Just $650 of matching funds left!

December 29, 2009 by Mark.

Since we announced our $3,000 matching contribution on Dec. 17, we have received an amazing $2,350 of contributions. Doubled, that comes to $4,700 raised in less than two weeks! Can you make a donation to use up $650 of remaining matching funds before the end of the year?

Click here to make a tax-deductible and MATCHED donation to YERT!

And if you haven’t had a chance to check out the “YERT Filmmaking Lair,” take a look! You’ll see Ben, Scott, and Mark discuss the nitty gritty elements of eco-filmmaking.

Click here to watch the “YERT Filmmaking Lair”…

This is your last chance in 2009 to put your money where your mouth, or your mind, or your heart is. Every penny removed from the “extractive” economy and delivered to YERT helps to bring about a more sustainable world in a direct, loving way. Can you help us reach our year-end goal of $10,000?

Count my donation as a vote for a more sustainable world!

As always, we’re funded by love, encouragement, and your financial contributions. Thank you for sending them our way!

Happy New Year,

Ben, Julie, and Mark

team@yert.com

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

WATCH: Inside the YERT Filmmaking Lair

December 17, 2009 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

We’ve created a new video to give you an inside look at the “YERT Filmmaking Lair,” where our feature film is coming to life– see our grand plans on the giant whiteboard, meet our editor, Scott, and then find out what gives him his secret powers!

Click here to watch the “YERT Filmmaking Lair”…

We also just received a generous matching offer from an anonymous YERT donor: $3,000 of funds to double donations given before January 1st!

Click here to make a tax-deductible and MATCHED donation to YERT!

We’re trying to raise a total of $10,000 by the end of the year, which will give us the funds to pay our editor for a few more months and kick start our grass-roots distribution and fundraising plans for the new year. Can you spare a dime? Please consider making a year-end tax-deductible donation at
http://yert.com/donate.php.

We believe that the planet and those working for her care deserve a voice, and the YERT feature film will do just that. We’re funded by love, encouragement, and your finacial contributions, so please help us keep the message alive and well by making a MATCHED donation.

Thanks for your support!

Ben, Julie, and Mark

team@yert.com

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

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 »

New Video - Earth Hour: Feel Depower

March 26, 2009 by Ben.

Once a year, and only once a year (sadly), civilization gets together to power down…for a whole hour. Started by the WWF (no, not the wrestlers) in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has since become a global phenomenon. Well, almost global. YERT was in DC for Earth Hour 2008 and was pretty unimpressed. One would think that the capital of the planet’s most power-hungry nation would jump at the chance to save a few kilowatts (and greenbacks), even if it meant turning out the lights at the capitol for a few minutes. One would be mistaken. This year promises to be better as DC (as well as over 100 other US cities) has signed on to Earth Hour in a big way. Of course, the proof is in the skyline.

Hopefully the awareness that Earth Hour brings can usher in a new era of Earth Weeks, and Earth Months, and, eventually, non-stop Earth Years. In some ways it’s a sad indictment of our civilization that the notion of turning off the lights needs its own special “day” or, sadder still, “hour.” We’re not quite sure what the concept of Earth Hour implies about every other hour of the year, but it’s probably not good (certainly Earth Hour should not be followed by Anti-Earth Hour, if at all possible). Nevertheless, the idea of Earth Hour is an inspired, if symbolic, step in the right direction. And this year, you can actually VOTE for the Earth. The opponent in this “election” is…um…Global Warming - and your lightswitch is your vote. I know that that in some ways that ballot choice seems very reminiscent of the 2000 Presidential election, so, by signing up for Earth Hour and turning out our lights, we can all do our part to make sure we don’t make THAT mistake again. The “results” will be presented at Copenhagen in December and Earth needs 1 Billion “votes” to “win.” Incidentally, the respective VP candidates in this election are Dennis Kucinich and Rush Limbaugh’s pilonidal cyst.

