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Janice Kelsey: Hi, I'm Janice.
Jody Spangler: And I'm Jody.

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"Raising baby dragons to save the world."

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JK: Saving the world seems
like a pretty big task,

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for ordinary people like you and me.

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JS: Not for a dragon.

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JK: Just for this time together,

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we want you to imagine
a world where dragons live,

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where all children play on green grass,

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where women have access
to clean cooking fuel,

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right in their own homes,

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where families can light
and heat their homes

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at absolutely no cost.

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JS: Imagine, all this is true!

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JK: Allow us to introduce you
to how together we can make this happen.

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We're moms, we're educators

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and recently, we and several other women
have been dubbed "the women of biogas".

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(Laughter)

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We have become part of a growing
global community on Facebook,

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called "Solar CITIES Biogas
Innoventors & Practitioners",

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founded by dr. Thomas H Culhane.

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Over 6,000 members
are learning and sharing

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a technology that we believe
is an overlooked technology,

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called small-scale biogas,
or home-scale biogas.

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This ancient technology is well-known
in countries like India and China.

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JS: Still, many people
have never even heard of it.

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JK: We're going to introduce you
to your own baby dragon today;

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but before we do,

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you'll need to understand
the meaning of two words,

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biodigestion and biogas.

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Most people are familiar with composting.

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In composting,

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we pile up our leaves
and our grass clippings and garden waste

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into one big pile.

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Then we turn it from time to time,
to mix air into the pile.

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It heats up and it breaks down

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because of something
called aerobic bacteria.

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That's bacteria that likes air.

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After a few months,

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we have well-aged compost
that we can put on our garden.

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In biodigestion we take our manure,
our food waste and our garden waste

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and we put it into a closed container.

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The bacteria inside of this container
digest the material,

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then we fill up the tank with water

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to remove all the air,
because this bacteria does not like air.

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This bacteria breaks up the contents
of the container within 24 hours.

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In a day, rather than months.

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The bacteria inside of you,
me and any animal is anaerobic,

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which leads us to the word biogas.

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The meaning of the word biogas
is much easier to understand.

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The dictionary says that biogas
is a gaseous fuel, especially methane,

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produced by the fermentation
of organic matter.

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In the relatively
new field of permaculture,

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the biogas is considered

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one of the "appropriate technologies"
in permaculture design.

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Now, to bring biogas
down to a very basic level,

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I'm going to illustrate by using a word

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that you don't typically hear
in such a prestigious venue as this.

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Are you ready?

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Fart.

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(Laughter)

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You knew it was coming.

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How many of you men,
maybe even some of you ladies,

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lit or knew someone
who lit a fart on fire

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because they didn't believe
it would really work?

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And it did!

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Well, that is an example of biogas
on a very small scale.

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Your body is a small-scale biodigester.

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You eat food;

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the bacteria in your gut digest that food;

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it creates gas; and you pass biogas.

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Pretty simple, right?

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Well, our baby dragon
is much more delicate.

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This is the biogas stove in my kitchen.

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My baby dragon helps me
to cook my breakfast on biogas,

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every morning, with a clean blue flame.

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Can you believe that you can cook meals
on poop and food waste?

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(Laughter)

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Well we're going to show you how,
beginning with conception.

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Jodi's going to help us put together
the basic body parts.

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What we have here
is an intermediate bulk container.

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Now, these containers are used
to ship liquids all around the world.

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But once they're done with that,
they become industrial trash.

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So we can recycle this trash

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and turn it into a source
of sustainable energy.

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We first cut a hole in one corner,

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and then we cut a hole
in the opposite corner.

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Now what Jodi's holding up
are called uniseals.

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They're basically rubber gaskets
that create a tight seal with no leaks.

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We would normally glue these in,
but we're not going to do that today.

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Your baby dragon is going to need
three basic sections:

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she is going to need
a mouth and a throat;

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she's going to need an outlet
that we'll talk more about later;

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and then she is also going to spit fire
when she's old enough.

