hey everyone my name is Matt Channing
and like all of you I’m guilty of being
a huge consumer of fossil fuels and
their products I Drive cars use
electricity like my home and burning
charcoal for my barbecues I depend on
these fossil fuels to go about my daily
life and so do you so why am I telling
you this
I’m here today to tell you that if we as
individuals don’t start taking steps to
stop being so reliant on fossil fuels
we’re going to have ourselves a big damn
problem burning fossil fuels too Brutus
energy isn’t sustainable and is
detrimental to our environment of course
you’ve probably heard that from some
environmentalists and you’ve probably
ignored it because it’s not your problem
let future generations handle the
problem well my friends now is the time
to start making a change because oil is
a finite resource which means that there
is a very limited amount of it left on
earth
check out this graph by eco tricity a
british green energy company as you can
see the known petroleum reserves our
proven reserves will only last estarán
2050 – with natural gas burning to a
stop around 2061
and coal fizzling out around 2080 – if
we don’t start making a change soon
we’re in deep water along with being
non-renewable energy sources
burning fossil fuels comes with the
release of greenhouse gases greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide are spewed
into the atmosphere with huge heat in
huge quantities in fact researcher
Connie laquet found let 2.4 million tons
of it are being pumped out into our
atmosphere every second greenhouse gases
are so harmful to our environment
because they act as an insulator fefe
for heat therefore the name greenhouse
gas because of the greenhouse effect of
heating of the earth this is a
well-known phenomenon known as global
warming studies by NASA show that in the
space of the last ice age about 5,000
years the earth has heated up 4 to 7
degrees Celsius that gradual change is
0.11 degrees celsius the century now in
the last century due to global warming
there has been a change of 0.7 degrees
so the burning of fossil fuels has
increased the warming of our planet
seven times over Oh point seven degrees
may not sound like much but since 1979
40% of the polar ice cap has melted into
the ocean
melting ice means rising seals and
1880 decades after the Industrial
Revolution sea levels have risen eight
inches on average globally in fact data
from the US Geological Survey shows that
a four degrees change in celcius would
put most coastal cities cities like New
York Miami and Honolulu under water
rising sea levels also have detrimental
effects on mankind because as ocean
water rises it mixes with groundwater
making in consumable because of its
salinity along with contaminating
groundwater rising salt water is
absorbed by agricultural soil that is
effecting major food crops that feed the
masses but enough of glass-half-empty
our planet is doomed talk let’s talk
solutions clean renewable energy is the
route that our planet needs to go and
believe me there are lots of
improvements to be done here’s the graph
of the energy consumption in the United
States by the USGS Water Science school
as you can see renewable energy only
makes up about 10% of all the energy
that we use petroleum coal make up about
50 we need to get that renewable energy
percentage way up and to do that we
should look to Brazil for inspiration
Brazil as a model example of what our
energy production should look like
according to the Ministry of Mines and
energy of Brazil and 2011 Brazil
produced 90% of its energy from
renewable sources 82% was from
hydroelectric power one dam in
particular was essential to the
production of clean energy
the aitakute down on the border of
Brazil and Paraguay in 2016 it produced
17% of all of Brazil’s power needs and
75% of power was from one down now this
is no ordinary dam and it is actually
one of the seven wonders of the modern
world as reported by the UN Museum it
measures four point eight miles long it
costs Brazil and Paraguay 18 billion
dollars to produce 40 thousand workers
and 13 years to complete in comparison
last year the US government spent 1
point or the us that 1.2 trillion
dollars on on electricity and said 35
percent of our energy consumption is met
by petroleum that means that 421 billion
dollars were spent on producing energy
via petroleum to put that into
perspective you could put you could
build 23 Itaipu dam
money thus solving the u.s. energy
problem of course you couldn’t
realistically do that because there
aren’t that many places to build dams
like I taught them but that doesn’t mean
that we shouldn’t start looking for ways
to replace petroleum Brazil also has
alternative is to petroleum for for
motor vehicles let me tell you about
ethanol ethanol is a fuel produced by
the fermentation of sugars usually corn
or sugarcane it is extremely combustible
making it a viable substitute for
petroleum data escolar author of ethanol
for dummies says that it reduces carbon
emissions by 90 percent compared to
regular gas burning cars 90% of cars in
Brazil come with flex fuel which allows
cars to use ethanol without modification
to the engine or its components ethanol
is also much cheaper than gasoline so
much so that companies cut their
gasoline with ethanol ethanol to reduce
costs not to mention that in Brazil is
actually required by law for companies
to sell you gasoline that must contain
ethanol but Brazil isn’t perfect to make
room for cattle ranching as well as
agriculture the Amazon rainforest is
