One Sweet Campaign To Fight Global Warming

April 5, 2002 8:28 PM

One Sweet Campaign To Fight Global Warming officially launched this month with a press conference a few days ago. Every day, human beings put 16 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmostphere. The campaign is a joint effort between DMB and Ben & Jerry's which uses the new, previously discussed ice cream flavor as its vehicle, and asks you to pledge to lose 2000 pounds of CO2 this year through reasonable modifications to your daily routine. Help make the world a healthier place. [warning: flash/music]
posted by tomorama (18 comments total)

Here is a related writeup of the press conference.

asked about the band's overall intentions for their charitable works, Dave explained that "the overall goal is to get myself out of feeling guilty about how well I'm doing in life. I can't speak for us all, but I think we want to give back to the community."

The band also has a new album coming out this summer, of which 50% of the profits will be donated to charity.

I think this is a refreshing attitude and a great example of someone exploiting the music industry and their own popularity to do a little good.
posted by tomorama at 8:32 PM on April 5, 2002

Good Work, DMB. I hereby retract any bad things I've ever said about them. The ice cream looks damn tasty, too.
posted by jonmc at 8:35 PM on April 5, 2002

Hmmm....

Nope, still can't give them props.
They've pussied up too many places in which I've had to work.

If only the Pixies would reform, then do something socially responsible.
posted by dong_resin at 10:23 PM on April 5, 2002

umm.... so you make the world a healthier place by eating more ice cream?
posted by gyc at 10:25 PM on April 5, 2002

Well, I guess I won't be getting ice cream at Ben & Jerry's next trip to the US. Baskin Robin's is much better anyways since they have them 'round here. :-)

Stop global warming by not using refrigerators! As with all machines the inefficiencies inherent in them mean more hot air is expelled from them than all anti-Global-Warming groups put together!

[Feel free to flame me, but I consider global warming a minor natural recurrence (if it eixsts at all) and I consider it of no danger to to majority of us whatsoever. Check a satellite temperature chart someday and tell me I'm lying.]
posted by shepd at 10:27 PM on April 5, 2002

Consider yourself flamed, spehd.
posted by cx at 11:42 PM on April 5, 2002

Yeah, damn DMB and B&J's...those corporate pigs think that just because they're giving back to the community, it makes up for their shitty music and fattening desserts...those fuckers!

Sarcasm FAR aside, good for them. I don't necessarily think that this will make a HUGE difference, but at least they're putting an effort into social responsibility. Some people like to bitch. Others like to act. I enjoy the latter.
posted by BlueTrain at 12:26 AM on April 6, 2002

Golly.
When I grow up, can I be like you, Bluetrain? *simper*
posted by dong_resin at 3:03 AM on April 6, 2002

Ice cream causes flatulence. Cut out Ben & Jerry's and save the planet!
posted by mikegre at 5:41 AM on April 6, 2002

My friend Gary posted the following to Glorious Noise: "What is troubling about this initiative to reduce global warming is that it has the potential to do quite the opposite. Just think of all of the pints of ice cream that the band’s fans are likely to consume. The more they eat, the bulkier they get. The bulkier they get, the more gravitational pull they have on other objects. Friction is created. Which gives rise to heat. Which gives rise to efforts to counter the heat, through, well, eating more ice cream. Which necessitates a greater number of freezers and reefer trucks to deliver the ice cream. Soon a giant ozone hole forms over major cities. . . ."
posted by elvissinatra at 5:51 AM on April 6, 2002

are they really called "reefer trucks"?
that's cool.
posted by nprigoda at 5:55 AM on April 6, 2002

The average car releases 1-pound of CO2 per mile driven

Say an average of 20-miles to the gallon thats 20 pounds per gallon. A gallon of liquid weighs about 8 pounds. Im not a chemist but how does that work out?
posted by stbalbach at 7:20 AM on April 6, 2002

umm.... so you make the world a healthier place by eating more ice cream?

The ice cream profits also go to charity.
posted by tomorama at 9:20 AM on April 6, 2002

Meh. I've had the ice cream. It was okay, but not great. I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Why, oh why, do they no longer make Cool Britannia or Rainforest Crunch? B&J's has been in a flavor slump for some time, it seems to me. They keep coming out with these lame-ass "twisted" flavors, whch are just repackaging existing (in some cases discontinued) flavors. Where are the truly new flavors? Why do they no longer innovate?

Ok, so I take ice cream a little too seriously...
posted by rusty at 11:14 AM on April 6, 2002

When I grow up, can I be like you, Bluetrain? *simper*

If you're extremely lucky, I can allow you to be a part of my protege program. The first month is rough, but after that, I promise you all the ice cream and DMB music in the world.
posted by BlueTrain at 1:08 PM on April 6, 2002

stbalbach, in your engine, gasoline (C8H18) combines with oxygen (O2) from the air to form carbon dioxide (CO2). That missing mass is from the oxygen.

In case you're wondering:
1 C8H18 + 12.5 O2 -> 8 CO2 + 9 H2O

Fortunately there's a periodic table a few threads over. Doing the math, thats 162 grams of gasoline making 352 grams of CO2.

If you burn 1/20 a gallon of gas each mile and gas weighs 7 lbs/gallon then, then thats 0.35 lbs a mile or 160 grams. So it's about 352 grams of CO2/mile or 0.77 lbs. Someone made the same mistake you did in an article in the LAWeekly awhile back. Apparently combustion is a mystery to most people.
posted by euphorb at 1:25 PM on April 6, 2002

Thanks euphorb. I honestly had no idea but that makes sense the missing mass comes from the Oxygen. The other thing my simple caveman mind doesnt grasp with intuition is how somthing coming out of a tailpipe floating up into the air can weigh so much. If I left my car running in a closed garage for 20 gallons worth of fuel thats 400 pounds of CO2. Of course its a chemical conversion so its not 400 pounds of new mass just existing O2 converted to CO2. But thats also close to 500 pounds of H20 (using the formula above) which at 7lbs/gallon is 71 gallons of water! where does that go? Sorry if Im being simple, I was a humanities major.
posted by stbalbach at 6:35 PM on April 6, 2002

The water is in the form of vapor. Eventually when the air gets saturated it would condense onto stuff like dust (clouds) or the ground (dew). Just make sure you don't perform that experiment while you're in that garage.

Actually 1 gallon of fuel will create only about 1 gallon of water. That formula applies to molecules not gallons. 114 grams of gasoline + 200 g of oxygen -> 352 g of CO2 and 162 g of H2O. I messed up earlier, but the result is roughly the same. Feel free to email me if you're still confused. I don't blame you.
posted by euphorb at 11:33 AM on April 7, 2002