Lighting Out,
Ben, Julie, and Mark

team@yert.com

P.S. If you’d like more information about saving energy, Earth Hour, or generally powering down, check out these breadcrumbs…
Calculate your carbon footprint here:
http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

Here’s how much carbon Chicago kept out of the atmosphere last Earth Hour:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-earthhourmar31,0,6746865.story

For those sitting on the fence, here’s a good article with some reasons to participate:
http://saving-energy.suite101.com/article.cfm/earth_hour_lights_out_for_environments_sake

To learn more about the larger issue of powering down civilization in a post-carbon world, check out:
http://www.richardheinberg.com/endorsements/powerdown

Posted in Video, Ben | No Comments »

All The Presidents’ Heads

February 18, 2009 by Ben.

First of all, a Happy Belated 200th Birthday to President Abraham Lincoln (not to mention Charles Darwin) and joyful Early Birthday Wishes to George Washington. Here, on President’s Day Aft Aft and in the very heart of President’s Birthday Week, we present to you a special Presidential Edition YERT video! During our travels in South Dakota, the roadside attraction capital of America, we stopped by David Adickes’ President’s Park for some quality one-on-one time with our nation’s leaders - in all their 20-foot, sculpted concrete glory. Sure, Mount Rushmore may be bigger and more famous, but where else in the country can you come face to GIGANTIC HEAD with every single US president? Actually, Williamsburg, VA (David has a second park there) but we were in SD, so we decided to bust in to catch some “green” pearls of wisdom from everyone from Lincoln to FDR. We even interviewed President Polk….yes, the President Polk. Best of all, we caught a super-sized face-off - a White House solar panels showdown between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan! Watch the drama unfold below:

Presidentially,

Julie, Mark, and Ben

team@yert.com

P.S. For information about the topics in this video, check out these breadcrumbs:

There’s a great documentary coming out soon called “Road Not Taken” about what happened to the solar panels Jimmy Carter put on the White House (and Reagan took down). To watch a trailer and for more on this story, check out these links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/white-house-solar-panels_n_160575.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/jimmy-carter-solar-panels.php

See which Presidents have been the best for the environment here:
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/business/the-5-most-environmentally-friendly-presidents-in-us-history/857

Another list of the Best and Worst Presidents for the environment. Oddly enough, Nixon makes both Best and Worst lists of this one. Evidently, as the old saying goes - “when he was good he was very good, but when he was bad, he was horrid.” However, he wasn’t THE worst - that spot is reserved for “you know who.”

To see what kind of “Green New Deal” our current President is conjuring, go here:
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2236134/obama-green-stimulus-dissected
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2236575/obama-stimulus-bill-green
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/21/barackobama-usa-environment

Check out how Carter tried to fix Bush’s environmental/energy mistakes nearly 3 decades before Bush made them. Carter’s “malaise” speech (in which he actually never uses the word) is not terribly uplifting, but it couldn’t possibly have been more prescient then or more relevant today. Check out the speech (and dozens of other fascinating presidential speeches) HERE.

Posted in Events, Video, Issues, Ben | No Comments »

Inspiration On The Eve of History…

January 19, 2009 by Ben.

Here we are on the eve of history, January 19th, 2009, near the stroke of midnight - galvanized and ready to serve! Tomorrow (or today, for some of you reading this) America will officially swear-in its first African-American President and turn a corner that is an inspiration to all of humanity. Hope and vision and compassion are making a comeback in the halls of our nation’s capital tomorrow, and not a moment too soon. The challenges before us as a country are immense, but the groundswell of selfless service and American ingenuity building behind the new leadership in this country is palpable and awe-inspiring. People everywhere are feeling empowered again and tapping into their own inner sense of purpose and passion for a greater good.

One of the clearest voices in this “call to arms” on behalf of the planet and humanity has been the incredible and visionary Van Jones, Director and Founding President of Green For All. We were lucky enough to see him speak at Bioneers in 2007 and were moved by his impassioned presentation of a green “wave” that “lifts all boats.” Here he is, as inspiring as ever, speaking before Congress this past week:

As if Van Jones and an historical inauguration weren’t inspiring enough, for those of you who haven’t seen it already, here’s a fantastic new project by a company called CH2M Hill developing Solar Potential Maps for 25 US Cities - the first of which is for San Francisco and can be found HERE. It’s worth spending some serious time noodling with this map - they’ve done some major leg-work to remove many of the hurdles standing in the way of a solar-powered future by showing just what’s possible and where in an incredibly intuitive way. God bless the power of Googlemaps, CH2M Hill, and the internet. The other 24 cities are: Denver; Houston; Knoxville; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Orlando; Philadelphia; Sacramento; San Antonio; San Jose; Santa Rosa; Seattle; Ann Arbor; Austin; Berkeley; New York City; Boston; Madison; New Orleans; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; San Diego; and Tucson.

