[Applause]
[Music]
hi um so do you remember when plastic
bags were first banned from grocery
stores I do and it sucked because my dad
and I would always forget to bring our
bags we would have to choose between
buying yet another bag or carrying the
groceries out to the store in our arms
it was awful and after buying dozens of
bags and wasting money we had to
consciously put the bags in the side of
his car door so that we wouldn’t forget
them we had to rethink how we did things
to accommodate the new movement and
that’s why I’m here tonight to share
with you my idea about how we have to
rethink our driving ever since the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution
co2 emissions have been skyrocketing and
even when I was a kid
global warming wasn’t something that I
really heard about however climate
change which at one point seemed far
away is now something that I fear can
and will affect me and my friends that
is why we need to rethink the way that
we look at climate change just as my dad
and I had to rethink how we used plastic
but breezed our reusable bags I didn’t
realize that once we reach a certain
level of co2 in the atmosphere there
will be no way to prevent or reverse the
melting of our ice caps once the ice
caps drink they won’t be there to
reflect the sunlight instead they will
be replaced by the dark blue oceans
which absorb the sunlight heating the
water and accelerating the melting of
the ice caps when I fully comprehended
the implications of our situation I was
motivated to found my organization when
not if as in 1 climate change will
affect us not if it will my mission for
the past two years has been to inform
people of ways that they can reduce
their driving did you know that every
year we produce around 76 trillion
pounds of co2 a trillion of anything is
hard for me to visualize so I use an
elephant to help but into perspective a
large African elephant like this one
weighs around 14,000 pounds so to fully
comprehend the massive amounts of co2
produced each year
around five billion more elephants to
that one it’s still hard for me to
visualize the 76 trailing in towns come
from heat and electricity generation
transportation and manufacturing and we
don’t have control over many of these
things but we as individuals do have
control over the emissions coming from
our daily transportation and that’s what
led me to the conclusion that the
easiest way for us as individuals to
reduce our co2 emissions is to reduce
the emissions coming from our cars every
gallon of gas that powers a vehicle
produces around 20 pounds of co2
emissions and there are 1.2 billion cars
on the road today if we all worldwide
reduced our driving by just 10% we could
prevent 2.5 billion pounds of co2 from
entering the atmosphere in a single day
and if we continued this for the whole
year 1.5 trillion pounds this can happen
if we all start to rethink the way that
we drive what I mean by rethinking
driving is to think about our modes of
transportation and to think about
consolidating and eliminating our excess
trips when I was in elementary school
both my parents worked full-time and
couldn’t take me to school or baseball
practice so I had to bike or get a ride
with another family because there was no
other way to get me there I had to
rethink I didn’t my parents had to
rethink the way that I was transported
and this has become the norm for most
families because everyone is so busy but
we as individuals need to continue to
rethink our driving when I first got my
driver’s license excited about my
newfound freedom I drove everywhere and
left my ones neon yellow bike to rust
I stopped needing to rethink my modes of
transportation and instead started
creating excessive amounts of co2 at an
event while talking to people about the
impacts of rising co2 levels one lady
said to me that reducing her driving
would be too inconvenient I tried
convinced her to drive just one mile
less each week but she refused at first
I was disappointed and couldn’t
understand how anyone would find just
one mile too inconvenient but now that
I’ve been driving for almost two years
I can understand driving is ingrained in
our lives and it’s no longer a luxury we
drive everywhere for everything and when
I got my driver’s license instead of
walking to school which was just a ten
minute walk I started driving everyday
because it was easier and sadly I was
late more often once I got my license
even though it may take time and energy
that you don’t want to give to find
different ways to get to work or to get
to other places we still need to do it
when I got my first job at the Santa
Cruz Beach Boardwalk I took the bus
downtown and then a shuttle to the
actual amusement park I did this because
of the tourist traffic and it being so
heavy that it would take me twice as
long to get there but I still did it and
some of my friends they meet at
Starbucks on their way to school and
they drive the rest of the way from
there which saves them time and money
and also eliminates some of their co2
emissions the common theme across all
these stories is that we had to rethink
our modes of transportation to solve
certain problems and even though your
commutes may be fine it’s still good to
