Sixth Grade Science - It’s All About Poop

We recently took Worse Than Poop! for a test spin with a science classroom in Menlo Park. Joanne Tinkham shared the film with her 6th graders, and I asked her to report back on the experience. Sixth grade is when the Next Generation Science Standards focus on climate change - and I wanted to be sure the film would work for that age group. This is what Mrs. Tinkham and her students had to say:

“This video was made for 6th graders (and 6th grade teachers!)”

— Mrs. Tinkham

Sixth graders assessing Worse Than Poop! as a teaching tool.

“It was pooptastic! And put this issue into poopspective.”

— Hunter W.

“It really made me think about how much cars pollute the atmosphere. It inspired me to walk more. The animation and sound effects were adorable.”

— Annabelle M.

“The poop reference was a bit much because it made poop look bad and poop is important as a fertilizer.”

— Niko M.

Sixth grade science students watching Worse Than Poop!

I have to say that Niko is absolutely right: poop can indeed be put to good use. The ‘poop bus’ in Bristol is a perfect example - and someone just told me about a similar endeavor happening in Estonia. One man’s poop is another man’s fuel.

It all, as Hunter would say, depends on your poopspective.

May Fete: Solar EVs and Car-Free Streets

Last weekend, I took Elliot to Palo Alto's 93rd annual "May Fete Childrens Parade." I anticipated that University Avenue wouldn't have any cars on it - but I wasn't prepared for how it would feel to be on a street full of people instead of cars. Especially a street as beautiful as University Avenue. Look at the photos and you can feel it for yourself:

This is what University Avenue usually looks like.

This is what University Avenue looked like on Saturday, car-free.

The other thing I wasn't prepared for was the amazing creativity on display. We were particularly fascinated by the collection of EV jalopies from the local junior high school electric car clubs. Our favorite was this one - powered (and shaded) with its own solar canopy!

Elliot checks out the solar-powered electric car, built by students at the JLS Jr. High Electric Car Club.

Considering an EV? Now there's a spreadsheet for that...

Last year, our family made the switch to driving electric - partly due to Elliot's constant nagging, partly due to the environmental benefits of driving electric, but also partly due to the cost savings. Driving an EV, it turns out, can often save you money. We figured this out by developing a spreadsheet. People keep asking me to share it, so here it is! 

Click on the spreadsheet or the link below to download this spreadsheet in CSV, Numbers, and XLSX formats. Enter your information in the BLUE cells. GREEN cells will automatically populate.

Elliot with FrankE, our all-electric Fiat 500e.

One of the biggest savings, we realized, was on maintenance. We've had our Fiat 500e for a little over a year, and our total maintenance cost has been... zero. We had to take it into the dealership once, for a software upgrade, and they rotated the tires while we were there (all at no cost). We would normally have had to change the wiper blades, but (unfortunately) there hasn't been any rain here in California. We'll eventually have to change the tires - but probably not before the end of our 3-year lease.

The biggest reason, IMHO, that the car companies and dealerships aren't keen on having us all switch to EVs is that their business model is built on the profit they make from parts and service. Remember, with EVs there are no spark plugs to replace, no oil filters or air filters or fuel injectors or radiators or fan belts or the zillion other things you just have to replace on a regular basis in a gas car.

And did I mention that EVs are WAY more fun to drive?

People also ask us how much it costs to charge the car. We mostly plug in at home, using just a 110v plug, so we incurred no EVSE (aka charging station) installation charges. The additional electricity cost is roughly equivalent to the cost of plugging in an additional fridge.

A few things you need to know to complete the spreadsheet:

* State rebates vary - a lot - by state. California's current rebate is $2500. Our dealer did the paperwork for us, and we received our rebate within a couple of months. (I've heard that there have been backlogs in CA, but we didn't experience one.) Check out this awesome map to find out what rebates your state has available.

* The Federal government offers a $7500 rebate for most EVs, but this is only available for car sales. (For leasing, the dealer gets the federal rebate and usually rolls that into the cost of the lease.) State rebates are only available for 3-year leases (at least in California). But again - the monthly cost of a two-year lease is often lower because it includes the state rebate.

* I entered $20/month into the spreadsheet as the cost of public charging - which is approximately what we pay, using public chargers for maybe 20% of our charging needs. Your costs may vary. You can find more information on charging rates at Chargepoint and NRG-eVgo and BLiNK. You can find a map of the many charging stations now available at PlugShare.

