Well folks, we’ve been waiting for this day for some time now… We’d like to announce the launch of our video contest - Climate Matters: Inspire Our Next President. We’ve partnered with 1Sky, a climate change organization based in Washington DC, and Vimeo, a premier video-sharing website, to make sure our leaders know why climate change must be addressed by our next president. That’s why we’re calling on Americans (that’s you!) to create a 30 or 60 second video to deliver a clear, creative and compelling message to our leaders to take bold action on climate change.

Now, our message to you… What are you waiting for? Grab yourself a camera, it doesn’t have to be fancy, and ask yourself what message you want to deliver to our leaders right now. Serious or funny, amateur or professional, we’re opening the political space for you to share that message. Upload your video on Vimeo’s Climate Matters website, and be sure to self-promote. The top ten videos will be chosen based on average views per day, so you can help your video get to the top! Winning videos will be broadcast to a central audience of over 50 million people nationwide and will be shown to our leaders in Washington.

Check out the contest’s introductory video, you might see some familiar faces!

Climate Matters from Brighter Planet on Vimeo.

Prizes: The top video submission will be awarded with $3000 on a preloaded Brighter Planet Visa Gift Card; 2nd Place, $1000 on a preloaded Brighter Planet Visa Gift Card; and 3rd Place, $500 on a preloaded Brighter Planet Visa Gift Card.

Viewers can also enter a raffle to win a brand new Canon VIXIA HV30 HDV camcorder - next year you’ll have no excuse not to submit a film!

Judges:

We’ve got a stellar panel of judges that come from all sides of the political spectrum:

• Gillian Caldwell, Campaign Director and Film Producer, 1Sky
• Leila Conners, President and Co-Founder of Tree Media, Producer/Director 11th Hour
• Nadia Conners, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Tree Media, Producer/Director 11th Hour
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, Actress, Rachel Dawes in Batman the Dark Knight
• Anya Kamenetz, author Generation Debt and Staff Writer Fast Company
• Rory Kennedy, Director and Producer, Moxie Firecracker Films
• David Jenkins, Government Affairs Director Republicans for Environmental Protection
• Tia Lessin, Director and Producer, Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine
• Patti Prairie, President and CEO, Brighter Planet
• Bill Stetson, film producer and environmental consultant

Be sure to know the rules (the terms and conditions are on the contest website)

And don’t doubt yourself for one second, because one video can change the world!

-The Brighter Planet team

Last week, those of us who are in Vermont took a lunch-time field trip to see how cheese is made at the Twig Farm in West Cornwall, VT. We started with a tour of their 20-acre establishment, saw their simple milking facilities, walked through the cheese-making process, met their goats grazing in the fields and finally got to taste some of their award-winning aged raw goat’s milk cheeses with our picnic lunch. We’re pretty spoiled in VT with so many choices for local cheese, we’ve got everything from Chevre to Camembrie and of course Cabot’s fine selection of Cheddars, but we all agreed that the Twig Farm specialties were one of a kind. Check out the video from our trip!

The trouble with public transit is that it’s so sporadic– at least in rural areas.

I’m trying to get from Middlebury, VT to New York City this weekend to visit some friends. I couldn’t find anyone to share a ride down with, but I don’t want to drive alone. I can get a ride back with a friend, and it would be a pain to deal with a car in the city. That leaves three options to weigh: plane, bus, or train.

Now here’s the rub: I have to be in Manhattan at 5:30 pm Saturday to meet my friends for dinner. But I have a doctor’s appointment in Middlebury at 11:00 am Friday. Seems like it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Let’s see.

It’s 275 miles from Middlebury to New York. If I drove, I could leave Saturday morning and be in New York 5 hours later. In a Prius getting 50 mpg I’d use 5.5 gallons of gasoline, which would cost $23 and emit 110 lbs of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). In a fleet-average gasoline car getting 23.4 mpg, the trip would use 11.75 gallons of gas, cost $50, and emit 235 lbs CO2e. Offsetting the emissions for either car would increase the cost by about 3%.

For most people, flying is probably the second go-to after driving for a trip of this length. I could fly out of Burlington Saturday morning and be in New York 90 minutes later. If you add in travel to the airport (I’ll assume I can get a friend to drop me off), checking in, waiting, and getting from JFK or La Guardia to Manhattan it probably takes about five hours - the same as driving. The ticket would cost $170 (though if I’d bought it earlier it might have been less). The flight would emit about 280 lbs CO2e, including radiative forcing effects. Offsetting this would add 1% to the ticket price.

I’d really rather not fly, so I could try taking a bus from Burlington. The way the bus schedules line up, I’d need to get a friend to drive me to Burlington Saturday morning - an hour in the opposite direction from New York. Or I could take the bus up Friday evening and stay with friends. If I left Saturday morning it would take me a bit more than nine hours all told, and I’d get to New York at 3:45 pm. The bus costs $74.50 - a little less than half the cost of flying, but about twice the travel time. It would emit about 130 lbs CO2e - worse than driving alone in a fuel-efficient car! Offsetting the emissions would increase the cost by 1%.