try and rethink other modes of
transportation another area that we can
rethink is the distance and amount of
driving that we do last summer I was
working downtown and after I was done
with work I would go and spend time with
my friends who live 20 miles away
spending time with my friends when
driving back downtown and going for food
or to see a movie then once we were done
there I would drive them back to their
house I was driving around 65 miles a
day and a whopping 450 miles per week
cost me over $200 a month on gas which
was most of my paycheck and on top of
that I entered my distance driven 450
miles and miles per gallon for my car 27
miles per gallon into my website and it
showed me that I was producing 325
pounds of co2
every week I felt so guilty that I
stopped driving to my friend’s house and
back instead I had done take the bus and
meet me downtown
by doing this I reduced my co2 emissions
by 50% if we all plan our trips like a
UPS driver where the routes are
optimized to minimize the distance
driven and therefore save time and money
then we’ll also save time and money
instead of weaving back and forth across
town plan out your week in errands so
that you don’t have to drive everywhere
back and forth back and forth instead
you can just make one trip like my dad
does when he Shops at Safeway he shops
at other stores along the way doing all
of his shopping on Monday nights by
keeping the list and being prepared he
saves time by not wandering around the
store impulse buying things as well as
reducing the co2 emissions by not going
to multiple stores multiple times we as
a society need to rethink the way that
we look at climate change when people
first started recycling it was awkward
and people forgot but now at least I do
it without a second thought and that’s
how we need to think about driving if we
all in this room reduce driving by just
10% we could prevent almost 100,000
pounds of co2 from entering the
atmosphere every year and once we do
that if we tell five more people then we
can continue them we can continue the
cycle of getting more and more people
involved once we do this we can prevent
even more co2 from entering the
atmosphere so tomorrow I challenge all
of you plan a way to get to work that’s
different from your method now in order
to save co2 emissions and also plan out
your weekend errands so that you can
reduce your co2 emissions there by
joining the others and rethinking the
way that we drive tomorrow we can all be
an active contributor to the solution of
climate change thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
hi um so do you remember when plastic
bags were first banned from grocery
stores I do and it sucked because my dad
and I would always forget to bring our
bags we would have to choose between
buying yet another bag or carrying the
groceries out to the store in our arms
it was awful and after buying dozens of
bags and wasting money we had to
consciously put the bags in the side of
his car door so that we wouldn’t forget
them we had to rethink how we did things
to accommodate the new movement and
that’s why I’m here tonight to share
with you my idea about how we have to
rethink our driving ever since the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution
co2 emissions have been skyrocketing and
even when I was a kid
global warming wasn’t something that I
really heard about however climate
change which at one point seemed far
away is now something that I fear can
and will affect me and my friends that
is why we need to rethink the way that
we look at climate change just as my dad
and I had to rethink how we used plastic
but breezed our reusable bags I didn’t
realize that once we reach a certain
level of co2 in the atmosphere there
will be no way to prevent or reverse the
melting of our ice caps once the ice
caps drink they won’t be there to
reflect the sunlight instead they will
be replaced by the dark blue oceans
which absorb the sunlight heating the
water and accelerating the melting of
the ice caps when I fully comprehended
the implications of our situation I was
motivated to found my organization when
not if as in 1 climate change will
affect us not if it will my mission for
the past two years has been to inform
people of ways that they can reduce
their driving did you know that every
year we produce around 76 trillion
pounds of co2 a trillion of anything is
hard for me to visualize so I use an
elephant to help but into perspective a
large African elephant like this one
weighs around 14,000 pounds so to fully
comprehend the massive amounts of co2
produced each year
around five billion more elephants to
that one it’s still hard for me to
visualize the 76 trailing in towns come
from heat and electricity generation
transportation and manufacturing and we
don’t have control over many of these
things but we as individuals do have
control over the emissions coming from
our daily transportation and that’s what
led me to the conclusion that the
easiest way for us as individuals to
reduce our co2 emissions is to reduce
the emissions coming from our cars every
gallon of gas that powers a vehicle
produces around 20 pounds of co2
emissions and there are 1.2 billion cars
