Hi friends,

Here's the latest news for our cross-country eco-video project, Our Renewable Nation:

It's official - we were recently contacted by the Sierra Club asking if they can use a video we made for their upcoming national campaign to promote home energy conservation. The website www.sierraclubgreenhome.com will post our video 'Our Energy-Efficient Home' that we entered into the Home Depot Video Contest last fall. They have also asked to give our video to Sierra Club's affiliates to distribute on the internet as well. Since several videos from our upcoming eco-video series will be a great fit for their website, we'll be sharing those with the Sierra Club as well. This is a great collaboration because we are interviewing several people from the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign in our video series, as we focus on several of the Top 10 Green Cities in the U.S. and interview representatives from each city to tell us what their city has done to earn their place in the top 10. Publicity from the Sierra Club will be so helpful for us in promoting our cross-country eco-video series!

We have also signed up to partner with www.GoGreenTube.com, which is a video-sharing website similar in format to YouTube but is focused on green living videos. It's a great site for all aspects of green living. We'll be embedding our video series on our website through GoGreenTube, which also helps us to stream videos to schools which block video sites like YouTube. We will also be posting our video series to the other video sites like YouTube, but GoGreenTube has agreed to feature our new videos on their homepage as we finish and upload them through the fall. It should be a great collaboration!

We also have an exciting new fundraising project to tell you about, but it deserves it's own special message, and I also need to get the website updated to include it. Look for more details later this week!

Be well,
Colin & family
www.OurRenewableNation.org

Hi friends-

I thought you'd be interested in reading an interview we did with GreenMuze, an online green magazine. We were contacted by GreenMuze after they saw the post on Treehugger.com that featured our video project. I've been interviewed a number of times about the veggie Beetle and sometimes the resulting articles can be... a little off. I was glad to see how well this one came out: http://www.greenmuze.com/community/people/784-the-eco-family-activists.html
Please feel free to add a comment at the end of the article!

We are adding several new desinations to our project. We'll be stopping by TerraCycle while traveling through Princeton, NJ - TerraCycle makes product packaging from recycled materials. Go to their website, www.terracycle.net and check out all the different products they package; you will see brands you know and use! I'm also working on getting an interview with Enviro Energies, which produces the Mag-Wind vertical-axis wind turbines for homes.

We just got accepted as a speaker for the Maine Environmental Educators Association 2009 Annual Conference at the end of March, and we are exhibiting at the Massachusetts Environmental Educators Society Annual Conference in a few weeks. These will be great opportunities to spread the word about our cross-country video project and network with people in the teaching community.

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org

We got two great pieces of news this last week about our project!

Carrick is going to be nominated for a Presidential Environmental Youth Award for 2009. All nominees are sent certificates signed by the President of the United States, and the 10 regional award winners receive a presidential plaque at an EPA-sponsored award ceremony in Washington, D.C. The deadline for nominations is in October, so we'll see what happens!

Carrick and I have been invited to participate in the Environmental Film Festival at Yale University in April. The festival will include screenings of narratives and documentary films, features and shorts, and student projects, coupled with conversations with filmmakers,
panel discussions, and workshops for students interested in producing environmental films. Admission to screenings and special events will be free and open to the public. The festival will run from Thursday, April 16th, 2009 - Sunday, April 19th, 2009. I'll update the specific date and time we'll be in the schedule once I find out.

Today I visited one of the local high schools as part of the Focus the Nation program, which is a national teach-in program involving millions of students, faculty, staff and visitors at a thousand or more educational institutions around the country in a discussion of Global Warming solutions. Last year I participated in Worcester, showing our veg-oil powered Beetle and talking to one of the environmental science classes about climate change and sustainability. In the class I visited today, I helped speak about renewable energy and sustainability, and showed a few of our videos. It was a fun experience. I did notice, however, that the Environmental Science textbooks they had were 20 years old...

I've been getting a number of suggestions lately to sell our finished eco-video series to make some profit. The idea of providing our eco-video series free to schools nationally is at the heart of what we're doing. The important thing is for this kind of information to get to as many people as possible. When Carrick and I conceived of this video project, we never intended to produce something that we could profit from. Our profit will be the experience of the journey, traveling the U.S. and meeting many wonderful, generous people!