* I included a section for car-sharing. We share an old Prius with two other families, in order to have access to a long-range gas car - or a second car - on the rare occasions when we need one. (Our lease with Fiat also includes 12 free days of car rentals per year.) We regularly drive our EV from Palo Alto to San Francisco and Berkeley. (I've also driven it as far as Monterey and Sonoma.) We have only needed a gas car about a dozen times over the past year - usually because we just needed two cars on the same day (a problem that would be solved with better public transit).

Questions? Comments? Please let me know what you think!

Festivals Around the World

I'm delighted to report that Worse Than Poop! will soon be screening at two more festivals, on two more continents! 

On March 27 and 28, the South African Eco Film Festival will screen the film as part of Small Seeds Hold Great Potential and Be The Change film programs, in Capetown, South Africa.

View fullsize

By the end of the year, SEFF will have visited Slavonski Brod, Koprivnica, Zadar, Šibenik, Tribunj, Brodarica, Murter, Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka, as well as the Green Fest in Belgrade, Serbia, Barents Ecology Film Festival in Russia and Rover Film Festival in Ukraina.

In June, it will play in the Sisak Eco Film Festival, a festival that travels - by bike! - to cities throughout Eastern Europe.

I've submitted to many other festivals, and will post here with results as we hear back...

Palo Alto Screening This Friday

Transition Palo Alto's Fourth Friday series, "Films of Vision and Hope," will be screening Worse Than Poop! this Friday, with e2 Transport - London: The Price of Traffic. Elliot and I will be there to answer questions afterwards.

Friday, Jan. 23 -- 7:30 pm

Fireside Room, Unitarian Universlist Church of Palo Alto

505 E. Charleston Road, PA

As the Peninsula grapples with how to address traffic congestion and rising carbon emissions from transportation, these two short films shed light on the problems posed by car traffic in an increasingly congested urban world. From an animated universe in which cars ‘poop out’ their CO2, to the mega-city of London where planners challenge the notion that cities should be designed for cars – these films will provide a fun and inspiring way to look at our traffic problems, and consider some radical solutions. Discussion to follow.

All ages welcome
$5 recommended donation – no one turned away for lack of funds

Bittersweet Wednesday

Today was a big day - in part because today I officially FINISHED Worse Than Poop! Last night, I received the last and final animation, and I just finished editing it into the final cut. I am uploading the finished film as I type! Those of you who supported our Kickstarter campaign will be receiving a download link very soon.

But as anyone who isn't living under a rock will also note, today is also the Day After Election Day here in the US - and in particular, an Election Day on which almost all of the candidates and issues we were supporting got thoroughly trounced at the polls.

Elliot watches Brian Schmidt interviewed on election night at KMTV.

One particularly bitter loss was for our friend Brian Schmidt, who was running for re-election to the Santa Clara County Water District Board. His opponent, a Silicon Valley millionaire, refused to abide by voluntary campaign spending limits, and outspent Brian 22-to-1. His opponent had no experience in two of the three areas for which the Water District Director is responsible (environmental management and flood protection), but in the end he managed to win the election by a narrow margin. This morning, I told Elliot, "This is a tiny microcosm of what is wrong with our entire voting system - and we need to fix it." When you have unlimited spending, the rich - or their proxies - get elected. Which in most cases does not make for honest or good government - or, for that matter, an electorate that believes in the process of democracy. (Is it any wonder that we had less than 30% turnout at the polls in California, in the most expensive mid-term election in US history?)

However, I am choosing to focus on the positive. One measure that did pass yesterday was Palo Alto's Measure B, which will fund some much-needed bicycle infrastructure here - including retrofitting a truly dreadful narrow cement bicycle underpass at the California Avenue train station that has tormented me and countless Palo Alto cyclists for decades. 

This nasty underpass' days are numbered! Try pulling your kid in a trailer through that...

And as my friend Joylette Portlock says, no one ever got depressed into action. With the government this country just elected, we're going to need more action than ever - so I also made a donation today to the Sierra Club, and signed up to participate in a visioning exercise here in Palo Alto for 'big, bold' ideas for sustainability.

And as for Worse Than Poop! - I'll be meeting next week with Carleen Cullen of Cool the Earth, to see if we can hash out a plan to get some funding for a Spanish-language version, some DVD packaging, a study guide, and a resource-rich website. We'd like to include all of these - for free - with Cool the Earth's climate kits, distributed to schools across North America. I'm also talking with some other organizations looking at the possibility of using the film for climate awareness outreach to children and families. There's plenty of work to be done - it's time to just roll up our sleeves and get busy.

