For some people, going the extra mile is more than enough to prove a point. But for Kurtis Baute, the extra mile wasn't enough. The Youtuber decided that he needed to make his point heard, even if that meant taking some pretty dramatic measures...
The Youtuber
Kurtis Baute has his very own Youtube channel where he travels the world. With a master's degree in Environmental Science, Kurtis travels to teach people crazy things about the Earth. He loves to disprove theories and will go to any length to do so.
Science Is Easy
The best thing that he does is make science easy and fun. Most people feel like science is a bit daunting and hard to comprehend, so Kurtis strives to make environmental science accessible to everyone, even if he has to do some crazy stunts to share his knowledge...
Proving The Earth is Round
In fact, one of his most popular videos is about proving Flat-Earthers wrong. Instead of just using science and facts, he went out on his bike to gather important evidence. He knew that he could disprove this theory all by himself with one simple experiment that anyone else could do...
Just His Bike
He was able to disprove the Flat Earth theory just by using his bike. Kurtis was able to make sundials with shadows from his bike that, together, depicted the curvature of the Earth. If that's not proof, we're not sure what is! It wasn't even that hard, too. This next project, however, wasn't going to be quite so easy...
No Plastic? No Problem
In order to show people the environmental impact of plastics, he decided to challenge himself to not touch plastic or anything with plastic in it just for 24 hours. It quickly dawned on him that that was next to impossible, but it did prove his point: humans are using too much plastic, especially non-recyclable items.
Laymen's Terms
In order to get people moving and more amped about the environment, he travels the country giving comedic talks about the work that he's done. He does this to help people understand what's really going on with the environment. He's even got a pretty popular nickname...
Modern-Day Bill Nye
Not to say that Bill Nye isn't modern, but Kurtis is basically the new age Bill Nye the Science Guy. Bill had a different, more educational approach to science that made it easy for school kids to digest, but Kurtis' main audience is adults...
Climate Change
One of the main issues on Kurtis' mind was climate change. There's a huge potential audience for him to teach about this issue, especially the people who don't believe that it's real in the first place. As someone with a master's degree, you would think that people would take his warnings seriously, but that's not the case. So, he had to find another way, another way that would really shock people...
Don't Knock It
Everyone's heard of the people who chain themselves to trees in order to save them. Kurtis wasn't going to go that route—he needed to do something more clever that no one else had done before. He had to think outside of the box for this one...
A Former Experiment
After a quick brainstorming session, Kurtis came to a startling realization. A couple of years before, he did an experiment where he placed soil and plants in a jar and sealed it shut. He left it alone for months. He didn't water it or even let it see much sunlight. After the few months were up, he was shocked to see the results...
Let's Do The Same
After the few months were up, Kurtis saw that the plants were completely healthy. So, he decided to put himself through that experiment... Literally. He figured that plants could survive off of the CO2 produced in a totally sealed jar, he could make his own biodome and survive, too.
Kurtis In a Jar
So, he kicked off his project: Kurtis In a Jar. After getting all of the mechanics down, he decided to announce his plan to his Twitter followers. He said that he was going to seal himself in an air-tight environment with just plants to survive off of their oxygen. It seemed dangerous, but he was positive that this was going to work.
Getting Everything Perfect
It took him a few weeks to complete. With the help of some engineering buddies, he was able to construct the perfect airtight vestibule for his experiment. In his personal greenhouse, he had 1,000 square feet of room and nearly 200 plants. He planned to live in there for three days...
Air Head
"Basically I'm trying to recreate a micro, nano, tiny version of Earth in a jar," Baute told the Star Vancouver about his experimental greenhouse. "And to do that, I need to think a lot about, mostly, air." Getting the right amount of oxygen might be a challenge...
The Nitty Gritty
Kurtis estimated that there were about 30,000 liters of air within the structure that would sustain a human being, but the main concern was that the CO2 levels would build up to a lethal point. If the plants weren't in the greenhouse with him to counteract the CO2, he would not survive. He added sunflowers, corn, beans, and various other plants to help him combat the CO2 levels.
Everything Was Monitored For Safety
Kurtis had everything set up and ready to go. On October 24th, 2018, he entered his personal greenhouse. His friends sealed the door up and he quickly began documenting his experience. They were always close by in case anything bad happened, like running out of oxygen...
Why Youtube?