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org

Hello friends on this exciting week!

Carrick and I were honored to speak before the Board of Selectmen in our town of Sutton, Massachusetts last night, where we were publicly recognized for our upcoming cross-country eco-video project We are also grateful for our introduction to the Board by House Representative Jennifer Callahan. Carrick and I spoke about our upcoming journey and showed our most recent video, "Wind Over Worcester". It was wonderful to receive such great support from our town!

All this snow has caused us to have to cancel several of our recently scheduled presentations, which is frustrating! We only have several months left before we begin our cross-country journey, and we're trying to give as many presentations as we can. I'm thinking of California a lot lately!

We are excited to announce a new sponsor and supporter of our cross-country video project: VegDining.com. VegDining is a great website that lists vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants across the U.S., and it will be invaluable to us as we cross the U.S. visiting cities and towns, looking for healthy places to eat along the way. Many of the restaurants listed on VegDining.com have signed on to offer discounts to VegDining members - the restaurants we've looked up offered 10% off to VegDining members - that will help save us a bundle on our journey. Our friends at VegDining have generously offered, that for the next 100 people who donate $50.00 to our cross-country eco-video project, they will receive a FREE membership to VegDining.com. Check out their website and see what healthy restaurants are near you, and keep it in mind for when you're traveling! You can make a donation to support our cross-country eco-video project at our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, or you can send us a check in the snail mail; just send me an email at OurRenewableNation@gmail.com and I'll send you our address.

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org

Happy New Year everyone!

I've been quiet in posting over the last several weeks but we have two great announcements:

First, we finished our pilot video for our cross-country eco-video project, titled "Wind Over Worcester". The video serves as an example of what our video series will look like - we're planning a series of 35 five-minute episodes that cover many aspects of renewable energy and sustainable living. 'Wind Over Worcester' is about the new wind turbine at Holy Name High School in Worcester, Massachusetts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg_wEyIl8sA


Our other big announcement is our new website design. Our friend Tracy Axelson, a professional web designer, has been helping us to redesign our website for a more professional look. I made the original site the best I could with what limited website knowledge I have, but our new site design is a whole different appearance, much improved. Visit us at www.OurRenewableNation.org to see our new look!

As I am shoveling us out from one snowstorm to the next, it's hard to imagine that in 4 months we'll be driving through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. It seems so far away right now! With our departure time on May 1 counting down, we're excited to get started and are working double-time to get all the preparations and research done in time.

Be well,
Colin

Carrick and I went to the climate change rally this last Saturday in Boston, and we were invited to speak to the crowd about our cross-country eco-video project as an example of one family's action for change. Representatives from many nations are meeting in Poznan, Poland to lay the foundation for the next climate change treaty after the Kyoto Protocol. Greenpeace organized rallies in cities across the U.S. to show support for the new treaty - in Boston we all met at Faneuil Hall in front of the Sam Adams statue, where there were a number of speakers, then we walked over to Boston Common for a group picture. Here's a picture of Carrick and me waiting to speak: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darenfiske/3089149702/

I spoke first for a minute about our cross-country video project and our plans to distribute it to science teachers nationally to use as a resource to teach about renewable energy and sustainable living. Carrick spoke briefly with this message:

"I have a message for the leaders meeting in Poland: the choices you make now will affect my future. Don't pass the issue of climate change onto us kids. Be bold. The young people of the world are counting on you."

Carrick and I visited several places last week to promote our cross-country eco-video project: We spoke in the auditorium at Bancroft School in Worcester to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, then again for the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. They were a great audience and we had a great time showing some of our videos and answering questions from the kids. I dropped by Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston with our veg-oil powered Beetle to show to the Energy and Conservation class. Carrick and I also gave a brief presentation of our project for the Mass. Climate Action Network steering committee, working to gain support from MCAN for our project and hopefully some more speaking opportunities with chapters in Massachusetts.

Be well,
Colin

I have a few additions and subtractions to make this week on our destination list.


I'm excited to announce our most recent addition, Chelsea Sexton, who starred in the 2006 documentary, 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' Chelsea is a major industry advocate for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles and will speak with us about the future of auto industry and the role that plug-in cars will play. Until recently she has served as the Executive Director of Plug In America, a coalition of individuals and organizations that advocates for the preservation and manufacture of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and electric vehicles.

