PORT TOWNSEND — A community game to raise awareness of the effects on the environment of everyday activities has drawn more participants than expected, according to an organizer.
“I went from thrilled to worried,” said Bob Bindschadler, a retired NASA scientist now living in Quilcene, of the large number of people interested in participating in the Taming Bigfoot exercise.
“People are eager to participate because they want to understand what effect their individual actions have on the environment and actually change the impact they have.”
Sixteen teams of seven people each have been formed for the three-month project that will end in April. Winners are to be announced at an Earth Day celebration April 22.
The activity is organized by the Local 20/20 Climate Change Outreach Group, which is a subset of the Climate Action Committee formed by the city of Port Townsend and Jefferson County to cut greenhouse gas emissions to a point that is 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The group’s first organizational meeting for Taming Bigfoot is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St., Port Townsend. The meeting is open to the public.
In December, Bindschadler said the project would best operate with eight to 12 teams and that it would need to be split up if there were 20 or more teams.
The final number represents a middle ground between enough and too much.
Three-month project
Teams will compete to lower their carbon footprints — a measurement of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with various activities — during their daily routines.
They will keep track of their activities and attempt to compensate their carbon footprints with ecologically based actions.
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the Earth’s average temperature and causing a change in climate, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The teams are poised to battle it out for more than $2,600 in prizes donated by three-dozen local businesses and sponsors.
Originally, each team was to include eight members: a person from a household with one or two members, one from a household with four or more members, a person living within the Port Townsend city limits, one living outside city limits, one already living a “green” lifestyle and one not doing so, at least one member younger than 30 and a member who is recognized as a prominent county resident.
The number on each team was reduced to seven because of the difficulty of recruiting members from households with four or more members, Bindschadler said.
District 3 County Commissioner Kathleen Kler is among those participating.
Three of the teams are unaffiliated with an organization, with the remainder representing the Food Co-op, St. Paul’s Church, Washington State University, Local 20/20, Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (four teams), Jefferson Community School, the 4-H PT STEM Club and the Jefferson Land Trust.
Baseline
The first four weeks of the competition comprise a baseline, or reference, phase in which participants are asked not to make any changes to their customary lifestyle.
The next eight weeks are a competition in which teams will focus on taking whatever actions they feel will reduce their carbon footprint the most.
Throughout both phases, participants will monitor their activities in such areas as home energy and water usage, non-recycled garbage produced, miles traveled and food and shopping activity.
Data is then entered into a carbon footprint calculator customized by the Outreach Group specifically for Jefferson County.
The calculator, along with all the conversion factors it uses, has been shared with the teams to help them plot their strategy during the competition.
For more information, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Taming.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