Uploading...

I've lost count of the number of nights this week I've found myself at the computer past midnight, 'finishing' this film. But it's almost over! The film is uploading, as I type this, to the good folks at the Boston Intl. Kids Film Festival. (Their deadline was today, but they've graciously given us a few more hours.)

There are a few small fixes we still need to do - probably tomorrow - and then Worse Than Poop! will officially be DONE. At least - the English version. There's still the Spanish version to do, and the DVDs to create, and the study guide, and a new website... and for all that, I now need to go look for more money. But the biggest, first, highest hurdle is behind me. 

As I was typing up the credits in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, I was astounded - and humbled - all over again at the many many people who have supported this project. I sincerely hope you all enjoy the finished product! Once the film is properly finished, and I've gotten some much-needed sleep, I'll begin the task of sending out everyone's rewards. Stay tuned...

Walking & Rolling...

This fall, I agreed to become a Traffic Safety Representative for Elliot's school, along with a Spanish biking superdad (and Facebook programmer) named Ender.

Our awesome Walk & Roll banner, painted by the after-school kids club.

One of our main responsibilities as TSR is to run the semi-annual Walk & Roll event, as part of National Walk to School Week. Walk & Roll events encourage families to get their kids to school by bike or on foot. Since our k-5 school pulls students from all over the city and beyond, we also include carpooling - and riding the bus - as acceptable ways to "walk and roll" to our school. 

Ender rides the bike blender on Walk & Roll, Day One. The blender is made by Rock the Bike, and was donated by GreenTown Los Altos.

Our awesome Walk & Roll team in front of the Wall of Fame: Palo Alto Safe Routes to Schools coordinator Kathy Durham, Vanessa Warheit, Palo Alto Mayor Nancy Shepherd, PAUSD Superintendent Max McGee, Ender Martinez, and Amy Butte

Fresh off my trip to New York for the Peoples Climate March, I was really fired up to make a difference - so I pushed for a full week of action. My rationale was that starting a new habit takes repetition - and if we could get people out of their single-family-cars for an entire week, they might be more willing to keep up their new habits on a regular basis.

Bike racks were full during Walk & Roll week - and car drop-offs were really, really low.

The week we picked turned out to be a four-day week - which was probably a good thing, as we were all completely fried by the end of the week! Every day we got to school early, served bagels and coffee to parents and students, shared carpooling resources with parents, and punched punch-cards for every student participating in the event. We had students put stickers on a giant "How Did We Get to School?" chart, and we asked families to post their "Roll Model" pledges on a "Wall of Fame." We kicked off the week with smoothies made by "bike blender" - powered by parents and the Palo Alto Mayor and Superintendent.  Every afternoon, we punched punchcards and cheered on the families that were biking, walking, and carpooling. But despite the grueling pace, Walk & Roll Week gave me a great opportunity: to look kids, and parents, in the eye, and give them a heart-felt THANK YOU for doing the right thing. I got to be relentlessly positive every morning for four days in a row - which, when you're dealing with climate change, is a real blessing.

PAUSD Superintendent McGee helps students get their cards punched

Ender takes on the mad morning coffee rush (and he doesn't even like coffee!)

Bagels donated by Izzy's Brooklyn Bagels - served fresh every morning

The results? 

Students participating: 279

Number of walk/roll/school-pool trips logged to/from school: 1,563

Number of students logging 8 or 9 walk & roll trips: 103

Average # of walk & roll trips per participating student: 6

Pounds of CO2 poop (estimated) NOT emitted by our school: 1,700

Yours truly - in a sea of walkers & rollers

Time will tell how many families continue their good commuting habits. But with the drought persisting, we've at least got plenty of dry, warm days ahead to help encourage biking. 

Elliot and his Dad Win a Guinness World Record!

While I was in New York, Elliot and his dad got to participate in National Drive Electric week. Plug In America organized an EV rally in Cupertino, and invited an official Guinness World Records adjudicator to come see if they would beat the current record for most EVs in one place (Stuttgart, Germany: 481 EVs).

They had to get up at 6am on a Saturday - but Elliot was motivated. They were giving away t-shirts, and he would get a chance to see Stella (the world's first family solar car).

Electric cars as far as the eye can see!

EV drivers patiently waiting their turn in the line-up

Elliot waits on top of FrankE

Guinness adjudicator counts our Fiat 500e (FrankE) as she rolls by

Elliot with Stella (aka "Honey, I shrunk the bus")

Stella the family solar car, up close and personal

Most fun of the day: driving an electric bathtub!

