WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Rob: Hey everyone, thanks for being here and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thanks for having me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Does this all sound good? Cool! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's so awesome to be here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had met Urlinda in San Diego about two 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 years ago, and that's how ultimately I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ended up here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Tonight I am hoping to inspire you to make 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 some positive changes when it comes to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the environment and to the human race as a whole. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I will give you a little bit of a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 background on some of the things that, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 some of the projects that I have been 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 working on and what I have been doing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I will give you a little bit of a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 disclaimer, although this room is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 probably pretty full of radical people, so 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is less needed, but I do a lot of very 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 extreme things, and the idea is to catch 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people's attention, get them to stop and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 self reflect and think about things that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they maybe have never thought about. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The things that I do are often are very 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 extreme, but my message is actually one of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 moderation, of treating people with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 respect, treating the earth with respect, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I just go about it in attention-grabbing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ways of doing it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of my project sis the Food Waste Fiasco. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We waste about a third of all the food we 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 produce around the world, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about half of the all the food we produce 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the United States where I live. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of my campaigns I have dived into 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about 2,000 dumpsters across the United 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 States in about 29 states, and a handfull 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in other countries, like the UK, but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 mostly the United States. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And the idea is to create a visual that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 helps people understand how much food is being wasted. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is about 2 days of dumpster diving 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in Madison, Wisconsin. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You might have seen one of my videos, it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was called "People are Good", so I landed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in Panama with just the clothes on my back 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and my passport, which was 7 countries 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 away from San Diego. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I landed there with the sandals on my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 feet, some shorts, a shirt, a jacket, a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hat, and my passport, and that is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 literally everything I had. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had to make it back to San Diego, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the idea was to put myself out there and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 by doing that, show that actually there 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is an incredible number of good people out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there, and that if you put yourself out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there, people will help. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The mainstream media often portrays 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the world as this very dangerous, crime 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ridden place, but the reality is that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 generally, people are actually pretty good. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So that was that, and that turned into a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 television show that was on the Discovery 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Channel, I think it played here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But with that one I flew to Brazil and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 had to travel to Panama. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of my most recent projects was "Trash Me". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This one was inspired by Morgan Spurlock's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Super Size Me", where he ate just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 McDonalds for thirty days. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I tried to look at some of the successful 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 campaigns out there and how I could apply 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that to environmental activism, so I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thought "Okay, how can I do something 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that will really get people thinking about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how much trash they are creating," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here, you do not create nearly as much 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trash as we do in the United States, but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 still a fair amount, but no where near as much. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the United States the average person 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 creates about 4.5 pounds of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trash per day, about 2 kilograms. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And we throw it in the garbage can and we 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 never think about it again, most people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They never think about it again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So I wanted to create a visual that shows 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people how much it really adds up to. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is me for thirty days just living 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like the average American. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I ate, shopped. and consumed just like the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 average American does. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had an specially designed suit to hold 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every piece of trash that I created for entire month. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This right here is actually about one 1/3 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 less trash than the average American 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 creates in a month, so that is the idea of that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then for the last 13 months I have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 been traveling the United States and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 parts of the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is every single possession that I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 own, so everything that I own is here with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 me tonight in the car. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Hopefully it is still there, because that is everything. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Birth certificate, passport, all of that stuff. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Every possession I own... so the things I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 do are often pretty extreme, but the idea 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of this is that the average person in the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 United States and Europe has 10s of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 1,000s of possessions, most that we never use. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By owning just 110 possessions, it get 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people to stop and think about how much they have. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Really, it is about getting people to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 think about "Am I happy? Am I healthy? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And are there things that I could do to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 change my life to be happier, healthier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 more purposeful, more passionate, and live 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in a way that is better for the earth?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Those are a couple of my campaigns, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really my life is my campaign, just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 leading by example and showing ways of doing things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I definitely have not always been an 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmentalist, and environmentally- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 minded person, a conscious person. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If we rewind about ten years, this is me 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here on the left. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was a pretty drunk dude, I know Belgians 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 get pretty drunk, but I rivaled everyone in the room. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This was a typical night, drinking cheap, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 cheap beer out of plastic cups. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 During College I was very passionate about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 drinking, women, material possessions, money. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My goal was to be a millionaire by the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 time I was 30 years old. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was very focused on that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My car, I would shine it for two hours 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every Sunday, spotless. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had a part-time job which was basically 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 just going to the library and talking to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every girl in my path, telling her to come 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to my parties. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's what I was doing during college, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is another typical night. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is what you call a "duck bong", I do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not know if it has made its way to Belgium. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 How it works is that it is like a beer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bong, except you cut the beak, and the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 foot off of an ornamental lawn duck, which 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is hallow, and you fill it up with beer, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that thing can fit like maybe 5 or 6 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 beers, you fill it up with vodka as well 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you feel like it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That was another typical night. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And as I said, I spent, you know, 20 or 30 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hours a week pursuing women, and I was not always successful. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On this particular night this was a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Christmas tree that crossed my path when 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there was no women that wanted to come 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 home with me that night. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I have not always been very caring about the environment. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I did go to school for biology, with a chemistry minor. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Aquatic science was my concentration. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I actually always cared about the environment. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When I was growing up fishing and out 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 playing in the ponds and things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the thing was, I always felt like I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was actually living an environmentally 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 friendly life during this time because my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 mom had taught me the basic things like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 recycling, shut off the water when you are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not using it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I would occasionally get in a fight with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 my roommates about leaving the water 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 running or the lights on. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was doing some of those things, but what 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 happened was that I realized in about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 2011 after I graduated from University and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it was about two years later, I started to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 watch a lot of documentaries and I would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 read a lot of books and I realized that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for the most part my life was actually 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 causing environmental and social destruction. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was doing a couple of things that were 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sort of good for the environment, but the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reality was that I realized by watching 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 these documentaries that the food I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eating was coming from these factory 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 farms, the gasoline I was pumping into my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 car, all of the trash that I was creating, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of the cheap products that I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 buying at the big box markets, all of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this stuff was causing environmental 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 destruction both in my community, but also 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because of globalization, all the way on 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the other side of the world, but also it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was causing social destruction by the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people working in really crappy condition 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that I could have my $4 toaster and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So at that point I really decided that I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 wanted to change my life from drunk dude 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to someone that was living something beyond myself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A lot of people at this point feel at 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 total sense of doom and gloom, like "What 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can I do now?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 At that point I was 25 years old, I had 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 been doing this whole way of life for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 quite a while so it can be... you can have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that feeling of "Well what can I possibly do?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But I actually at that point felt extremely empowered. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The reason was that these documentaries 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I watched and these books that I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reading taught me how I could change my life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I did was just make a long list of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of the changes that I wanted to make, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I hung it up in my kitchen in a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really prominent place, and then I taped 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a pen next to it so that each week that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pen would be there and my goal was to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 check off 1 thing each week. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Some examples of things that I did early 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on... I mean at that time I was shopping 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at Walmart, filling up my cart with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 everything, using plastic bags, all of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that sort of stuff. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was doing very little. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the big changes that I made early 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on was going to local businesses. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a farmers market, just buying my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 food locally from the local farmers 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 market or going to the local tool shop 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rather than the big Lowes, or Home Depot, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Or Walmart, or things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I changed my... I realized the food I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eating, changed my diet, started to eat 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 more whole foods, more unpackaged 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 processed stuff, I actually started to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 look at the ingredients on things and see 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Whoa, this is not even really food that I am eating," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I started to eat actual food, switched to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a more plant-based diet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then the other thing when I really 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 started to unravel my life, I started to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 realize that I had just been sold a whole 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 lot of things, sold this concept of what 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the human body needs to exist, what we 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 need to be successful or happy or healthy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "The Story of Stuff" was an early short 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 film that really inspired me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They had another one called "The Story of Cosmetics," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I learned that all of these things that I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was using, like all of the shampoo, the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 conditioner, the face wash, the body wash, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the deodorant, the Listerine mouthwash, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the lip balm, all of these things, a lot 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 them were made with fossil fuel by- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 products, petroleum by-products. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was just putting all of this nasty stuff 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on to me and I just really started to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 think, "Wow, human beings have existed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for millions of years without this stuff, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so it must be possible to live without it," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So I put it all on my curb and for the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most part stopped using most of those 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things but found natural alternatives for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the things that I did want to continue to use. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I got rid of plastics and things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I got rid of microwave so that I would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually cook real food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I just continued making positive changes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in my life for about two years, and what 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 happened was the more positive changes I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 made, the more happy and healthy I became. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A lot of it was not something that I would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 necessarily realize, but there were all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sorts of connections. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, when I got rid of my car and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I no longer had a trunk, I was no longer 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 able to fill it up with stuff, which meant 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I bought less stuff. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There are all of these ways that I did not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 realize how one change would ripple into 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 other changes as well. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 After a year and a half or so of doing all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of that, I decided that I really wanted 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to take sustainable living and bring the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 message out to people, and do it in a way 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that was kind of fun and would get people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 excited and hopefully inspire people to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 make positive changes as well. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 2013 I made my website for $100 online, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and made a Facebook page and decided that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was going to be an adventurer, doing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 adventures for the environment. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My first big adventure was called "Off the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Grid Across America", and I biked across 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the United States on a bamboo bicycle, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the idea was to bike from west coast to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 east coast having no environmental inpact 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whatsoever, no negative environmental 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 impact, while deeply immersing in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sustainable living and learning myself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because they say that it takes 21 days to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 form a habit so I thought if I do this for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 104 days, which was how long the ride was, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then I will really, deeply form this habit. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I set rules for all of the basics of sustainable living. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The key things of sustainable living that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we deal with every single day: food, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 water, energy, waste, transportation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These are things that every single one of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 us in this room deals with basically every day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We eat everyday, we drink water every day, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 usually we have transportation wherever 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we are going, we create waste everyday 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whether it is garbage or something out of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 our body, and then energy, we are using 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 electricity pretty much every day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Diving into these key things that a lot 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of us... like for me in the past I never 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thought about in a given day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For food the rule was that I could only 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eat local, organic, unpackaged foods. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That meant food from whatever state I was crossing through. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Organic just meant that I... it did not mean 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 necessarily that it was certified but that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it just came from the farmer and I had 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 talked to them. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Then lastly unpacked, so nothing wrapped in packaging. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I knew that this was going to be really 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hard because a lot of places, that food 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 just does not exist. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So I made one exception, and that was that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could eat any food that was going to waste. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The reason being is, of course if it is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 already in the garbage, the dumpster... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what do you call it over here? Bin. Yeah. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Bins. Huh? WHAT WORD DID HE SAY 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I find your language quite funny. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So if it is in the garbage, the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmental impact has already happened 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so if it is in the garbage I figured "that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sounds weird, but if it is in the garbage 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I might as well eat it," but that is what 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was doing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I found the first dumpster that I ever 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 looked into, I was crossing the Sierra, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nevada mountains, it was about 7 seven 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 days in, I looked in there, I was was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really nervous at this time because I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 still had a good sized ego at that time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and for someone to know that I was eating 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 out of the trash would have damaged that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ego, but I had come up with this trip and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had to do it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I looked inside the dumpster, and sure 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 enough it was filled with perfectly good food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In that particular dumpster, the first 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thing I ever ate was a still-frozen, half 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gallon of moose tracks icecream. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was just melted a little bit around the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 edges, I didn't have a spoon so I just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 used the edge of my sunglasses and they 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were quite sticky for a week or two. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Basically, for the rest of the trip 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 instead of going into the grocery store 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and asking "Do you have anything local?