Friday, 7 Mar 2003
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Several chores are on my agenda today before leaving for a relaxing weekend. Ben Rodman, a friend who builds museum exhibits, called to asked what had happened to "CLAIRA," the demonstration car he built for our agency to use in the Kentucky State Fair. (CLAIRA stands for CLean AIR Automobile, a name chosen as part of a contest). I told him that I would look into it.
Taking CLAIRA for a test drive.
Last spring, Air Pollution Control District Director Art Williams asked me to plan and execute the State Fair exhibit. Since I worked on the creation of CLAIRA, "she" will always have a place in my heart. It was a fun project, and I got to work with creative people and interesting ideas. The idea was to create a vehicle that would give feedback to its driver, who would be en route to either to "Blue Skies" or to "Smogville" destinations. If the driver drove in a steady manner, accelerating gradually during the time allotted, he or she would reach "Blue Skies," winning the game. However, if the driver put the "pedal to the metal" and drove with abrupt stops and starts, he or she would end up in "Smogville." And that's just what CLAIRA ultimately did -- told drivers, via computer screen, their total emissions score and whether they had won or lost.
It was Rodman who found the old Volkswagen and created CLAIRA from its rusted hull. When he finished, the car looked brand-new and absolutely perfect except for one thing: CLAIRA was only the front half of the car. She had a computer for a brain and a "gas pump" computer monitor. What a hit! Students and adults from all over the state got in the driver's seat to try to go to the "Blue Skies" destination. Often times, the driver went to "Smogville," instead. The driver could choose from four vehicles to "drive:" a minivan, an SUV, a sedan, and a hybrid-electric vehicle. As you might suspect, it was much easier to get to "Blue Skies" in the hybrid vehicle than in the SUV, but with extremely vigilant driving, it could be done while driving any of the vehicles. CLAIRA demonstrated to thousands of "drivers" at the State Fair, from age 8 to age 80, how to drive to save gas and to pollute less.
After the state fair, CLAIRA spent a couple of months on display at the Louisville Science Center and then was put in temporary storage, pending some new "gigs" that should happen later this year. Some colleagues of mine are working on a "Cleaner Cars Curriculum" that will include CLAIRA and will be made available to high schools in the Louisville area. CLAIRA may also put in appearances at local Earth Day events. It's good to know that this durable exhibit will help our agency spread the message about the driver's role in pollution prevention. Rodman, the little car's creator, was happy to know that CLAIRA would continue to spread her clean-air message.
I have two more projects to work on today before going home for the weekend. The first is drafting a section of the Standards Manual for outdoor classrooms, "A Green Guide for Education: Using Indoor and Outdoor Learning Areas to Teach Environmental Concepts." A committee of environmental-education professionals from around the state, working with the Kentucky Environmental Education Council, is working to publish standards for outdoor classrooms, as well as the indoor facilities that support them. On behalf of our agency, I have worked to incorporate sound clean-air policies into the document.
Specifically, I will draft the text for building a weather station. There are a lot of practical scientific concepts for students to learn using weather stations. So far, I have located information from the GLOBE Program, a worldwide, hands-on, primary- and secondary school-based education and science program that helps students learn to collect and measure data in the fields of atmosphere, hydrology, soils, and land cover/phenology, and collaborate with students and scientists around the world.
Low-maintenance landscaping.
The other project I will start today involves adapting my Lawn Care for Cleaner Air presentation for the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, to be held in Louisville in April. Coworker Bob Dorzback, our technical coordinator for pollution prevention, asked me a couple of months ago to apply to be a speaker. Dorzback felt that there are many pollution-prevention projects that can be undertaken by industries, government facilities, and businesses, but few that are as inexpensive and practical as low-maintenance landscaping. The Louisville area has a few examples of this kind of landscaping, and we would like to promote the concept at the conference.
That wraps up the week. Thanks to Grist for its kind invitation to be a diarist for the magazine and to the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District staff members for their tolerance and assistance.
The opinions expressed in this diary are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Louisville Metro government or Air Pollution Control District.
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