The Brighter Planet Blog

2 gallons of vinegar, 4 pounds of baking soda, some strange looks from the grocery store clerk and we were on our way. I pulled an old storm window, (the same window from the carbon footprint video) out of the basement, propped it up on two chairs above a wrinkled blue sheet, and began to mount the camera to the top of a tall step ladder.

Meanwhile, Mike scraped and sorted the baking soda into the rough outlines of the continents. He taped a world map to the underside of the glass to guide him and worked assiduously, digging with his driver’s license as a shovel until the earth took shape. Then I started the camera rolling and we crept toward the masterpiece each with a jug of vinegar in hand, our breath bated so as not to disturb the fine white dust.

We did our best to coordinate the launch, for it was of crucial importance that each of us began pouring the vinegar at the same time. One from the north and one from the south.

“1, 2, 3, Go. Okay?”
“Yeah! Wait! Go on go, or go on 3?”
“On go we go.”
“Okay. Wait! Shouldn’t it be 3, 2, 1?”

Somehow we agreed when to go, and then counted down. The vinegar rushed out across the surface of the glass and collided with the baking soda shores of Greenland and Chile. Chemical reactions exploded in a chaotic foam of CO2. It was going to be a glorious illustration.

But our stunt had a flaw: the old storm window had no walls with which to contain the ocean of vinegar that we were pouring onto it. And our studio floor suffered a slant. So the ocean of vinegar rushed downwards along the slant and off the edge of the earth where it splashed in a slime creeping everywhere.

Now, as young, proud filmmakers we decided the problem was not at all a problem with our rig, but rather a problem with our pouring. If we could just pour better we could flood the oceans and complete the illustration. So we cleaned and dried the mess, refashioned the earth with baking soda, counted down, and poured again, but better this time. Again the vinegar rushed down the slanted glass off the edge of the earth to soak the studio floor.

It surprises me still how long it took to discover that a pool of liquid needs walls to contain the pool. It’s one of those moments that gives me patience when I’m frustrated with the climate change problem. It has a solution, but it’s going to take persistence and time, and patience for all of the goofy mistakes we make along the way.

-Daniel

Alright, folks—you’ve been asking for them, we’ve been working on them, and here they are: carbon neutrality packages for your dog and cat!

Discussions of pets’ climate impact pop up in the news occasionally (as in these articles from Newsweek and Mother Nature Network), but we believe our pet offsets are the first to offer you the chance to actually neutralize the impact of your furry friends.

Most of the emissions your pet is responsible for come from producing, processing, packaging, and shipping all the food they eat.  For our calculations, we combine pet feeding guides from the National Academy of Sciences with lifecycle emissions data for food to generate your dog or cat’s “carbon pawprint” from enjoying their favorite kibble.

The other main pet emissions we include come from veterinary care.  We utilize commercial building energy use data from the Energy Information Administration and veterinary census data from the American Veterinary Medical Association to generate a typical slice of emissions per dog or cat from keeping the lights on and the machinery running at the vet’s office.

Add it up and you get a picture of the emissions for a dog or cat over the course of the year.  To put it in perspective, offsetting a cat’s 0.5-ton carbon pawprint is like leaving your car in the garage for an entire month.  Offsetting a large dog’s 3.5-ton pawprint is like powering down an entire average home for nearly 4 months.  With over 72 million dogs and 82 million cats in the US alone, their combined climate impact is staggering.

So for all you diligent poop scoopers who’ve been patiently awaiting a chance to take cleaning up after your pet to the next level, your time has come.  And there’s more coming down the pipeline: soon you’ll be able to add your pets to your carbon footprint in your profile, too.

-Rich Saunders

With the first voting period of the Brighter Planet Project Fund about to begin on October 1^st, the project proposals keep rolling in from across the country. These are your ideas, and your community initiatives to fight climate change.

From Brian at the Michigan Land Use Institute: TC-350
Traverse City’s 350 Day of Climate Action will join over 1500 others around the world on October 24^th. The plan is to get people everywhere to urge their leaders to support an international goal of 350 parts per million CO₂ in the atmosphere.

From Andrew at Coal River Valley Watch: Sustainable Energy and Economic Diversification
The Coal River Valley community is ready to move beyond mountain top removal and create a sustainable economy. Coal River Valley Watch aims to identify and support five community-led sustainable entrepreneurial projects and reach out to educate regional high schools and colleges on these alternatives.

From Lindsey at ecoVC
ecoVC is start-up nonprofit organization building a network of venture capital firms that encourage their portfolio companies to implement sustainable business practices. Through Project Fund seed money, ecoVC will create a web platform that provides the resources and incentives necessary for start-ups to easily begin implementing sustainability initiatives at an early stage.

From Lorenzo at Technology Initiatives and Applications: Green Technology Assessment Project
High school students will be trained for green jobs, and then linked to the Tuscon-Southern Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce. This will fight climate change by creating green workers, and it will create a model for replication throughout the US.

Be sure to visit the Project Fund homepage to see all the projects submitted so far, and stop back on Thursday to vote for the projects you think deserve seed money. If you have an idea, you can submit a project at any time and start fighting climate change in your hometown.

-Matt V

1Sky is trying to reach their goal of getting 10,000 Americans to call their senators and ask for their support on a strong clean energy bill this year. Take your turn! A call is worth a thousand emails.

Just visit this site and you’ll find all the info (and encouraging words!) you’ll need.

Thanks for taking action.

-Carolyn

The idea is simple–share your own experiences reducing your “foodprint,” learn how others are making great food that’s also good for the planet, and win some killer prizes!

These days, it’s hard to miss the hubub about electric cars and fluorescent lights, wind turbines and cash for clunkers.  But it might come as a surprise to learn that in terms of carbon emissions, the impact of the food you eat is on par with the car you drive and the home you inhabit.  This contest is all about raising that awareness, sharing great ways we can each reduce the climate impact of our diets.

Here’s how it works.  Just browse through the cooking conservation tips, and submit stories and photos of how you reduce your impact for each category you’re interested in.  As you’re poking around, be sure to give a nod to other experiences you like—at the end of the contest, stories with the most “thumbs up” will be rated against the judging criteria.

Culinary and conservation heavyweights on our judging panel include chef and local food pioneer Alice Waters, author and journalist Bill McKibben, and Stonyfield Farms CEO Gary Hirshberg.

Yes, there is loot to be won: random prizes throughout the contest, and top prizes of Amazon Kindle DXs in each category.  The top experiences will be published online, and broadcast here on our blog.  And just as importantly, you’ll learn about ways make delicious, low-impact meals, and inspire others to do the same!

Join us at the main contest page!

–the Brighter Planet team