We've also removed several destinations from the list, including our stops in Canada. We had planned on spending a week in Toronto on our return leg before going home, but $400 in passport fees is much more than I anticipated. The two stops we had set up were Zenn Motors, which currently makes low-speed electric vehicles, and Wildflower Farms, which makes Eco-Lawn grass seed. This will allow us to spend more time in a few cities in the U.S., including Austin, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I also decided to take General Motors off the list - we were going to visit Detroit and make a video profile of the Chevy Volt. I tried many avenues of communication without success - I guess they're busy trying to stay out of bankruptcy. It works out much better to interview Chelsea Sexton, who can provide a great industry perspective on electric vehicles, plus if you've seen 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' then you can appreciate the irony of my replacing the GM interview with Chelsea.

Carrick and I are speaking on Monday at Bancroft School, a private school in Worcester, where we'll be speaking in the auditorium to grades 3-8. It will be our biggest crowd yet! I'm still working on being comfortable speaking to a room of a few hundred kids, but fortunately Carrick's got my back.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Be well,
Colin

This has been a week of good news and good networking!

I got a preview of our updated web design and it's great - such an improvement! It's a great design which makes all the important content easy to get to. I'll be making the big announcement when that goes online soon.

I met this week with Rep. Jennifer Callahan, representative to the Massachusetts State House for our town, Sutton. Rep. Callahan has been a strong supporter of the recent environmental legislation at the State House, including the Green Communities Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act. She's offered to help us network with schools and we talked about visiting the State House on Earth Day before we begin our cross-country journey. Carrick and I were also invited to give a presentation about our video project to the Sutton Board of Selectmen on January 20 at 7:00pm. It's great to have the support of our local government and their enthusiasm for our project.

I attended the Mass Climate Action Network (MCAN) annual conference at MIT on Sunday which affirmed for me the need to draw from many different groups for support of renewable energy and sustainability. As an environmentalist, I think we focus too narrowly on a single motivator like climate change and I think it's important to remember that issue is only one reason of many why people "come to the table" to work for a sustainable future. We won't succeed by trying to convince everyone about climate change - we don't have time and the work is too important. Van Jones of Green for All is a strong advocate of that broad-based appeal. Carrick and I are finding support from people of many different viewpoints - if we can do it then surely it can work on a much larger scale.

Be well,
Colin McCullough
www.OurRenewableNation.org

We've had a full week to report on!

Carrick and I did two presentations in the last week; one at Grafton High School and also to the Boston Vegetarian Society. At Grafton High we spoke in the auditorium and showed the kids some of our videos and talked about our cross-country video project. We also talked about how much of a hot topic sustainability/ renewable energy is on college campuses, and how attractive it would look on those college applications to have done that kind of work at Grafton High. At Boston Vegetarian Society we talked to an enthusiastic crowd, met some great people, and enjoyed a yummy vegan buffet at Grasshopper Chinese Restaurant in Allston.

Speaking of eating vegan, one of the challenges of our cross-country journey will be finding vegan and veg-friendly places to eat on the road. Fortunately, there are great online resources for veg travelers at http://www.vegdining.com/ and http://www.happycow.net/. They list vegan, vegetarian, and veg-friendly restaurants state-by-state, with user reviews. There isn't going to be room to pack much food in the Beetle, so we'll be eating out much of the time. There are great veg restaurants all over the U.S. that we've heard about, and now we'll have our chance to visit them!

We have a new video up about what we've done to make our house more energy efficient. Carrick talks about insulation, sealing air leaks, programmable thermostats, etc. The link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLAdv7h3AzE

This Sunday (November 16) I'll be attending the Massachusetts Climate Action Network conference at MIT in Cambridge. I'm looking forward to meeting folks there and continuing to make connections in the environmental community!

Be well,
Colin

It's worth taking a look ahead to our future plans once we're finished our cross-country journey and have finished our video. Here are some thoughts about the possibilities:

1. Once the video is finished, then the marketing and distribution really begins! Right now we can show some examples and talk about our plans, but the game changes when we can show the finished product.