It looked for a while like they might not beat the record... but when the official tally came in, Cupertino had 507 EVs in attendance - 26 more than the 481 EVs recorded in Stuttgart. 

Flood Wall Street

The day after the Peoples Climate March, I jumped on a Citibike and rode down to Battery Park, hoping to catch a glimpse of my hero, Naomi Klein, at the Flood Wall Street protest.

The carbon bubble makes its way toward Wall Street

I got there too late to hear her - but the event was so fun, and so captivating, and so important, that I decided to stick around. (I drew the line, though, at risking arrest. This didn't seem like the right time or place for that.) I met Tim deChristopher, and got to experience the 'human mic' (a really cool legacy of the Occupy Wall Street movement - enabling large groups of people to hear one person without a microphone.) 

Organizers use the "human mic" technique, developed during the Occupy movement, to prepare protestors for non-violent action at Flood Wall Street - a day of action after the Peoples Climate March, to draw attention to the root economic causes of climate chaos.

Flooding Wall Street

Tim deChristopher and Democracy Now's Amy Goodman at Flood Wall Street

Flood Wall Street protestors peacefully removing the NYPD barriers to allow access

Flood Wall Street protestors commandeer a tourist bus - to the delight of everyone inside the barricades

I'd been wondering when, oh when, we were going to start getting some climate action protest music - and at Flood Wall Street I finally got to hear some! We sang two songs - both of them catchy and spiritual and easy to learn. Here's one of them:

Marching for the Climate... with 400,000 of My Closest Friends

Caffeinated and ready to march!

I don't think I will ever forget September 21, 2014. I hope I never forget the feeling of being there - the feeling of being surrounded by almost half a million people, with love in their hearts, standing up and demanding a new course for humanity. 

Recently, and ever more frequently, I've felt this deep disconnection from the people around me - like I’m surrounded by sleepwalkers, all of us blindly headed for a cliff. Like I'm the only one awake to the danger we're heading toward, and I’m powerless to stop it. It's a kind of waking nightmare. At best, I might be in the company of a few others who feel the same - but sharing a common nightmare is, in some ways, even less reassuring.

But in New York, it was different. 

A fellow-traveler in the Peoples Climate March

My dear friend Sharon's 14-year-old son, Sam, at the Peoples Climate March

NYC Subway car, covered in signs encouraging people to attend the march

Volunteering for the Peoples Climate March at Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

In New York, I was part of a tide of people pushing in the opposite direction - so strong a tide that it was pushing me in the RIGHT direction. (And pushing a lot of other people too.) It's like the whole city - labor unions, families, senior citizens, everyone, even the police - just rose up and said WE HAVE TO CHANGE. When I learned on Monday night that the Rockefeller brothers had decided to divest from fossil fuels, I could feel the world shifting beneath me. I felt like I was at the center of a giant upswell of righteousness, and that maybe, finally, things were going to get better.

Waiting (and waiting and waiting!) with the Interfaith contingent on 58th St. for the march to begin.

People as far as I could see, up and down 6th Avenue

It took some getting used to - to no longer being the crazy 'eco-active' mom on the block, and instead being just one of 400,000 people, all asking for the same thing. And it was strange to be engaged in an issue that is so personal to me, with so many strangers and so far from home. But if I felt solidarity from those strangers around me, I also felt that in a very small way, my being there was a source of strength and encouragement to others. Many times during the day, I would hear someone exclaim with pride and delight “Palo Alto - wow! you came all the way from California! That's so great!” And I was so grateful to be able to say, “Yes, my congregation sent me,” and to show them the photos I was carrying, and to let them know that others back home were marching too.

Ribbons from the Climate Ribbon project

People choosing climate ribbons to take home, Peoples Climate March, NYC

Projects like the Climate Ribbon campaign also showed me that my grief and fear and hope are not mine alone - that we are ALL fighting, and praying, for the better world we know we must build for our children.

Quite possibly my favorite marcher...

I guess that the best thing about being at the march was that it gave me a taste of hope. For the first time, I believe we might actually win this. It’s going to take a lot of love, and a lot of hard work, to achieve any kind of climate safe future. And when I get back to California, I know it's going to feel weird all over again, and I'll go back to being the crazy eco-mom on the block. It's going to be hard, too, to hang on to this hopeful feeling, and to share it with my eco-active friends - who are increasingly terrified by the news coming in every day about the crazy-short amount of time we have to turn things around.

