Pop City, June 24 2006
http://popcitymedia.com/features/yerts0715.aspx
Mark Dixon, founder of Your Environmental Road Trip (YERT) spent 366 days, driving 43,000 miles through all 50 states, and interviewing over 800 people behind some of the most innovative environmental projects in the country. He met Scott Brusaw in northern Idaho, who is working on a plan for building roads out of glass embedded with solar panels, capable of generating all of the nation's electricity. He spent a night in a former mine that had been converted into housing by Dugout Dick, a man who has spent the past 60 years living simply in caves. Dixon even met Eco Elvis, who, dressed in a green jumpsuit and a green cape with green sequins, sings environmentally themed Elvis-style songs.
But if you ask Mark Dixon the most interesting thing he saw during the trip, the first thing he'll mention is the Land Institute in Kansas, which works on transitioning farming from annual monocultures to perennial polycultures, which use less fuel and fertilizer, have deeper roots, and sequester more carbon. “It's not very sexy,” Dixon admits.
Maybe not by itself, but if you watch the Land Institute video, one of nearly 40 short videos produced for the YERT website, it's just as engaging as the video where Eco Elvis battles a monster made out plastic garbage bags. If the environmental message is powerful enough, YERT will make sure it reaches you.
Planting the Seed
Mark Dixon had been thinking about environmental issues for years, but was never motivated to take action, until he attended a Green Conference in San Francisco.
“I saw a diverse array of different people and I thought, 'There is a place in this movement for me,'” Dixon says. Without knowing what that place would be exactly, three months later he had quit his job at an Internet video startup so that he could focus on sustainability full time. In the middle of a ten-day meditation retreat, the idea came to him fully formed- a road trip to make a video documentary about all the interesting environmental projects happening around the country.
The format was particularly suited for Dixon, who has a technical background studying industrial engineering at Stanford, but has also performed frequently on stage. “Basically, I was comfortable making a fool out of myself if it was necessary to convey a message,” he says. He recruited a friend from college and his wife, Ben and Julie Evans, who were both working as actors in New York City, and began planning.
The project started in California, but it really took off when, encouraged by his sister who lives here and drawn by the low cost of living, Dixon decided to move to Pittsburgh. Here he found a wealth of interest and support for the YERT project. The Allegheny chapter of the Sierra Club and the Rachel Carson Institute both provided help planning the trip. Ben Evans was cast in a one-man show at the City Theater, giving him a paying acting job in town in the months leading up to the trip. And they were approached by city councilman Bill Peduto, who sponsored a resolution declaring June 30, 2007 Your Environmental Road Trip Day in Pittsburgh.
In fact, YERT received so much support in Pittsburgh, that they decided to start the trip here, even though for a road trip covering all 50 states it might have made more sense geographically to start on a coast. “It was more satisfying emotionally,” says Dixon. “Pittsburgh has a really compelling story of environmental renaissance. We wanted to retell the story all around the country, that if Pittsburgh can do it, it's possible anywhere.”
Ok, So It's an Oxymoron
On July 4, 2007, Mark, Julie, and Ben began the trip at Rachel Carson Homestead, setting out in a Ford Escape Hybrid nicknamed Rachel “the Car” Carson. They chose a hybrid SUV because it was used, American made, and because it might interest some Americans who wouldn't otherwise take an environmental step.
The threesome also realized that the idea of driving to promote sustainability was problematic. “Environmental Road Trip- the name itself is an oxymoron,” says Dixon. “So we dedicated ourselves to propagating the messages we received, and making sure we would have the greatest impact per mile driven.”
They gave themselves some challenges on the road: they would keep all their garbage for the year, including recyclables, limiting themselves to a shoebox-full per month. One month in, they gave themselves a no incandescents rule- if a room didn't have compact fluorescents, they would use LED head lamps or no lights at all. In the second month, Ben and Mark began to limit their water usage to 25 gallons per day (the average American uses over 100 gallons). Mark dealt with this challenge by taking super short “Navy showers.” Another good way to reduce your water usage is to not take showers when you're not dirty. “Ben makes good use of that rule,” says Mark in one of the YERT videos. “Some might say excessive use of that rule.”
In any event, Ben's hygiene didn't affect his relationship with Julie too terribly. Three months into the road trip she discovered that she was pregnant- and the scheduled due date was July 4, 2008, the last day of the year long road trip. The pregnancy forced them to think more carefully about the impact of their decisions. “In a very real way we saw that what we were doing was about the future,” says Mark. “We're all part of the environment, and our health depends on the quality and diversity of the environment. We ignore it at our peril.”
Ben and Julie left for the last few months, so Mark finished the trip in San Francisco on July 4, 2008 with Erika Bowman, who had been the YERT team's honorary fourth member, helping out with logistics from home. Julie gave birth to a healthy baby boy shortly afterward.
What Now?
The road trip might be over, but YERT is far from finished. The group is still producing short videos for the website from the hundreds of hours of footage they shot during the trip. The videos are funny, energetic, and, according to Mark, highly condensed, using the very best parts of ten hours worth of footage to make each five minute video. They eventually want to make a full-length feature film, and are looking for ways to fund it.
Mark has also been helping plan a Pittsburgh conference in October for the Bioneers, a group he encountered on the trip that promotes practical solutions for restoring the environment. And, with Ben and Julie Evans, he has given multimedia presentations, both in Pittsburgh and across the country to schools, community groups, conferences, and even businesses that want to go green. Dixon calls these presentations “an environmental antidepressant. People come up to me afterwards and say, 'Finally, an environmental presentation that's not totally depressing.' They actually leave smiling.”
And that might be the most important message that Dixon hopes people take from YERT-- that even though the outlook for the planet sometimes seems grim, a sustainable future can be “livable, healthy, and even exciting.”