If I tried to take a bus from Rutland, which is closer than Burlington and on the way to New York, I’d have to either miss dinner or leave Friday and miss my doctor’s appointment. The only bus leaves at 11:15 am and gets in at 7:50 pm.

The last option is taking a train. Unfortunately, Amtrak is even more awkward than the bus. If I took a train from Burlington, I’d again have to miss dinner or the doctor. The only train leaves at 9:00 am and gets to New York nine and a half hours later at 6:25 pm - slower than the bus! From Rutland the train is only six hours, but again I’d miss dinner or the doctor. Luckily there’s a train from Port Henry that leaves Friday at 2:12 pm and gets to New York at 8:45 pm. It takes a bit more than six hours, and the ticket costs $69. The train probably emits 180 lbs CO2e - even worse than the bus! Offsetting this would add about 2% to the cost.

In conclusion, there isn’t a great public transit option. Part of the problem is that we simply haven’t invested in transit infrastructure. The Amtrak from Burlington averages 38 miles per hour - and the trains from Rutland and Port Henry average about 40 mph. High-speed rails, switches, and signals could probably double these speeds. And Amtrak service is highly dependent upon where rails run - the buses from Burlington and Rutland actually go slower than the trains, but they take a more direct route.

Another factor is our low population density. About 100 people live in each square mile of the conterminous U.S. The U.K. has 650 people per square mile, and France has almost 290. Building a good public transit system is more difficult in sparsely-populated areas. On the other hand, there is no spot in the lower 48 states that is further than 30 miles from a road.

In the end, I think I’ll go with the train from Port Henry. It’ll take longer than a bus, but will be much more comfortable. I can get some work done, read, and have more time with friends in New York. I’m disappointed that the train may emit more than a bus, but those figures are based on national averages and are highly dependent on the number of passengers. Hopefully the Montreal-New York rail line is a popular one.

–Ian

Recalling the days of VH1’s pop-up music videos, we’ve decided to borrow the concept to address some disturbing details of our society illustrated by the media and pop culture - only this time we’re focusing on carbon. We chose Rihanna mostly because of her popularity, but as Alex pointed out, the song is fitting for a discussion of carbon emissions and the US auto industry. After all, it’s become somewhat of a mantra for Americans over the last few decades…”Shut up and drive”.

This is our third Q&A with our advisor, Bill McKibben. Last time I spoke with Bill, he was in China participating in a teleconference for the G8 meetings in Japan. Now he and a teammate from 350.org are meeting with groups from all parts of China that are doing their own organizing to raise awareness and build a movement to fight climate change. The hope is that 350.org can unify all of these actions into one large global movement!

If you have a question for Bill, send it along to askbill AT brighterplanet DOT com. We’re eager to hear from you!

I read “The End of Nature” to prepare for an Environmental Ethics class I was helping teach at San Francisco State. One major concept I drew upon from the book is the idea that there is a 50-year lag from the “global warming” effects we are feeling from excess carbon, so that even if we stopped dead in our tracks (as if that were possible) we can expect dire consequences from what we have already done. Is that assessment still true today or has it accelerated or changed in some other way?

Russel Kilday-Hicks

Thank you, Russell. Your understanding is, sadly, correct. We’re not going to “stop global warming”. We’ve already warmed the planet a degree, and there’s another degree and a half in the pipeline from carbon we’ve already emitted. What we’re talking about now is just trying to prevent absolute catastrophe from crossing the real tipping points–check out 350.org for the latest science.

I am very concerned about what’s happening to bee colonies with colony collapse disorder (CCD). I’m sure you’ve heard the quote that was attributed to Einstein: “No more bees, no more pollination…no more men!” Do you think this CCD phenomenon - which could threaten our agricultural base (and is now also affecting bats, our beloved mosquito-eaters) is related to climate change?

Emily Fano, Holistic Moms Network

Climate seems to be one part of the equation here, but there are also pesticides implicated, and the general folly of treating bees as industrialized workers, shipping them across the continent every month. The answer here is clear, I think, we need a sustained, steady move in the direction of low-input local agriculture. Which means, among other things, that we need more farmers!

Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of climate change. I am trying to make a difference in my own community and hope to be as bold as you have been. Like many people, I feel great despair over the impending future of our planet and what it will mean to the natural world, including the human race. I fear for my children and their children. What is the thought that you keep in your mind, to give you hope?

Julie Buck, Castle Rock, CO

Julie, thanks for that question. I find that action is the best antidote to despair, for young people as well as old. The inspiring pleasure of organizing a couple of thousand demonstrations across the country at StepItUp, and now of trying to do the same thing globally at 350.org, keeps me from fixating on the darker possibilities. I’m not convinced we’ll win in the end (I did, after all, write a book with the cheery title “The End of Nature”), but I am convinced that we can put up a fight, and that that’s important, and that if we do there’s a chance we’ll have some real effect.