Treehugger has a couple great articles on the development of these solar maps HERE and HERE. It’s simply a fantastic idea whose time has certainly come - no surprise, then, that it won the 2008 Renewable Energy Innovation Award.

Finally, we found plenty of inspiration on our YERT travels. Here are a couple samples featuring folks from future YERTpods:

And on today of all days, don’t forget to check out the ultimate inaugural address we caught from our good friend Wes Jackson at the Land Institute here:

Our bank accounts might be taking it on the chin as our national “stuff” hits the fan this year and we face some hard realities, but, who knows, 2009 could be a great year after all!

Happy Inauguration, Mr. President! Here’s to our nation’s future!

-Ben and The YERT Team

PS - For a last tasty morsel of inspiration, check out Mark’s blog about David Korten’s new book below. Best of all, you can pre-order it from the YERT website HERE!

Posted in Events, Video, Issues, Ben | No Comments »

YERTpod31: An Epiphany of Three Wise Men in Missouri

January 6, 2009 by Ben.

Snazzy YERT ChicoBags are back in stock and make perfect post-holiday gifts, and they’re free with any $10+ donation! Check them out in the YERT Store.

Dear YERTians,

On the 13th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me…an Epiphany!  OK, so there are 12 Days of Christmas (the 12th being January 5th), but the coolest day of all is the day AFTER the 12th day - January 6th is Epiphany!  It celebrates the arrival of and the giving of gifts by the Magi (Three Wise Men).  We fully expected Missouri, being The Show Me State, to show us some epiphanies, but we had no idea just what kind of hidden gems and geniuses awaited us.  Of course, the first thing Missouri showed us was an ice storm in Kansas City, but here in the heartland, even in the face of the harshest circumstances, a creative spirit of rebirth and renewal persists.  And so, in honor of Epiphany (the day), epiphany (the experience), and the holidays in general, we celebrate three Missouri wise men and their gifts in…

Epiphany / Wise Man #1: When Dutch Elm disease decimated the trees on Marty Kraft’s street in the 50’s, the loss profoundly affected young Marty who saw the wisdom of encouraging diversity in nature. In 1975, following the death of his father, Marty moved back into that same family home and found himself unwilling to mow down plants and wondering "what length does grass want to be?"  Thus began "The Urban Wilderness" - an experiment in how far you can push your "yard"…and sometimes your neighbors.  Even in the sleet and ice, we enjoyed the heck out of Marty’s wonderfully "overgrown" front yard forest - a unique educational tool and a source of peaceful inspiration for many locals in the heart of manicured suburbia.  Marty’s website is full of goodies related to his "yard" and other projects, like the Heartland All Species Project focusing on local food production and natural no-till gardening.  After our visit, Marty took us with him to a meeting of Kansas City’s Environmental Management Commission, on which he serves, where we met Bob Berkebile.

Epiphany / Wise Man #2: Though he would never tell you, Bob Berkebile is the godfather of the modern green building movement.  It is ironic that one of America’s worst structural disasters would give birth to one of the most important revolutions in architecture.  After the tragic Hyatt Regency collapse in KC, Bob found himself questioning the very nature and purpose of architecture, design, and community.  "What is the real impact of our work on the people we intend to serve?"  "Are we improving the planet or not?"  Inspired by this epiphany and his mentor, Buckminster Fuller, Bob spearheaded the creation of the AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) and helped found the US Green Building Council (USGBC), both of which led to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).  Bob’s architecture firm, BNIM, has their fingers in all kinds of great green pies - as the website says, "Deep Design, Deep Green" - and is leading the green rebuilding of the country’s most devastated areas, including the town of Greensburg, KS which was wiped off the map by a tornado in 2007.

