YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip

Gr 8 Up—Three friends take off in a hybrid car to tour America in order to discover how we are saving or destroying our planet. In short segments filled with interviews, music, and often stunning scenery, the trio finds innovative green technologies and lifestyles that are being implemented across the nation. They travel to 50 states over the course of a year, and their experiences include visiting a living roof in Chicago, a mud home in Nebraska, homes and other structures built with all types of recycled materials in New Mexico, wind farms in Texas, a project in New Jersey where packaging materials are made from garbage, and more. They interview many well-known and ordinary citizens who are working to save the planet and seeking to live green. Pertinent environmental problems and issues are also studied, including water usage, oil drilling, wetlands, rising sea levels, fossil fuel dependence, and sustainability in all aspects of our daily lives. One of the most moving segments occurs during the team's visit in West Virginia with Larry Gibson, a well-known leader in the fight against mountaintop removal mining. Everywhere there are questions and viewers are asked, "How are we going to do it?" "How are we going to save the planet?" Filled with hope and humor, this production demonstrates that we can create solutions through community and individual efforts. Classes across the curriculum can utilize this program.—Patricia Ann Owens, formerly Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Mt. Carmel, IL