2. We'll continue to give presentations in schools and to groups, focusing on our cross-country video project. Speaking fees and further donations will go towards DVD duplication and distribution.

3. We'll be developing an in-depth resource for actions kids can take to make their communities more sustainable. Most resources on the web focus on adults, missing a critical segment of the population - the most important for our future! We'll develop the site and actively collaborate with the other adult-focused resources online.

4. Writing a Book - Developing a resource guide on the web for kids focused on renewables and sustainability will give us the opportunity to go more in-depth, writing a book for kids. We can get more into the success stories of kids making sustainable changes in their communities.

5. 'Do-Gooder' is the project I was working out when I had the idea for Our Renewable Nation, and I'd like to get back to it and make it happen. The idea is for a monthly potluck community group that makes no-interest loans to people in the community to help people afford energy efficiency improvements in their homes and renewable energy for their homes. It's all about investing in communities to be more sustainable.

So that's a glimpse of the future possibilities - who knows what will happen! There will be many doors that open up once the video is completed, I'm certain. We have several big events coming up in the next week, so I'll report on those next week!

Be well,
Colin

This past week, we began giving presentations to spread the word about our cross-country eco-video project, making connections in the community, and gaining support for our work. My son Carrick and I are showing selections of our eco-videos, talking about our upcoming cross-country video project, and talking about everyday ways to live more sustainably.

A week ago we spoke at Sudbury Earth Decade, a chapter of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, and again on Saturday at Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, a Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary. At both talks we met some great people and made important connections.
We have five more speaking events coming up before the end of 2008, but I'm scheduling a heavy list for after the holidays are over. It's hard enough to get people to come to speaking events; I don't want to compete with the holidays and shopping! We're networking and setting up talks in a whole variety of places, including churches, schools, libraries, senior centers and civic groups. My goal is 2-3 per week until weleave in May for our journey.

This week I also began a weekly email update for people who want regular updates on our cross-country project. We'll talk about new destinations added, new sponsorships andpartnerships, appearances in the media, etc. Once we begin our journey in May we'll start sending out daily email updates as we travel across the U.S. and back.

I'm hoping to have a new and improved design for our website, www.OurRenewableNation.org, within a month. What's there right now is the best I could do on my own, but we could dowith a more professional appearance. Our friend Tracy Axelson, a professional web designer, has generously agreed to help us look sharper on the web. Look for the updated website soon!

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org

San Francisco may be the California city to grab all the green headlines, but the city of Chico, about 3 hours northeast, is home to some great green businesses. We've decided to stick around Chico for a few days to get some interviews with our latest additions - Chico Bag and Klean Kanteen.

Chico Bag makes reusable shopping bags that smoosh down to a small pouch, making them easy to carry and store. They're made of washable, durable polyester, and can hold up to 25 lbs. of groceries. Over 1 TRILLION single-use plastic bags are used and thrown away every year, and the average American uses 300-700 bags each year. Chico Bags are a handy way of breaking the plastic bag habit!

Klean Kanteen is a Chico company that makes stainless steel water bottles which are reusable, lightweight, and a healthy alternative to plastic water bottles. Our family has a handful of Klean Kanteens and we use them all the time! 38 billion plastic water bottles go into U.S. landfills each year, with only 23% being recycled. We'll visit Klean Kanteen to learn more about the smarter alternative to buying bottled water!

We've also added another stop in Seattle at Xeko, the collectible cardgame revolving around endangered species. "Xeko is dedicated to a bright green future and preserving some of our planet's greatest riches" Xeko is a game of trading and collecting cards somewhat like Pokemon, but where kids learn about habitats and animals while they play. We'll visit Xeko headquarters to see the people behind the game!

Be well,
Colin

The ultimate purpose of our cross-country eco-video project is to make a series of video profiles about renewable energy sites and interview people who have made impacts in sustainability, and put together these profiles on DVD to distribute to schools nationally. The idea is for school teachers to be able to pick and choose which 5-minute profiles they want to use on a particular day. One day they might be teaching about solar and other renewables, and they'll be able to choose just those videos that best cover that topic. Other topics might be electric vehicles, sustainable design, zero-waste/recycling, etc. Our mission is to inspire and empower kids to create a renewable and sustainable future, and it's important and timely that kids see what that future can look like.

