On November 29, SSCAN co-sponsored “How a Climate Scientist Learned to Love Taming Bigfoot,” a talk by emeritus NASA Antarctic glaciologist Dr. Robert Bindschadler at Centilia Cultural Center on Beacon Hill. The talk introduced “Taming Bigfoot in Seattle,” a carbon footprint reduction competition being organized by 1Sustainable Planet. Bindschadler told the crowd that testifying to Congress about climate change evidence during his career led him to want to concentrate on grassroots climate activism in his retirement. The first Taming Bigfoot competition was devised by Bindschadler and JeffersonCAN in Port Townsend, with 13 teams and 91 people taking part. They measured their daily carbon production in the areas of home, transportation, and food and shopping, and competed to see which team could make the largest reductions in the carbon produced by their everyday activities and lifestyle choices.
Taming Bigfoot in Seattle will be similar in structure to the competition in Port Townsend, but with a carbon calculator tweaked for local conditions and an easy-to-use interface designed as an app. The aim is for participants to explore ways of reducing their carbon footprint, aid the city’s carbon reduction goals, raise awareness, work in community, and to have some fun. SSCAN members are looking forward to taming their own bigfeet. For more information or to sign up for a team, contact SSCAN or www.tamingbigfootseattle.org.