being cleared at an alarming rate
according to the National Institute for
Space Research in the last 40 years 20%
of the Amazon rainforest has been
cleared and is predicted that within the
next 20 20 % more will disappear to put
things into perspective the area of land
cleared roughly equates to 230,000 miles
roughly twice the size of the state of
Arizona this lack of trees is a
monumental problem because these trees
reduce the effects of global warming by
converting carbon dioxide to oxygen the
Amazon rainforest is sometimes referred
to as the lungs of our earth and with
our earth and weather ones getting
smaller every day our problem becomes
even bigger although Brazil is far from
perfect in terms of saving our planet
there are forward-thinking
Brazil is at least thinking about a
future without petroleum our government
on the other hand has a long way to go
we a man me Americans are so dependent
on petroleum according to the Institute
of Energy research we spent eight
percent of our GDP and give it to these
big oil corporations these oil
corporations have huge economic
influences on our government in fact
last year according to the Senate
of public records oil and gas companies
gave 119 billion dollars of campaign
contributions our government is too
focused on the money that is being given
now instead of thinking of what our
country is going to do once the money
and oil run dry because of this we must
take action into our own hands and do
what we must to lower our energy demand
invest in photovoltaic solar panels for
your house now is the time to buy since
the government is offering subsidies to
help pay for them wait maybe I’m getting
ahead of myself let’s start small to
reduce carbon emissions carpool or use
public transportation when you can
instead of driving yourself or if you’re
close enough walk or bike the biggest
consumer of energy and an average
household is air-conditioning so turn
off a C when you’re not in the rooms and
set the thermostat to go off when you go
to sleep my family hands are closed
instead of drying them in the clothes
dryer to save energy and to be
completely honest I hate it hanging up
my socks one at a time is painstaking
when you could just throw the whole load
in the dryer and forget about it but
change requires sacrifice simple things
such as turning off a light when you
leave a room and washing clothes with
cold water also save you money and
contribute to it our towards our
postponing doom I challenge you to do
you all to do these things on a regular
basis and see if you can cut your
electricity bill down I’m going to leave
you with a quote from polar explorer and
environmentalist Robert Swan and is that
the greatest threat to our planet is the
belief that someone else will save it
thank you
[Applause]
and like all of you I’m guilty of being
a huge consumer of fossil fuels and
their products I Drive cars use
electricity like my home and burning
charcoal for my barbecues I depend on
these fossil fuels to go about my daily
life and so do you so why am I telling
you this
I’m here today to tell you that if we as
individuals don’t start taking steps to
stop being so reliant on fossil fuels
we’re going to have ourselves a big damn
problem burning fossil fuels too Brutus
energy isn’t sustainable and is
detrimental to our environment of course
you’ve probably heard that from some
environmentalists and you’ve probably
ignored it because it’s not your problem
let future generations handle the
problem well my friends now is the time
to start making a change because oil is
a finite resource which means that there
is a very limited amount of it left on
earth
check out this graph by eco tricity a
british green energy company as you can
see the known petroleum reserves our
proven reserves will only last estarán
2050 – with natural gas burning to a
stop around 2061
and coal fizzling out around 2080 – if
we don’t start making a change soon
we’re in deep water along with being
non-renewable energy sources
burning fossil fuels comes with the
release of greenhouse gases greenhouse
gases such as carbon dioxide are spewed
into the atmosphere with huge heat in
huge quantities in fact researcher
Connie laquet found let 2.4 million tons
of it are being pumped out into our
atmosphere every second greenhouse gases
are so harmful to our environment
because they act as an insulator fefe
for heat therefore the name greenhouse
gas because of the greenhouse effect of
heating of the earth this is a
well-known phenomenon known as global
warming studies by NASA show that in the
space of the last ice age about 5,000
years the earth has heated up 4 to 7
degrees Celsius that gradual change is
0.11 degrees celsius the century now in
the last century due to global warming
there has been a change of 0.7 degrees
so the burning of fossil fuels has
increased the warming of our planet
seven times over Oh point seven degrees
may not sound like much but since 1979
40% of the polar ice cap has melted into
the ocean
melting ice means rising seals and
1880 decades after the Industrial
Revolution sea levels have risen eight
inches on average globally in fact data
from the US Geological Survey shows that
a four degrees change in celcius would
put most coastal cities cities like New
York Miami and Honolulu under water
rising sea levels also have detrimental
effects on mankind because as ocean
water rises it mixes with groundwater
making in consumable because of its
salinity along with contaminating
groundwater rising salt water is
absorbed by agricultural soil that is