Why create a DVD of 5-minute profiles instead of compiling all the footage into a documentary? I think it's more useful to teachers in this format rather than a 2-hour linear, beginning-to-end documentary. Watching a 2-hour video is not realistic in many school schedules. Another reason is that each profile deserves 5 minutes of it's own time, and this way I won't have to cut any of our destinations out of our final video just because it doesn't fit into the flow.

We're hoping to distribute our video through the National Science Teachers Association, which would give our video national distribution. I'm working on that connection now.

Another avenue for distribution is to post all of our videos on our YouTube page, www.YouTube.com/OurRenewableNation. We'll upload each video profile as it is completed.

That's all for now - Be well,
Colin

This post marks 8 months left until our cross-country journey begins, and we celebrate with some great news of support!

Verenium, a company that is developing cellulosic ethanol production, is the most recent addition to our list of sponsors! The Cambridge-based company has a research and pilot facility in Louisiana, which we'll be visiting next June. Verenium uses switchgrass, sugarcane, and "energycane" as sources to produce ethanol, with much higher yields per-acre using crops that are far less energy-intensive to grow than corn. We welcome Verenium as a sponsor and thank them for their support! You can learn more about their work at www.Verenium.com

Our latest endorsement comes from the Alliance for Climate Protection, which runs the action campaign at www.WeCanSolveIt.org:
"The McCullough family is proof of the power of living by your values. They raised their energetic sons to be champions for the climate, and now the whole family is successfully spreading the word that youth benefit when fossil fuels are replaced by renewable energy."
The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis.

Be well,
Colin

In order for our cross-country video project to be successful, we need to give kids a good set of tools they can use to make change happen in their communities.

Our mission is to inspire and empower kids to create a renewable and sustainable future. Kids across the U.S. will see our videos - then what? Hopefully we'll help kids to feel like they have the power to create meaningful change in their lives and communities, and it's our job to empower kids with ways they can get started. It's easy for kids and adults to feel intimidated by the choices out there, so we'll break it down into 3 categories: individual, community, and political.

1. Individual
Do small choices/changes really make any difference? Nobody wants to feel like they are sacrificing, especially when nobody else is making an effort. We'll give a Top 10 list of things people can do to have a real impact - no symbolic changes that don't make any real difference.

2. Community
Creating meaningful change in the community is where kids can really shine. Bringing sustainability to communities is an investment in time and energy - people want to make sure the results of their efforts are worthwhile. We'll provide a set of action "toolkits" for kids to use as resources to start project to make their communities more sustainable. These will not be a simple list of suggestions, but a detailed, how-to with videos and success stories of others whose projects made their communities more sustainable.

3. Political
The solutions to create a renewable and sustainable future have to be non-partisan. Kids can demand that their politicians tart being part of the solution rather than being part of the problem. Why would politicians care about the opinions of kids that can't vote? Because their parents can, and because politicians want to avoid looking bad at all costs.

The Internet has many great resources for helping people make more sustainable choices, but these are geared mostly for adults. We can add tremendous value to resources online by addressing what actions kids can make individually, in their community, and politically. Green living and sustainability may be new to many adults, but these will be concepts that kids will be living with for their whole lives. Following our videos across the U.S. may be the first part of that journey, but the road stretches much farther still.

Be well,
Colin

Oh, the interesting twists our journey is taking us!

If you told me a year ago that Carrick and I would be speaking in school auditoriums to hundreds of kids at a time, I'd know you were crazy.

We got an invitation to come speak in the auditorium of a school; they asked us to bring some of our videos to show, and Carrick and I could talk about our work and our cross-country project, maybe inspire some of the kids by showing them an example of what a kid can do. The press came for the feel-good story - a 9-year-old kid who speaks to auditoriums full of kids about kid power - the ultimate renewable energy. Next thing you know we're in demand!

Carrick and his dad Colin - motivational speakers.

For his part, Carrick is unfazed in front of a crowd of 20 or 200. I don't think he knows to be self-conscious about speaking to a group of kids - score another for homeschooling! I, on the other hand, would have been completely terrified to do that when I was 9 years old. This project has given me opportunities to challenge myself, to get outside of my comfort zone. I believe strongly in the importance of our work, and that feeling of purpose is enough to get me out there.