Epiphany / Wise Man #3: Finally, St. Louis gave us the eco-creativity mother lode - and another inspiring Bob.  If Bob Berkebile’s epiphany spawned the modern green building movement, then sculptor Bob Cassilly’s spawned arguably the coolest building on the planet when he took a chance, bought St. Louis’ run-down old International Shoe Building for 69 cents a square foot in the early 1990’s, and turned it into the world’s most creative, engaging, constantly-evolving, and fully-interactive work of found-object art known as City Museum. What the rest of us call junk, Bob Cassilly turns into magic.  Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007, City Museum was recently named one of the 10 Greatest Public Places in the World - and that’s not an exaggeration.  There are no signs in the museum…just an intoxicating maze of caves and secret tunnels and enormous cement dinosaurs and climbable vehicles suspended in midair and ladders and giant slides and a circus, aquarium, indoor train, enormous pipe organ, rope swings, sky tubes…did we mention the caves?…all begging to be explored!  Rick Erwin, the museum’s director, blew our minds with a whirlwind tour - so much so, that we came back for "seconds" the next day, including time with the museum’s fun-loving staff and its unofficial "Ambassador," Charles Whitcomb, who’s been there almost as long as Bob himself.  Remember closing your eyes as a kid and letting your imagination run wild…that place?  It’s in St. Louis, and you simply have to go experience it.  Seriously - GO.

Boy, The Show Me State sure showed US!

Happy Epiphany!

Your YERT Team,

Ben, Julie, and Mark

P.S.  For information about the topics in this video, check out these breadcrumbs!

For context, here’s some interesting background on the often misunderstood 12 Days of Christmas and Epiphany.

Here are some great articles about Bob Berkebile.  The first article traces his personal and professional journey and is particularly good.  (The second article is here). For a fun journey through the history of the Green Building movement, check out the USGBC’s 15 years / 15 stories page.

The concept of Urban Wildernesses may be an idea whose time has come.  In addition to Marty Kraft’s great website, here is an interesting website/blog called the Urban Wilderness Institute dedicated to the advocacy of urban wildernesses and an informative wikipedia entry on the subject.

As if City Museum weren’t cool enough, Bob Cassilly is working on a new project called Cementland - check out this NY Times article - and, yes, it’s what you think it is.  Once you’ve visited City Museum, and you want to hit the other 9 Greatest Public Places in the World, check out the St. Louis Business Journal article here.

YERT

Posted in Video, Ben | 1 Comment »

YERTpod30: Perennial Good Food in Kansas

December 22, 2008 by Mark.

(We received a generous outpouring of money and volunteers after our last message. Thank you!! We’re still looking for volunteers to help watch and transcribe a few hours of exciting, raw YERT footage. Join over 30 other volunteers to help us meet our transcription deadline: 500 hours by Feb. 28, 2009. E-mail mark@yert.com if you’re interested!)

Dear YERTians,

Right in heart of Kansas we found two extraordinary but very different approaches to creating healthy, smart, and local food. Wes Jackson will light up your mind with genetic innovations at The Land Institute, while Hilary Brown will light up your taste buds at Local Burger. Neither are to be missed…

With a 25-year plan and a staff filled with PhD’s, Wes Jackson and The Land Institute are on a mission to create a farm that works like a prairie. They call it "Natural Systems Agriculture," but we like to call it "the mother of all environmental solutions." Their work targets fundamental changes to agricultural systems that will have a positive impact on common human challenges including fossil fuel dependence, pesticide pollution, fertilizer runoff, water shortages, soil erosion, cultural erosion, and climate change. This is one of the most potent stories that we encountered all year– we would love to know if you agree, so let us know at team@yert.com.

Hilary Brown has quite possibly established the first and best fast food restaurant in America to use primarily local healthy ingredients and practices. The restaurant is called Local Burger, and she regularly converts vegetarians into carnivores after they try her elk burgers and learn about the humane practices of her farm sources. She certainly converted us into rabid fans and we can’t wait to return!

That’s all for now. May your holidays be evergreen, and if you’re still trying to figure out how to simplify the season, consider the concrete suggestions in YERT’s Simple Living 101 video here.

Peace,
Mark, Ben, and Julie

team@yert.com

P.S. For information about the topics in this video, check out these breadcrumbs!