But I'm going to remember - and remind them - that half a million people marched with me through the streets of New York. And together, we can move mountains. 

Tomorrow is the big day!

The last two days have been simply incredible.

I began my day on Thursday by painting a banner for the California contingent at the Peoples Climate March, at MayDay artspace in Brooklyn. While there, I ran into Col. Anne Wright and Medea Benjamin, I got interviewed by WNYC radio, and I had the privilege of buying the artspace manager a falafel lunch.

Entrance to MayDay Artspace in Bushwick, Brooklyn: ground zero for Peoples Climate art!

Hand-drawn sticky-note map of the planned 'zones' inside the Peoples Climate March, at MayDay Artspace

From there, I went to a Peoples Climate March volunteer training, hosted by the NYC Transit Workers Union.

Hundreds of volunteers get trained for the Peoples Climate March at NYC's Transit Workers Union hall in Brooklyn

Phone banking for the Peoples Climate March at PCM headquarters, with Linda Hutchins-Knowles

On Friday, I did some phone banking at the Peoples March headquarters near Grand Central Station, with my new friend Linda Hutchins-Knowles. And on the way to pick up my protest signs at Kinko's, we ran into former US Congressman Dennis Kucinich!  

The Hon. Dennis Kucinich - with Linda Hutchins-Knowles, yours truly, and an unidentified Kucinich fan on Madison Ave.

That evening, Linda took me to a party for Moms Clean Air Force, hosted at a phenomenal upper west side apartment, where I got to meet people like EDF's Eric Pooley and IPL president Rev. Sally Bingham, as well as some amazing climate-active parents from all over the country.

Party for Moms Clean Air Force, on the upper west side of Manhattan

John Friedrich from Climate Parents was there - and he invited me and Linda to join him for the tail end of a 350NYC event afterwards. My favorite speaker there was Sean Sweeney, Director of the Cornell Global Labor Institute, who explained how labor unions have been forced to deal with the oil and gas industry - and then declared that those days are over, calling for President Obama to do nothing less than issue an executive order seizing the assets of Big Oil to prevent them from destroying our planet. (This modest proposal received cheers and a standing ovation.)

On the way home, while passing out flyers to the march on the subway, I met Johanna Wald, of the NRDC, who assured me she'd be at the march in the morning. A perfect way to end the day!

At the Moms Clean Air Force party with Linda Hutchins-Knowles and Lisa Hoyos of Climate Parents

Kathy Dervin and friends from 350 Bay Area, on the roof of MayDay Artspace

New York, Here I Come

I'm on board a tiny airplane headed for LA, where I'll be boarding a much bigger (I hope) airplane for New York. I'm going to volunteer for - and represent my UU congregation at - the biggest climate action in history.
It was a tough decision, whether or not to bring Elliot with me - but ultimately I decided that it wasn't worth the money, and the carbon, to bring him along. I can also be more effective on my own as a volunteer - and this way Elliot will get to participate in the Bay Area's bid this weekend to break the Guinness World Record for most EVs in one place. He's particularly excited because he'll get to see Stella there - the world's first family solar car.

For more on my reasons for flying to a climate march, visit my personal blog: http://vmarksthespot.blogspot.com/

Scratch Narration, and the Trials of Motherhood

Last week, Elliot and I recorded a scratch voice-over track for the animators. I was reminded once again of the simple truth that there are advantages and disadvantages to having the star of your movie be your 9-year-old son. 

Elliot during a recent recording session at our kitchen table.

Advantages:

• it's not hard to get on his schedule
• I have lots of bargaining power
• he has a low day rate

Disadvantages:

• limited attention span
• propensity for hilarity at inopportune moments
• having to explain “I'm telling you to say it this way because I'm the director, not because I'm your mom.”

I have to say, though - when Elliot finally decides to cooperate, he's good. Really good.

We Hired a Hero!

We want to welcome the good folks at Hero4Hire Creative, who have just joined our merry band of pranksters as official animators of Worse Than Poop! There are actually four of them - Evan, Allison, Adrian and Jim. (I found them with the help of one of our backers, the ever-awesome Pete Friedrich.) You can read all about them - and see samples of their awesome work - here.

Elliot is thrilled. Evan gave him a virtual tour of Hero4Hire's Boston studio via Skype, and Elliot can't wait to visit in person this fall. I can't wait to see the style boards that are supposed to start showing up next week. Let the pooping cars mayhem begin!