Be well,
Colin

If I had to bet on any form of renewable energy, it would be kid power.

We've all heard people say about kids "Gee, I wish I could bottle some of that energy for myself." If kids learned to harness their energy to create meaningful change, imagine what kinds of real, significant changes they could make in their own communities!

It's no secret that kids are one of the 3 pillars of advertising - people are interested in hearing stories of kids who are doing extraordinary things. We love to root for the little guy, the underdog. Seeing kids successes inspires us, perhaps in part because we adults feel that "hey, if a kid can do it..." That's just the thing though - kids enjoy some unique benefits:

1. They get less criticism - Really, who wants to publicly be seen criticizing a child who is trying to make a difference? The saying "using kid gloves" comes to mind.

2. They're better at getting what they ask for - Similarly, who wants to be seen publicly refusing to help a child who is trying to make a difference? Girl Scout cookies would never so successful if they weren't sold door-to-door by little girls.

3. Kids have the art of surprise - Kids are generally seen as being somewhat lazy, so adults never expect kids to do amazing things. Word spreads quickly when they do - parents tell their kids in an attempt to use some competitiveness to motivate them.

For the most part, kids are unaware that they have this ability to get people's attention and create meaningful change. It's not a message that is generally heard in school. The stories about kids we see in the media are usually examples of extremes: exceptional athletes, musicians, artists, actors and actresses. These often reinforce the idea that unless you have extraordinary talent, you're incapable of accomplishing extraordinary things.

That's it for now, check out Kid Power, the Ultimate Renewable Energy Part II next week.

Be well,
Colin

Here's a thought: fossil fuels are polluting...duh.

I heard an interesting take on that on the radio lately. Our major sources of electricity: coal, nuclear, oil, and gas, require government regulatory agencies to do regular site visits to make sure the power plants aren't polluting more than they are allowed to. Gotta keep an eye on those sneaky devils and make sure they're not trying to get away with anything, at least while someones watching, right? Well, that's a whole groups of agencies that no longer need to exist with renewable energy. Factor that into the cost-benefit analysis for renewables!

OK, as part of our effort to spread the word about our video project, and win some money to help fund it, we've entered a few video contests. If you could take a minute to watch and vote, it would support our project!

Climate Matters video contest:
Here are our two entries - I've embedded them here, but if that doesn't work I've provided the URLs. The video with the most views wins $3,000, so please watch and forward!

1. An Inconvenient Youth - http://vimeo.com/1611792
As the youth of today become more aware of climate change and how it affects their future, their voices will be impossible to ignore. This video features 8-year-old Carrick, who sends a message to politicians from the future generation.


An Inconvenient Youth from Colin McCullough on Vimeo.

2. 456% Renewable! - http://vimeo.com/1623929
In the U.S., we have an abundance of natural resources that we can use to reach 100% renewable energy, although many still insist we will continue to need coal, nuclear, oil, and gas. Why? Our renewable energy resources could produce 4 1/2 times as much electricity as this country uses, if we wanted to make it happen. Our politicians need to embrace the future of renewable energy!

456% Renewable! from Colin McCullough on Vimeo.

EarthKeepers Video Contest
Our entry, 'Our Renewable Nation', is our 3-minute video about the travel project. If you go to www.youtube.com/earthkeepers, you can vote for our video from the top 3. you have to be logged into YouTube, and next to our video is a thumbs-up to click to vote for our video. The contest winner gets $5,000!

Of course, any money we might win from either contest would all go towards funding our travel project!

Be well,
Colin

Last week, I talked about the three issues our video project revolves around: renewable energy, sustainability, and individuals making a difference. I want to dive a little further into the renewable energy focus here.

One of the questions we'll be asking in our video project is: what is the potential for each renewable energy technology we visit around the country? If we as a nation really drove to make it happen, Apollo-style, what percentage of the country's electricity could each renewable energy technology provide? Many Americans don't believe it's possible to have 100% renewable energy. After all, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine, right?