The Land Institute - It is difficult to express their mission statement better than they do: "When people, land, and community are as one, all three members prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing interests, all three are exploited. By consulting Nature as the source and measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring." http://www.landinstitute.org/

Prairie Festival - Every year the Land Institute throws one heck of an informative and inspirational multi-day festival. People travel from miles around to listen to Wes Jackson and his friends and peers. If you’re on the continent, we highly recommend it. Here is the link from 2008’s festival: http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2008/02/24/47c304bb0d842

Most Important Human Challenge Ever! - Our interview with Wes Jackson was filled with incredible quotes that we couldn’t fit into YERTpod30. One of our favorites is particularly timely, as Wes indicates what he would tell America if he were President of the United States. Check it out here and share it with friends and president elects!

Local Burger - Ok, so you haven’t really lived until you’ve tried the elk burger at Local Burger. Trust us. It is as good as our faces say in the video. Stunning flavor. And for the vegetarians out there, you’re also saved– Hilary has created the mother of all veggie burgers just for you. Here’s the rest of the scoop from Local Burger’s website: "Established in historic downtown Lawrence, Kansas, the restaurant sources all of its meats locally and features a variety of burgers, including beef, buffalo, elk, lamb, pork, turkey, and tofu, and is home of the World’s Best Veggie Burger (it’s gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, corn-free, soy-free, and DELICIOUS!)."

Posted in Video, Mark | 2 Comments »

YERTpod29: Construction Is More Than OK in Oklahoma

December 10, 2008 by Ben.

…AAAAAAAND WE’RE BACK!!!!!

First and foremost, a gigantic YERT shout out to any and all heroic YERTians who are still dutifully tuning in.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.  Yes, it’s been quite a while since our last YERTPod as I (Ben) have gotten sideswiped by fatherhood and premiering a new musical.  Sorry ’bout that.  Oh, how I’ve missed the weekly all-nighter editing sessions!  And so it is that I honor that YERT tradition once again tonight at 4:29am. You had to know that we’d get around to editing Oklahoma, SOONER or later.  Turns out it was later, but here it is…finally.

Once we arrived in Oklahoma City, we went "underground" and "dug in" at Oklahoma City University for a few days, giving ourselves some "constructive" criticism and "building" a plan to ask some "LEEDing" questions over the coming days.  Turns out we didn’t have to look too hard. 

Brad Thomas and Sam Johnson gave us the dime tour of all the nifty bells and whistles on BOLDT Construction’s very cool LEED Silver south regional headquarters building.  We thought it only fitting that a company which offers green construction services have a LEED-certified regional HQ.  And it’s the first private LEED building in OK to boot.

We then spent one cold and rainy day with Aaron McRee of Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity and liked it so much, we came back for another equally cold and wet interview the next day with Kelly Parker, President of Guaranteed Watt Saver, a engineering/inspection/consulting firm whose mission is "to assist in creating working and living environments which are durable, healthy, safe, comfortable, and resource responsible through a comprehensive application of building science principles."  Sounds pretty good to us.  Habitat and GWS have joined forces in central Oklahoma to bring energy efficiency savings into the lives of those who need it the most by building "the largest green development in Habitat for Humanity history" - an entire neighborhood of highly-insulated, geothermal-heated/cooled, extremely affordable homes.  We learned that, while it may have been the middle of December and we were freezing body parts off, there’s apparently still enough geothermal potential under the Oklahoma turf to warm even the chilliest home.  And not only is the heat home grown, but nearly everything in the houses’ geothermal systems (from the piping to the mechanical units) are made right in Oklahoma.  Now if only the state made geo-thermal-underwear, they really could have scored some points with us.  Get on that Oklahoma.

Finally, as luck would have it, Oklahoma City is the capital of Oklahoma, so we spent some quality time with OK State Representative, Randy McDaniel (R), who demonstrated to us that caring for the planet really is a non-partisan cause.  And, for balance, we hopped over to the other side of the political aisle and sat down with OK State Senator, Andrew Rice (D), the man looking to unseat America’s most notorious Global Warming Skeptic, US Senator James Inhoff.  Rice may have lost that bid last month, but he certainly gets kudos for trying.  