effecting major food crops that feed the
masses but enough of glass-half-empty
our planet is doomed talk let’s talk
solutions clean renewable energy is the
route that our planet needs to go and
believe me there are lots of
improvements to be done here’s the graph
of the energy consumption in the United
States by the USGS Water Science school
as you can see renewable energy only
makes up about 10% of all the energy
that we use petroleum coal make up about
50 we need to get that renewable energy
percentage way up and to do that we
should look to Brazil for inspiration
Brazil as a model example of what our
energy production should look like
according to the Ministry of Mines and
energy of Brazil and 2011 Brazil
produced 90% of its energy from
renewable sources 82% was from
hydroelectric power one dam in
particular was essential to the
production of clean energy
the aitakute down on the border of
Brazil and Paraguay in 2016 it produced
17% of all of Brazil’s power needs and
75% of power was from one down now this
is no ordinary dam and it is actually
one of the seven wonders of the modern
world as reported by the UN Museum it
measures four point eight miles long it
costs Brazil and Paraguay 18 billion
dollars to produce 40 thousand workers
and 13 years to complete in comparison
last year the US government spent 1
point or the us that 1.2 trillion
dollars on on electricity and said 35
percent of our energy consumption is met
by petroleum that means that 421 billion
dollars were spent on producing energy
via petroleum to put that into
perspective you could put you could
build 23 Itaipu dam
money thus solving the u.s. energy
problem of course you couldn’t
realistically do that because there
aren’t that many places to build dams
like I taught them but that doesn’t mean
that we shouldn’t start looking for ways
to replace petroleum Brazil also has
alternative is to petroleum for for
motor vehicles let me tell you about
ethanol ethanol is a fuel produced by
the fermentation of sugars usually corn
or sugarcane it is extremely combustible
making it a viable substitute for
petroleum data escolar author of ethanol
for dummies says that it reduces carbon
emissions by 90 percent compared to
regular gas burning cars 90% of cars in
Brazil come with flex fuel which allows
cars to use ethanol without modification
to the engine or its components ethanol
is also much cheaper than gasoline so
much so that companies cut their
gasoline with ethanol ethanol to reduce
costs not to mention that in Brazil is
actually required by law for companies
to sell you gasoline that must contain
ethanol but Brazil isn’t perfect to make
room for cattle ranching as well as
agriculture the Amazon rainforest is
being cleared at an alarming rate
according to the National Institute for
Space Research in the last 40 years 20%
of the Amazon rainforest has been
cleared and is predicted that within the
next 20 20 % more will disappear to put
things into perspective the area of land
cleared roughly equates to 230,000 miles
roughly twice the size of the state of
Arizona this lack of trees is a
monumental problem because these trees
reduce the effects of global warming by
converting carbon dioxide to oxygen the
Amazon rainforest is sometimes referred
to as the lungs of our earth and with
our earth and weather ones getting
smaller every day our problem becomes
even bigger although Brazil is far from
perfect in terms of saving our planet
there are forward-thinking
Brazil is at least thinking about a
future without petroleum our government
on the other hand has a long way to go
we a man me Americans are so dependent
on petroleum according to the Institute
of Energy research we spent eight
percent of our GDP and give it to these
big oil corporations these oil
corporations have huge economic
influences on our government in fact
last year according to the Senate
of public records oil and gas companies
gave 119 billion dollars of campaign
contributions our government is too
focused on the money that is being given
now instead of thinking of what our
country is going to do once the money
and oil run dry because of this we must
take action into our own hands and do
what we must to lower our energy demand
invest in photovoltaic solar panels for
your house now is the time to buy since
the government is offering subsidies to
help pay for them wait maybe I’m getting
ahead of myself let’s start small to
reduce carbon emissions carpool or use
public transportation when you can
instead of driving yourself or if you’re
close enough walk or bike the biggest
consumer of energy and an average
household is air-conditioning so turn
off a C when you’re not in the rooms and
set the thermostat to go off when you go
to sleep my family hands are closed
instead of drying them in the clothes
dryer to save energy and to be
completely honest I hate it hanging up
my socks one at a time is painstaking
when you could just throw the whole load
in the dryer and forget about it but
change requires sacrifice simple things
such as turning off a light when you
leave a room and washing clothes with
cold water also save you money and
contribute to it our towards our
postponing doom I challenge you to do
you all to do these things on a regular
basis and see if you can cut your
electricity bill down I’m going to leave
you with a quote from polar explorer and
environmentalist Robert Swan and is that
the greatest threat to our planet is the
belief that someone else will save it
thank you
[Applause]
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