I'm fascinated by renewable energy technologies, and if I had to be a dork about something it would be that. I read enough to know that, if we wanted to, we could supply 100% of our nation's power from commercial land-based and offshore wind. Of course, that comes with a lot of "if's", like a whole lot of wind turbines in a whole lot of places, upgraded transmission lines, unprecedented capital investment, political support, etc., but fundamentally it is possible if we wanted it to happen. And that's just commercial wind. Solar thermal technologies like those at Nevada Solar One (it's on the list of destinations) could produce 100% of our electricity, IF we wanted it to. So I took each renewable energy technology that we are visiting on our travel project and contacted the industry advocate organizations, like AWEA - American Wind Energy Association, etc., and asked them what the potential of their technologies were. Here's what I found:
Solar photovoltaic - 100%
Solar thermal - 100%
Tidal power - 3.5%
Wave power - 6.5%
Land-based and offshore commercial wind - 100%
Residential, backyard turbines - 20%
Geothermal electricity - 100%
Biogas from waste sources - 10%
Hydroelectric - 16%

Added up, we're able to produce 456%, or four and a half times the amount of electricity we need in the U.S. with renewable sources. And yet, the politicians and pundits continue to insist that we will continue to rely on coal, nuclear, oil, and gas to provide electricity no matter how much we invest in renewable energy. WHY? We need to be asking them why! Our country has an amazing abundance of natural resources for renewable energy. We'll show each technology in action and explain how they work. We want people to see what's real and available, then when they hear people insisting it can't be done, to question those assertions! Who and why do people insist it can't be done?

We put this message into video for the Climate Matters video contest on Vimeo.com:http://vimeo.com/1623929?pg=embed&sec=1623929

456% Renewable! from Colin McCullough on Vimeo.
The more views our video gets, the better chance it has to win! Please visit http://www.vimeo.com/climatematters to see our two videos in the contest, '456% Renewable!' and 'An Inconvenient Youth'.

Be well,
Colin

First, great news! I got the email congrats today for coming in 2nd place in the US PIRG video contest on sustainable transportation in the future! Our prize is $250, which we'll put right into the travel project account. We are currently finalists in the Earthkeepers/Timberland video contest, and we'll be entering the Climate Matters video contest very soon as well.

Carrick and I were interviewed on the EVCast podcast on Monday, talking about our green videos and our travel project. The EVCast is a daily podcast focusing on electric vehicles, which we've talked about in some of our videos. Our travel project will include video profiles of several electric vehicle companies, including Aptera, Tesla Motors, GM (Chevy Volt), Zenn Motors, and Poulsen Hybrid. You can hear our interview at www.EVCast.com, and we're in Episode #58.



From the very beginning of creating our cross-country eco-video adventure, our mission has been to inspire and empower kids to create a renewable and sustainable future. I've been focusing more on our vision lately, which is more of the 'how', and speaks more specifically about what we're trying to accomplish. I've broken our vision for the project down to 3 parts:

1. Focus on renewable energy: We'll be visiting examples of different types of renewable energy in the U.S., including wind, solar, hydroelectric, wave power, tidal power, geothermal, and biogas. By showing examples of existing and proven renewable technologies, we want to show people how abundant our natural resources are in this country, and how very possible it is to achieve 100% renewable energy.

2. Focus on sustainable design/living: We'll be showing examples of many aspects of sustainability including: zero waste, pollution-free transportation, sustainable design, green cities in the U.S., and sustainable companies and products. For most Americans, sustainable living means sacrifice and compromise - put on that extra sweater and suffer! We'll show that with a whole-systems approach including smart design, manufacturing, transportation, and zero waste, our country can make a tremendous leap forward in sustainability, with an exciting future of possibilities!

3. Individuals making a difference: Our time is not only unique in history because of our access to information, but also our ability as individuals to make our voices heard and create real change. We'll be interviewing inspiring people who used their passion on issue to make a positive difference. Our travel project itself is a testament to that: after almost 2 years of making green videos with our old camcorder, our videos have been seen by over 200,000 people, and our cross-country eco-video project will bring our message of sustainability to a much wider audience.

So now we're focusing on speaking with companies that support our mission and will sponsor our project. I'm also busy lining up speaking events for the fall and winter, where Carrick and I will show some of our videos, talk about our work, and tell people about our upcoming travel project. Plenty of work yet to be done!

Be well,
Colin