Oh, and not surprisingly, every Oklahoman we asked knew "Oklahoma," the song.  Apparently there’s this musical…

YERTfully Yours,

Ben, Mark, and Julie (Your YERT Team)
team@yert.com

P.S. If you’re looking for more goodies related to the video, check out these yummy breadcrumbs….

• Wanna find out just how much energy your house is leaking?  Or become a Home Energy Rater so you don’t have to hire someone else to tell you?  Guaranteed Watt Saver can help you here: http://www.gwssi.com/
• BOLDT may have a sweet building in Oklahoma, but the company HQ is actually in Appleton, Wisconsin.  Find out more about the company at:  http://www.theboldtcompany.com/home.html
• Habitat For Humanity does remarkable work.  Learn all about "the largest green development in Habitat for Humanity history" including "20 things YOU can do to reduce your home’s energy impact" right here:  http://www.centraloklahomahabitat.org/HopeCrossing.htm
• Last but not least, here’s a fun and funky website all about the wonders of geothermal heating and cooling.  If you wanna learn about how it all works, this site has everything…and we mean EVERYTHING — http://geothermal.marin.org/
  

Posted in Video, Ben | 3 Comments »

Most Important Human Challenge Ever!

October 31, 2008 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

What will we discuss today?
- NEW YERT Video
- See YERT in Pittsburgh at Cafe Scientifique on Monday, 11/3.
- YERT Phase 2 Update

Happy Halloween! Today we present you with a special little video, just in time for the election. This one features a single quote by Wes Jackson at the Land Institute, in which he talks about what he would do if elected President. Take a look. Wes is brilliant and the Land Institute was quite possibly the most important spot YERT visited in all 50 states. We’ll be featuring more of him in an upcoming video (editing it right now!). Here’s the clip…

YERT Presents Wes Jackson Presenting the Most Important Human Challenge Ever!

If the embedded video doesn’t work for you… go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDSn-bDyvdA

YERT at Cafe Scientifique! That’s right, Mark, Ben, and Julie will be presenting the YERT story to anybody who would like to show up. The format is great - eat, drink, and talk about cool stuff! We’ll also have all of our garbage on display– from the whole year. Good times all around. It all happens at the Penn Brewery at 7:00 PM on Monday, 11/3. Check out their website for more information: http://www.cafescipgh.org/. If you’d like YERT to present to your school, college, or community, contact mark@yert.com.

PHASE 2 UPDATE! If you’re wondering what happened to YERT and our “weekly” videos, fret not! Ben, Julie, Erika, and I are all well, there are videos in the pipeline, and we’re moving as fast as we can to build out “YERT Phase 2,” which includes a feature film, educational curriculum, and eco-presentations all over the place. We’ve been processing hundreds of hours of footage, adjusting the legal structure of YERT, and meeting with folks in the funding community in Pittsburgh and beyond.

In the meantime, we could use a little help in getting to the next stop on this YERT train. We need a little money and some people– cash and warm bodies. YERT is seeking connections to film industry professionals, hungry interns, and volunteers interested in helping out the planet while sharpening their skills on a fun, independent media project with national scope. For more information, please contact Mark Dixon– mark@yert.com, 415-672-5537. (We have opportunities for video editors [FCPro in HD:1080p], motion graphics designers, web developers, new media marketing interns, and video watching/logging volunteers! Course credit may also be available for students.)

We particularly need lots of volunteer video watchers– to watch about 500 hours of footage and transcribe every word from the interviews. We’ll credit you in our film and on our website, and you’ll get a chance to see huge chunks of wonderful raw interviews that make up the foundation of YERT. And we’d be eternally grateful. All we ask is that you sign up for chunks of 10 hours, and we’ll help you out with the rest.

About the money - we basically depleted our funds during the course of the trip, but need $3000 for a bit of hardware (a hard drive), software (to support our video watching volunteers), and those legal expenses. It is all integral to the creation of the film and can’t be delayed. Think you can help? Please make a contribution to the project at the YERT Shert Shop. You can also put a little cash into the YERT bank by buying YERT Chico Bags, which make GREAT GIFTS and double as awesome gift wrappers. You’ll be glad you did.

That’s all for today. Have a great scary day and don’t forget to VOTE on Nov. 4!

YERTfully Yours,
Mark (and Ben, Julie, and Erika)

team@yert.com

YERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERTYERT

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