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She's going to spit biogas,

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so she's going to need
an outlet for that too.

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The gas outlet is basically

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a combination of pipes
and plumbing fixtures

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that get glued together

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and then fastened
to the lid of the container.

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Let's take a look inside.

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Your little embryo of a dragon

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has a thin layer of stone
in the bottom of its belly

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to create more surface area
for the bacteria to live on.

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Next, your baby dragon

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is going to need
some good healthy gut bacteria

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so we're going to add
a nice thick layer of fresh manure.

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You can use cow, horse, chicken.

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Tou can even use dog or human manure
or any combination of those.

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If you don't have any animals of your own
offer to help clean out somebody's barn.

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JS: They will think you're crazy,
but they'll appreciate it in the end.

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JK: Finally, we add water.

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Fill the tank with water.

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Now, we allow this to incubate
for two to three weeks.

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Once the bacteria
has digested what's in the manure

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it's going to get hungry,
and it's going to look for food.

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And it's going to hatch!

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JS: Congratulations!

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(Laughter)

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JK: You are now the proud parent
of a baby dragon,

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or what we call
a solar cities IBC biodigester.

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Seriously, this is how easy
and simple the technology is.

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But this is a living biological creature
that needs to be cared for.

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Caring for a home-scale biodigester
is just like raising a baby dragon.

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The first thing we need to learn
about any baby is how to feed her.

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She has a mouth but she can't chew:
she's just a baby with no teeth.

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We use an InSinkErator

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to grind our food waste
with equal amounts of water

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to create baby food.

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You can also use
a hand grinder or a blender.

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It works just as well.

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To feed this baby dragon
we simply pour the food into her mouth.

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It'll go all the way down to the bottom
where this pipe is cut at an angle.

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There you go.

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Once inside the belly of the baby dragon,
the food will begin to digest.

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A heavier food at the bottom
is going to digest more quickly

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because it's closest
to the greatest number of bacteria.

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Oils and food that float to the top,

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they're going to digest
a little more slowly.

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In the middle of the tank
is our digested material.

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Now we all know, raising a baby
is all about bodily functions.

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So keep in mind,
her belly is full of water

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and what goes in must come out.

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Yes, your baby dragon pees.

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(Laughter)

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The liquid will be pulled up
through the hole in that smaller pipe.

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I guess you can call this section
your baby dragon's bladder.

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JS: This is liquid gold.

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JK: That is our very concentrated
and perfect fertilizer.

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We can use it on our garden,
we can water our lawn with it,

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we even share it
with our gardening friends.

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And unlike composting,

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our baby dragon is a closed system
at the perfect temperature,

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so this fertilizer has lost
none of its nutrient value.

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And it shows, obviously it shows.

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Because my garden has never been
as productive or as green.

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Small-scale,

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but there are many places
that can benefit from small-scale biogas.

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Our team has chosen three
to highlight for you today:

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right here in our own backyard
of Pennsylvania;

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a school in Kenya;

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and a refugee camp in the Middle East.

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We truly believe that together
we can change the world.

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Imagine giving women
the ability to feed their families

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with clean, free cooking fuel
made from manure and food waste.

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This is Susan.

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She lives in the Amish countryside,

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in a community that rarely uses
electricity tied to the grid.

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She has a huge garden,
and plenty of garden waste.

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She can use that fuel
to cook and to heat a part of her home,

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and she can put the fertilizer
right back on her garden.

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We can empower women like Susan
here and around the world

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to do this in their own backyards.

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JS: Imagine that.

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JK: This can also be used

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in struggling communities
around the world.

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This is a picture of
"Rescue Team Kenya - Community School".

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It is located within
an overcrowded labyrinth of tin shacks,

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in a hot climate,

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with no running water and no real toilets.

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The man in the orange shirt
is Robert Ongera Ombeka.

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He lived in the slums, he's self educated,
he got himself out of the slum

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and now he goes back
every day to change lives.

