can never replace Rachel (the Car) Carson. The website explains it well: “The companies that make up the Conscious Goods Alliance follow a Triple Bottom Line approach, a business philosophy that partners with, and is committed to, the social and ecological bottom line in equal partnership with traditional bottom line financial returns.” Catch a list of their partners, including Theo Chocolate, here.

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Posted in Video | 1 Comment »

February 22, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

We’re back! During the last couple of weeks each one of us managed to get knocked around by the flu or a serious cold or both. We used up our cloth hankies like they were paper! We made garbage by purchasing a bottle of chewable vitamin C tablets! We slept more than we’ve slept in months! We wondered why we couldn’t just detach our aching, stuffy heads and replace them with new ones! Perhaps it was a sign. Perhaps we had run ourselves ragged. Perhaps there’s just something in the air here in the South. Whatever the cause of our suffering, the video schedule suffered along with us – but now we’re all happily back to health with a brand new YERTpod!

This week we take a close look at Oregon. For those of you familiar with Vermont, we think you’ll find that Oregon is like Vermont except wetter, warmer, and with fewer secessionists. And, dare we say, better public transportation?

We explored public transportation in Portland and Eugene, and we’re now convinced that Oregonians are literally moving the right way – moving towards efficient transport that, in turn, moves them around sustainably. It’s all very moving.

Whenever we arrive in a city that’s doing all the right green things—bike paths, speedy public transportation, beautiful public spaces, and pervasive recycling—we begin to look for one thing: the 20 year city plan. Back in the 1970’s Portland had an opportunity to expand its highway system along its riverfront. Instead it chose the road less traveled— in fact, the road not traveled at all. Rather than build another monstrous road, the people of Portland elected to create more urban open space, light rail, an urban boundary, and legislation to help fund and build a comprehensive network of bicycle paths in and around the Portland area. According to TriMet spokesperson Mary Fetsch "someone was smart a long time ago, and we’re reaping the benefits."

Not to be outdone by its big brother to the north, the city of Eugene recently borrowed a page from Curitiba, Brazil’s acclaimed urban planning handbook and took a quantum leap forward in its public transportation by building the United States‘ first Bus Rapid Transit (EmX) system that runs on specially designed diesel-electric hybrid buses with dedicated right of way. Somewhere a city planner is cheering in Portuguese.

Meanwhile, we’re cheering the city planners in Oregon.

Cheeriously,

Ben, Julie, and Mark (Your YERT Team)

team@yert.com

P.S. And now for Breadcrumbs! If you want to learn more about the topics in this video, check out these resources:

1. EmX. Essentially, the coolest bus system we’ve seen all year, handily explained by Andy Vobora, Marketing and Communications Director at the Lane Transit District. That said, we haven’t been to Curitaba, Brazil, and you can compare the two for yourself– there is an interesting film about the brilliant public transportation system (busses included) created in South America, and we highly recommend that you watch the trailer here.

2. Bicycle Transportation Alliance. According to their website, the BTA is "working to promote bicycling and improve bicycling conditions in Oregon and SW Washington." We spoke to Executive Director Scott Bricker at the BTA about all things bikes – possibly the most efficient form of transportation! By the way, he’s not the only Scott Bricker leading bicycle advocacy for a major American city – check this out. What are the odds?

3. TriMet. This is a municipal corporation responsible for most of the public transporation in Portland’s metro area. We spoke to Mary Fetsch, Communications Director for TriMet, and you can find all sorts of cool facts about this organization here. Facts like this one: "TriMet carries more people than any other U.S. transit system its size."

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