UWOL 26-Next Time Try The Train, Steve Siegel

[Steve Siegel]

First, thanks again to all of you who passed on the username and password to me at the 11th hour so this entry could even appear. UWOL has some things to teach the world beside video.

This Challenge happened to coincide with a number of trips I had planned, and when Lorinda announced that "Impact" was the theme, calculating my carbon footprint from all that travelling seemed a natural. The Internet offers a number of calculators to estimate how much carbon dioxide various modes of travel and distances generate, so the job was easy. I'm not sure whether I was surprised that the amount was measured in tons, but it does shed some light into why climate change seems to be happening so fast.

The saddest part of this trip was to see the melting of the glaciers. It reminds me of a story I heard once from a Park Ranger in Alaska. She had been talking to an Inuit elder about the decline and possible disappearance of Steller's Eider, a bird whose feathers are a part of a coming of age ritual in the old man's culture. Instead of expressing concern, he replied "I guess I better help my grandson get his before they are all gone!" I hate to sound the same, but if you haven't seen a glacier, and want to, don't wait too many years, or they will be gone too. Hope you enjoy the film.

UWOL 26 Next Time Try The Train

[Catherine Russell]

Hi Steve:

You have become a master at story-telling, combining stunning filmmaking with pertinent and interesting facts and information. I think this might be your best, but I admit I haven't seen UWOL work in awhile.

When it comes to the impact of a warming planet, our entries are "birds of a feather" where I share how this is affecting Colorado climate. As you know, here in the US we are paying for a warming planet earth with increasingly violent, deadly and costly weather phenomena and a severe distribution problem of moisture where there is way too little out west and way too much in the nation's mid and eastern sections.

I liked how you brought up the figures, splitting and appearing around beautiful birds and scenery. It all added up to a great performance.

If it eases your conscience a little bit, the figures you were providing were for the modes of travel that included lots of people, so your personal impact could be calculated as a fraction of those totals. But that is neither here nor there, since these modes of transportation were happening all the same and your overall point is daunting to say the least.

Cheers and well done! I'm envious of the places you get to take yourself and film!

Cat

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Steve,

You really put some hard facts to what we do to the planet. Our glaciersrare melting too, and we see countless signs that the climate is changing fast over here as well.
(Maybe add up all the traveling within the US or globally, and put that number in the end of the film would give a dramatic effect.)

Your storytelling is real good. Nice to see you could combine uwol with traveling.

Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed!

[Steve Siegel]

Hey Cat,

Those figures ARE for one person! The calculators prorate the numbers. Actually, since one liter
of gasoline creates 2 kg of CO2, and a cruise boat loads up with 50,000 gallons of fuel, the whole boat produced 400 metric tons.

[Catherine Russell]

Ouch! I missed that. That is staggering!

[Mikael Ewald]

Hi Steve!
You really give us something to think about, here.. And you do it very good, it all fit with the shots, edit and it seems that you are very skilled to tell stories. Your voice and the way you speak really get the film to lift a level or two.

Very, very, well done. I Liked it a lot.

/Mikael

[Paul Wood]

Thanks, Steve!

A very absorbing film - the pacing was excellent, and I found I was drawn into the story, and enjoying the scenery of your journey.

The subject was well covered - and the message clear - well done!

[Kevin Railsback]

Nice film and great story Steve!

As in most things, we are clueless as to the impact we have on this planet. Yet we keep using resources, spitting out babies and have just a total disregard for how our way of life effects everything else.

I'm always on the lookout for ways to reduce my carbon footprint.
Right now I have all the windows open getting free air conditioning but I can here the air conditioners running u and down the block.

I buy produce at local farmer markets instead of buying at the grocery store. Ride my bike or walk when I can. I know those are just small things but small things multiplied by all the people on the planet add up to big things!

[Andrew Hood]

Some nice food for thought - it's scary how easy it is to have a negative impact.

I'm actually wondering a level deeper now - what about walking VS driving (not those distances, only short trips). Conventional wisdom says walking doesn't produce as much CO2 (true for the human VS car directly) - but that ignores farming practices and transportation - which make a lot of CO2. The energy from the food you eat took many times that in fossil fuels to farm and distribute. But I think the train will win again, not sure about the car till someone decides to calculate it out.

[Geir Inge]

Hi Steve.

You provide a great film and a great story.
It is so disheartening to see your great photos of birds and landscapes, while telling the story of how we humans pollute the planet.
However, the story must be told, again and again. Good thing we have you among us, to do this.
You have good angulation of the topic, and you communicate your message in an excellent way.
Sound and editing has a nice flow, and I had to watch it several times before I could give my comments. You have a lot of momentum and a lot of information and I've got an old mans head, I'm a slow thinker, so to speak, haha.
You have utilized your allotted four minutes well. Informative, enlightening and entertaining to watch - all in the spirit of Uwol.
You even had a little piece of Norway, but I am annoyed by thinking of its pollution.
Nevertheless, industrialization, wealth and prosperity in contrast to saving the environment.
It's a tough game. Your contributions are welcome in this game.

Thanks for sharing and I hope to see more videos from you.