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Together we managed to support Robert
in setting up this little school

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with room enough for 15 students.

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Sixty-five children showed up
the first day he opened the door.

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There is a powerful desire
for education in Kenya,

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even among the most vulnerable:

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the impoverished, the orphaned,
the hungry and even the sick.

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We are all about education.

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We care about empowering individuals
to rise above their situation.

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But it begins we clean water,
food and sanitation.

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Together as a community

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we managed to bring clean water,
food and school supplies

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to this little makeshift school.

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Imagine these children
learning how to grow food

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with the fertilizer they helped to make.

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Imagine smoke-free cooking
in Kenya and around the world.

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Millions of people,
mostly women and children,

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would no longer die
from carbon-related illnesses,

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every year.

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JS: With no need for firewood,
imagine an end to deforestation!

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JK: The village of Chittoor,
India, did it.

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They call it the smoke-free village:
every family uses a biodigester.

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Imagine: free biogas,
no need for firewood, and there's more.

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Imagine connecting
bio digesters to toilets.

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That would not only provide them

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with better sanitation,
clean cooking fuel and fertilizer,

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but would also give them dignity.

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This is not a toilet that you see here.

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This is just the safest place
for this young lady to relieve herself

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in Mukuru Slum.

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Our third idea relates to refugee camps.

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Our first experience
with refugees was in 2005,

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when I became the advisor
to a 15 year old boy from Baghdad, Iraq

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who came here as a youth ambassador.

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We've all seen photos of the refugee camps
growing around the world.

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This crisis has become so severe

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that the number of people living
in this refugee camp alone

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makes it equal to the second
largest city in Jordan.

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They have nowhere to go.

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This refugee camp has evolved into a city.

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This is our crisis, it's happening now.

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This is in the news today.

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Mass migration,
for various reasons, is real.

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Camps like this are not
going away anytime soon.

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Imagine clean, accessible cooking fuel
for every family in this refugee camp.

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Imagine how simple
a process sanitation becomes,

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when dealing with human waste
and food waste right on-site.

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Small-scale biogas is scalable:

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we can scale it up
and we can scale it down.

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Is it for a small family like Susan's,

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or is it for a school,
like Rescue Team Kenya,

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or is it for a community

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like the ever-growing number
of refugee camps in the world today?

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Imagine an end to fracking.

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This is natural gas.

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Imagine no concerns about pipelines
running for your neighborhood,

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because we create our own energy.

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We keep our waste, it has value.

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We turn it into energy, and we benefit.

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Imagine freedom from fossil fuels:

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countries like India and Sweden

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are running buses
and trash trucks on biogas.

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We can too.

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00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:10,760
The possibilities are endless.

246
00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:19,160
The rapid spread of this technology
could have a profound, global impact.

247
00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:21,397
What can you do?

248
00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,680
Go online and learn more
about solar cities and biodigestion.

249
00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:30,360
Join the biogas movement,
and do this at home.

250
00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:33,920
Share this with your
local community leaders,

251
00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:37,160
and encourage
your department of agriculture

252
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,720
to take a closer look
at small-scale biodigestion.

253
00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:45,720
Through education,
innovation and outreach,

254
00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:49,280
through the help
of our heroic baby dragons

255
00:14:49,905 --> 00:14:51,476
and a whole lot of love,

256
00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:55,480
we can fix our eyes
on a simple overlooked solution

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00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:56,988
to what we now call waste.

258
00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:00,596
With biogas, there is no waste.

259
00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:05,400
We need you to help spread
this gospel of God biogas.

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00:15:07,016 --> 00:15:09,050
JS: This is the sign language for love.

261
00:15:09,050 --> 00:15:11,088
It's also the sign we're using for biogas.

262
00:15:11,088 --> 00:15:13,437
Inlet, outlet and gas.

263
00:15:14,130 --> 00:15:15,828
Imagine.

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00:15:16,270 --> 00:15:18,398
(Applause)