So, what was his reason to post about this on Youtube? “People don’t want to read horrible, sad, depressing stories, that’s not fun,” he said. “But maybe they’ll enjoy watching a video about a guy who’s sort of torturing himself for science. Maybe that’d be entertaining in a way that engages enough people.” His goal was to make it entertaining enough so that people would want to watch him.
Going Live
He picked up his camera and started filming his initial time spent in the greenhouse. He even went live on Youtube and Instagram to keep his followers up to date on what was going on. Keeping close contact with everyone online helped him pass the time, plus he was able to answer some questions for inquisitive minds...
The Goal
The entire purpose of the experiment was to provide some tangible information to climate change deniers. Kurtis' point was simple. Plants are necessary for humans to survive and the more CO2 that humans pump out and the more plant life humans wipe out, the less oxygen is produced to combat the CO2, which is extremely harmful to humans in large quantities. So, he believed that the plants in his greenhouse would convert his CO2 into oxygen for him, and the cycle would continue throughout the duration of his experiment.
Logging the Co2
Through his experiment, he hoped to prove that even if industrial CO2 emissions surpassed the amount that humans exhale, the plants should be able to handle it and adjust accordingly so that humans could survive. So, for his experiment, he believed that the plants should be able to adjust to the CO2 that he was exhaling. Luckily, they were logging everything to see if this was actually the case...
If It Failed...
If the plants failed to regulate the CO2 levels, it would become too dangerous for Kurtis to continue the experiment. All of his devices that were there to help measure the CO2 and oxygen levels would make sure that he did this experiment safely. The last thing that he wanted to do was quit because that meant his experiment failed...
A Storm Rolled In
Unfortunately, Mother Nature had a different idea. After 14 hours of being in the greenhouse, the sky opened up and it began to pour. Due to the rain, the plants were struggling to emit the required amount of oxygen for Kurtis to survive within the greenhouse. He stuck it out for as long as he could, but he had to call it quits...
Did He Prove Them Wrong?
After all of the results came in, he was able to share them with his loyal followers. Even in the 14 hours that he was in the greenhouse, the plants were able to regulate themselves to make sure that the environment was sustainable. His dangerous experiment proved that fossil fuels and destructive chemicals were harmful to the environment and that things could change if humans start to change.
Greta Thunberg
This Swedish 16-year-old is on the same path as Kurtis. Many people know her from her heartbreaking speech about climate change and her efforts to help save the world. Don't let her young face fool you, she knows what she's doing!
Using Her Platform
Greta's parents are famous opera singer, Malena Ernman, and Swedish actor, Svante Thunberg. Greta is using her platform to bring awareness to the environmental issues that are plaguing the world. The best part is that she's doing it out of the pure goodness of her heart.
Greta Is Overcoming Hurdles
Greta herself has autism, OCD, and selective mutism. So, as a 16-year-old with disorders that sometimes make it hard to communicate, she still defies odds and travels the world. She's been quite open with her disorders and her past, which makes her even more inspiring.
Her Disorders Give Her Strength
Greta has said on multiple occasions that her disorders have helped her see how the world really is. She's said that her autism disorder helps her see "almost everything in black and white," which is vital for environmental issues.
Childhood Dream
When Greta was eight years old she learned about climate change. She says that it scarred her for life. Her school showed her and her classmate's films about plastic pollution, starving polar bears, and natural disasters that could all be helped through living environmentally conscious.
Getting Better
“I cried through all the movies,” she remembered. “My classmates were concerned when they watched the films, but when they stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn’t do that; those pictures were stuck in my head.”
Making Her Own Impact
Much like Kurtis, Greta makes it a point to lessen her carbon footprint as much as possible. She's vegan and never flies on airplanes. Greta made waves in her yellow raincoat and handmade sign in front of the Swedish national legislature. She sat there alone from 8 am until 3 pm. When she went back the next day, people were joining her...
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The word spread and a lot of other people went to keep her company while protesting for the Earth. She asked, “Why should I be studying for a future when no one is doing anything whatsoever to save that future?
Ted Talk
Greta gave an incredible TED Talk that put her name into the headlines. “I want you to panic,” she said to world leaders. “I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then, I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire – because it is.”
Making a Point
Great and Kurtis are very different but have one similar mentality: they will do anything to prove a point. If anything, this just means that people should start to pay closer attention to the environment...