on the road today if we all worldwide
reduced our driving by just 10% we could
prevent 2.5 billion pounds of co2 from
entering the atmosphere in a single day
and if we continued this for the whole
year 1.5 trillion pounds this can happen
if we all start to rethink the way that
we drive what I mean by rethinking
driving is to think about our modes of
transportation and to think about
consolidating and eliminating our excess
trips when I was in elementary school
both my parents worked full-time and
couldn’t take me to school or baseball
practice so I had to bike or get a ride
with another family because there was no
other way to get me there I had to
rethink I didn’t my parents had to
rethink the way that I was transported
and this has become the norm for most
families because everyone is so busy but
we as individuals need to continue to
rethink our driving when I first got my
driver’s license excited about my
newfound freedom I drove everywhere and
left my ones neon yellow bike to rust
I stopped needing to rethink my modes of
transportation and instead started
creating excessive amounts of co2 at an
event while talking to people about the
impacts of rising co2 levels one lady
said to me that reducing her driving
would be too inconvenient I tried
convinced her to drive just one mile
less each week but she refused at first
I was disappointed and couldn’t
understand how anyone would find just
one mile too inconvenient but now that
I’ve been driving for almost two years
I can understand driving is ingrained in
our lives and it’s no longer a luxury we
drive everywhere for everything and when
I got my driver’s license instead of
walking to school which was just a ten
minute walk I started driving everyday
because it was easier and sadly I was
late more often once I got my license
even though it may take time and energy
that you don’t want to give to find
different ways to get to work or to get
to other places we still need to do it
when I got my first job at the Santa
Cruz Beach Boardwalk I took the bus
downtown and then a shuttle to the
actual amusement park I did this because
of the tourist traffic and it being so
heavy that it would take me twice as
long to get there but I still did it and
some of my friends they meet at
Starbucks on their way to school and
they drive the rest of the way from
there which saves them time and money
and also eliminates some of their co2
emissions the common theme across all
these stories is that we had to rethink
our modes of transportation to solve
certain problems and even though your
commutes may be fine it’s still good to
try and rethink other modes of
transportation another area that we can
rethink is the distance and amount of
driving that we do last summer I was
working downtown and after I was done
with work I would go and spend time with
my friends who live 20 miles away
spending time with my friends when
driving back downtown and going for food
or to see a movie then once we were done
there I would drive them back to their
house I was driving around 65 miles a
day and a whopping 450 miles per week
cost me over $200 a month on gas which
was most of my paycheck and on top of
that I entered my distance driven 450
miles and miles per gallon for my car 27
miles per gallon into my website and it
showed me that I was producing 325
pounds of co2
every week I felt so guilty that I
stopped driving to my friend’s house and
back instead I had done take the bus and
meet me downtown
by doing this I reduced my co2 emissions
by 50% if we all plan our trips like a
UPS driver where the routes are
optimized to minimize the distance
driven and therefore save time and money
then we’ll also save time and money
instead of weaving back and forth across
town plan out your week in errands so
that you don’t have to drive everywhere
back and forth back and forth instead
you can just make one trip like my dad
does when he Shops at Safeway he shops
at other stores along the way doing all
of his shopping on Monday nights by
keeping the list and being prepared he
saves time by not wandering around the
store impulse buying things as well as
reducing the co2 emissions by not going
to multiple stores multiple times we as
a society need to rethink the way that
we look at climate change when people
first started recycling it was awkward
and people forgot but now at least I do
it without a second thought and that’s
how we need to think about driving if we
all in this room reduce driving by just
10% we could prevent almost 100,000
pounds of co2 from entering the
atmosphere every year and once we do
that if we tell five more people then we
can continue them we can continue the
cycle of getting more and more people
involved once we do this we can prevent
even more co2 from entering the
atmosphere so tomorrow I challenge all
of you plan a way to get to work that’s
different from your method now in order
to save co2 emissions and also plan out
your weekend errands so that you can
reduce your co2 emissions there by
joining the others and rethinking the
way that we drive tomorrow we can all be
an active contributor to the solution of
climate change thank you
[Applause]
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