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the answer was "what do you mean?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most of the time they just had no clue 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where the food was from. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I got tired of that, so instead 70% of my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 diet that summer ended up coming from the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 dumpster. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was about 3 pounds a day worth of food, 280 pounds. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For water, the rule was that I could only 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 use natural bodies of water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For the entire summer I could not have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 turned on a faucet, used a flushed toilet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 taken a shower, anyway that we use water 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in a given day in the house I was not able to do. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Instead I had to use natural bodies of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 water like lakes and rivers, purify the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 water myself, go swimming, even in some 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pretty dirty ponds. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the exception again with that was that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could use water that was going to waste. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is a fire hydrant in Brooklyn, the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 leak is right here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I lived off of this fire hydrant for 5 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 days while I was in Brooklyn. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I bathed in it, that is what I am doing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here, I brushed.... I went over there to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 brush my teeth, did my laundry in it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 used it for cooking, all of that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This one leak alone is... I timed it, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it was wasting two gallons of water a minute. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is about 8 liters per minute. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What that means is that it is 770 gallons 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of water per day, which is enough to meet 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the drinking needs of 1440 people, just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 out of this one fire hydrant alone. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Over the entire trip I only used 160 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gallons of water, which is what the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 average person in the United States uses 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in about 2 days. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For energy I could only use electricity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I created myself for the entire summer. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I would not have been able to give this 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 presentation, I would not have been able 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to touch this, or use any of this stuff. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could not turn on a light switch, or 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 use someone's refrigerator, or open an 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 electric garage door. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Basically every say that electricity was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 involved in life I had to stop and think about it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was the challenging ones where for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 example if I wanted to go into a store, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and there was only automatic doors, I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 would have to wait there until someone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 goes through the automatic door and then go in. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Or if I was biking and it was night and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 an automatic light would go off, I would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have to go over there and unscrew that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 light bulb and hope that they would figure 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it out the next day why it was not going off. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was really deep immersion, and what I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 learned is that my life is totally 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 electrified at all points in my life 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 basically I was consuming electricity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 70% or more of electricity in the United 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 States is from fossil fuels, so I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 basically burning fossil fuels at most times. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Only by really deeply immersing myself 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into this was I really able to start 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 understanding it more. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, my exception with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 electricity was that I had a computer and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had a cell phone, and they were both 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 charged by the solar panels. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My exception was that I could log on to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the internet, and I knew that by doing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I was probably using some 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 electricity via the router probably using 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a little more electricity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But what I did not know and that I learned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on that trip, I visited a business called 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Renewable Choice Energy" in Boulder, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Colorado, and their job is to get 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 companies like Facebook and Google to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 switch over their servers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The servers are the places that host the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 computers, where all of the data is stored. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So their job is to get them to switch over 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 solar and wind powered farms to produce 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the electricity for that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What they taught me was that when we are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 storing stuff on the cloud, what the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 cloud really is is just someone else's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 computer, somewhere else. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I learned is that every single time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I uploaded a blog, or a youtube 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 video, or a picture or Facebook, that all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of that was being stored somewhere else, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so every second of my life, whether I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 asleep or I was awake, was actually burning electricity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Only by really deeply going into it was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 able to understand more deeply my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 interaction with the earth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For waste, the rule was I had to carry 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every piece of garbage that I created all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the way across the country with me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If I had a candy bar in San Francisco, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that wrapper was coming all the way over 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to Vermont with me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Anyone who bikes, which I am guessing a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 lot of you do, or if you have done long 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 distance hiking, you know that a little 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 weight really adds up. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I tried really hard to create as little 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trash as I could, and this is what I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 created in 104 days. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is 2 pounds, which is what the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 average American creates by about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one o'clock in the afternoon on any given day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then lastly, for transportation the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rule of course was that I could either 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bike or walk the entire way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Even on my off days I could not use public transportation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I learned during this time, which is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a lesson that I am sure a lot of people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here in Belgium know, you are far a head 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of us when it comes to cycling, but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really I learned that cycling is for everyone. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On that trip I met 60 and 70 year old 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 women cycling all the way across the United States. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I met 10 year-olds cycling to school. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I met people that were way larger than 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you ever would imagine would fit on a bike 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that were biking hundreds of miles, or 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were biking 30 miles back and forward between work. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I really learned on that trip that cycling 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is something that is accessible to so many people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 After that adventure, I went back to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 San Diego and I was in my apartment that I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 had still, and I still was... still at 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this time after a couple of years, still 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 picking up on ways that I was causing environmental destruction. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, when I got back to San Diego, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had my money in a Chase bank account, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 JP Morgan Chase, and I realized "Wow, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what is going on with my money?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, they invest in... largely in fossil 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fuel infrastructure projects. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here I am trying not to use fossil fuels, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but my money is being used to invest to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 make fossil fuels more accessible. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I had to take my money out of the big 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 banks, I had to take my money out of any investments. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I learned that my mutual funds were 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 invested in cigarettes and fossil fuels 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 among other things, so taking my money 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 out of those. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By this time I was creating so little 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trash that I was able to take the garbage 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can out of my house. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In 2015, in January, it was New Years Day, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I decided that I wanted to move out of my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 apartment and live in a tiny house so that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could live off the grid and not have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 any bills or any debt to my name. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I went onto Craigslist on New Years Day 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I was going to buy myself a little 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 camper so that I could live in that while 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 building a tiny house. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I found this online, and it said it was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 $950 and I thought "surely that must be a typo?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I mean, $950, that is like one months 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rent for a lot of people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I put $950 in my pocket... well actually 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a $1000 in my pocket, and I bike up to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this guy's house, it was about 6 miles 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 away, and I said I was not going to buy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it, but I do not know why I had the $1000 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in my pocket if I was not going to. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But I realized why it was only $950, it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 as basically just a little wooden box on wheels. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was 5 feet wide..... this is actually 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 larger, this screen right here is larger 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than the actual size of the house because 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 5 feet wide is substantially shorter than this. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was about 5 feet tall, so I could not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 quiet stand in it but I thought 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Okay, this is much smaller than I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 intending to live in," but I like to do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 extreme things and one of the things that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really stuck out to me is that in the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 United States and in many parts of Europe, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the average house size has actually 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 doubled in the last couple of decades. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the States it has gone from 1,500 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 square feet, to 3,000 square feet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is where house sizes have been going. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then at the same time, happiness and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 health is just crashing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Trying to show that correlation between 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 having a larger house and actually being 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 healthier and happier, a lot of the times 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I see an opposite correlation with that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here, I practiced sustainable living, also 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the extreme, to really, again, do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things that would catch people's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 attention, get the news to come out and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 report, and be able to bring this stuff to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people that maybe have never thought 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about any of these things before. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For food, I grew some of my own food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You hear in Belgium have plenty of rain I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 am assuming, but San Diego was a desert 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it was in a mega drought, so it was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not exactly easy living off of the grid 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and being completely dependent on rain 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 water and growing food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One way that I was able to do that, is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there is something called "wicking bed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gardens", and how it would work is you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fill... you create a little reservoir on 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the bottom, and then you fill it through 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a pipe, and then the water wicks up 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 through the roots so that there is no 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 evaporation at the top. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By using tricks like that I was able to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 grow more food with less water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 While I was there, 100% came from 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 harvesting rain water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The average American uses about 80 to 100 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gallons of water per day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The average European uses about 50 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gallons of day, and the average African 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 uses about 2 to 5 gallons of water per day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was using 2 to 5 gallons of water, about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the same as the average person in Africa. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A lot of people would think that this... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most Americans would thing that this is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really extreme using so little water, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one of the things that I really learned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 over the last 5 years of really diving 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into sustainability is that everything is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 totally a matter of perspective. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In this scenario for example, an American 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 would see that using just 2 to 5 gallons 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of water per day to be a really extreme 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thing, but if you took someone from Africa 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that has been doing that their whole life 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and you brought them to the United States, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and they saw that we were using 100 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gallons of water and are just pouring it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 down the drain, to them that would be extreme. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The more that I looked at all of these 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things, really everything is always a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 matter of perspective, and when you change 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 your perspective you can totally change 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the world around you just simply by 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 changing your mindset. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was able to live on 2 to 5 gallons a day 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 by using it really wisely and really just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not wasting any of it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For energy, the rule was... for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 energy I was living just completely off 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of solar there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The reason I was able to do that was by 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 living pretty simply. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Another thing that I have really come 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 across a lot, is that a lot of people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 think that sustainable living, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmentally living is only something 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can do if you are wealthy or 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 privileged to be able to do that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There are elements of that where I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 understand where people are coming from, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and some truth to that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But what I have learned is that the more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that you simplify your life and live based 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on what you need rather than everything 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that you think you want, the more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 accessible it becomes to everyone. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 With solar, if I had a huge 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 refrigerator and a flat screened T.V. in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every room, and a hair drier, and all of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 these electrical items, then I would not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have been able to afford to live off the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 grid with just solar, because I would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have needed a $10,000 or $15,000 system. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By simplifying my needs I was able to live 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 just off of solar. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This.... this is funny, we are talking 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about poop for the second time tonight 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 after the first documentary, that is great. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Did you plan that? No? Okay. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is actually my favorite thing to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 talk about, and I feel actually very much 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the same with the short film we just watched. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the things that I really learned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is that anytime something is easy, I have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 learned to stop and think, "Why is this easy?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Where is the ease... basically what I have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 learned is that every time something is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 easy, what that typically means is that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the burden is being placed elsewhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 An easy example, for example everyone 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here has probably driven a car, and you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 know that when you are driving a car, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 imagine that this is your ankle, you are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going zero miles per hour, and you just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 move your ankle slightly forward and all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of a sudden you are going 60 miles an hour. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Very easy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Where as biking or walking, you actually 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have to use energy to do that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So where is the burden being placed? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In that scenario, it is being placed on many things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The extraction of fossil fuels causing oil 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 spills... there are 10,000 oil spills per 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 year as an example. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is climate change, it is the emissions 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of all if the green house gases. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is the people that are getting sick 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 working in those conditions, the animals 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that are dealing with those sorts of things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is an example of how the burden is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually being placed elsewhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I started to think, "Flushing the toilet, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 okay, where does it really go once I am 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 done with it, what actually happens to my 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 poop and pee?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The toilet is an example of one of those 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things that is really easy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You just hit that leaver, and then 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (whoosh sound) it is gone. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I started to think about what really 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 happens to it and look into it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I learned is that it is easy because 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the burden is being placed elsewhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the example of the flushed toilet, you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have all of the chemicals you have to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 clean the water before you poop in it, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then all of the chemicals that are used to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 clean the water again after you poop in it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have all of the electricity that is used. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So 20% of all electricity is used just to pump water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You are actually using electricity 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 indirectly just to flush the toilet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have the pollution that happens from 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it because a lot of the time it overflows 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into our lakes and rivers and oceans. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 All of these things were happening, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then ultimately you have a waste product 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that you have to deal with, it is actually a problem. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When I learned about what we call 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 humanure", as in human manure, I realized 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that instead of waste becoming a problem, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it actually is a resource. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the sayings in permaculture is that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Waste is just a resource out of place," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Rather than using 1.6 gallons of water 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 each time, which I obviously did not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have to flush, I was able to turn it into 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a valuable resource. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is the compost pile. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A lot of people would... who here has ever 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pooped in a 5 gallon bucket? A couple? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Some back there? Yeah. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For me, this was sort of the holy grail of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sustainable living because it was taking 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 responsibility for all of my actions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A lot of people have social media and so 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on, there are a lot of people who have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 said things like... well, first of all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they would assume that I was going to die, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and if I was not going to die then I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going to kill the entire city of San Diego. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the things about composting, how it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 works, is when you... a compost pile 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 whether it is human waste or not, what you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have is microorganisms like bacteria, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then you have macroorganisms like beetles 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and larvae and worms. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What they do is they are eating all of the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 contents in there, and one of the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 biproducts from all of that is heat. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A compost pile can heat up to 160 degrees. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 All of the bacteria, and the pathogens 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that are in our body are designed to live 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 at about body temperature. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Once they are in the compost pile, the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 heat that is created by all that movement 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the micro and macro organisms kills all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of that off, so it is really safe. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I was at least able to tell people that, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I am indeed not going to kill the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 city of San Diego, but the thing that I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 did not know at the time was that people 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 still would say "Ew, this guy is eating 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 food grown off of poop!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I was like "Yeah, but I do not have a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 good response because I am assuming that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you are not doing that," 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But then I read a book called "Wasteland" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When I was doing "Trash Me" this fall, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I finally really learned where our poop 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 goes as I looked into it deeper. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Take New York City for example where I was at the time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What you have, is you have millions... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 well 8 million people are still there, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about 8 million poops a day, maybe more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 depending on how people are doing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What is that? Anyway. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What happens is that all of that goes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into the waste water treatment plants, but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what you have going along with that, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the average person in the United States 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 has 13 prescription meds total. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Some people have zero, some people have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 20, but it averages out to billions of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 prescription medications, so you have all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of that going along with it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But you also have all of the things like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bleach, and the Drano, and things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So all of that is getting mixed together. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What you have is an extremely toxic 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "poop slurry", that ends up with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 millions of poops mixed with all of these toxins. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But then you also have companies that are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 improperly disposing of things like motor 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 oil and things like that, that makes it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 even more toxic. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That then is bio-digested in part, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then what is left was turned into fertilizer. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Where that fertilizer went is it was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 shipped down to Texas on rail, so 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this very still toxic fertilizer, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then that was used to grow the food that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people that were commenting on Youtube 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and Facebook saying "Ew, this guy eats 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 food growing from poop" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Well, what I learned was that at least I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 was eating off of fairly clean... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one person is not 1 million New Yorkers 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 toxic sludge poop. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Onto the next thing, done with poop now. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It might come up again though. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For trash, I created a little more trash 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than I did on my bike ride. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This would be about a normal 2 to 4 weeks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of trash, it was a couple pounds a month usually. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And for transportation, one of the things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I learned is that the average person 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the states, it is similar over here in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Europe, spends about $7,000 to $9,000 per 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 year on their vehicle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What that means is that the normal, kind 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the median income is about $52,000 a year. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That means that the average person is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 working January and February every single 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 year just to own their car. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Imagine what you could do for January 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and February of every single year instead 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of owning a car, and that is the reason I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 got rid of my car because growing up I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thought that a car was freedom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was how to get away from the parents, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 be able to go wherever you wanted. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I learned is that the car was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually the thing that was holding me 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 back the most. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is what tied me to having to work to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pay the bills of the car. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Getting rid of the car was actually one of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the most freeing things I ever did. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In San Diego there is something called 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Car to Go", which is an electric car 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sharing program, that made it easier for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 me there, because when I did need a car, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could get one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But a lot of cities have things like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Zip Car" and things like that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 How "Car to Go" works is there is a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 little... you have your own little card 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here, and then you touch it up to the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 window here, and then you get in, it lets 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you in, and you put in a code, and you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 drive it away, and then when you are done 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you just park it in a parking spot and it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 just bills you by the amount of time that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you are in there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For the most part I would ride my bike, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the "Car to Go" was for mostly when I was feeling lazy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The whole idea of a lot of this stuff is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to create visuals that help people to understand things. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Talking about food waste, as I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 starting to dumpster dive, I had mentioned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that early on I was pretty timid about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 talking about that, not knowing what 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people would think about me and things 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like that, but the thing was, the more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I did it, the more that I realized 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that this issue is far more important than me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I started to talk about it, and I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 amazed that after a short period of time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I realized that generally, when you are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 passionate about something and when you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are authentic about something, what I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 found is that you do not lose friends, you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually gain more friends. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The food waste ended up being something 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that I became really passionate about. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I did not realize going into it how 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 important of an issue that it is, but I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have learned that it is one of the most 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pressing environmental and social issues 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of our time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Worldwide, we throw away one third of all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the food that we produce, while over a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 billion people are in food poverty. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We actually have enough food on earth to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 feed every single person. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Not all of it is healthy food, there is a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 lot of Cheetos and things like that, but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we have enough food to feed the entire world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the United States we produce enough 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 food to feed another entire American 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 population while 1 in 4 Americans are food insecure. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is San Diego, California, I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trying to come up with a way to really 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 help people understand how much food was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going to waste. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the United States it is $165 billion of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 food per year. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To put that into perspective, that is more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than the budget for every national park, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 every public library, all of veterans 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 healthcare, all of the federal prisons, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the FBI, and the FDA combined. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is a massive number, but a lot of the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 time it is still hard to wrap your head around numbers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is two days worth of dumpster diving 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in San Diego, California, and I mentioned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 early on that I was very timid at the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 idea of dumpster diving, and one of the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reasons was this girl here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 4 years ago, and this was in 2013, I was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 very much in love with her and she was 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 very much "get away from me Rob, I am not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 interested in you right now". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 She was actually someone who told me "do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not tell anybody that you are dumpster diving". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I kind of listened to her advise. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This was us 4 years later, she obviously came around. NOTE Paragraph 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And what I learned is that you can eat 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 your trash and have the girlfriend too. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This project was called "Trash Me", 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 this is the one that I just finished up 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in September, and as I said, with so many 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of these things we just never think about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it because the infrastructure is there, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it takes things away and then we never 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have to think about it again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The average America creates 4.5 pounds of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 trash a day, throws it in the garbage can, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then where does it really go? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The idea of this visual was to just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really help people to think about these 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things on a daily basis. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You have the frozen pizza here. you have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the Starbucks cups, the red beer cups,and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the packaging from buying stuff, the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 batteries, the plastic bottles. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The idea was to create that association in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people's minds and help people to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually think about that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The whole idea of all of this is to get 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people to self reflect and think about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 what positive changes that they can make 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in their life, and so these are some of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the things that I have been making over 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the past 5 years that I have found to be really beneficial. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These are some of the suggestions for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 anyone who is inspired to make positive changes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I broke these down into the basic aspects 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of sustainable living: food, water, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 energy. waste and transportation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Each one of these is on m y website, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there is a guide for all of these, so food 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or example is robgreenfield.org/food, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it goes more in depth there. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So for food, some of the things are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eating as much local food as possible, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 eating as much food that is grown in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Belgium, or if not Belgium, more like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Spain rather than New Zealand or Chile. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Eating as much organic, natural food as possible. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Stuff that is not sprayed with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pesticides, unpackaged foods. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Are there any grocery stores here that sell unpackaged? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Una? Una! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Going to stores like that where you can 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 buy foods where you bring your own 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 containers and full them up. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Whole foods, so not the grocery store but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 foods that look basically like they did 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when they came from the earth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, apples rather than apple 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sauce, potatoes rather than potato chips. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Growing your own food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is life changing, planting a seed and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually seeing it turn into food, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then eating it, it can be a very life- changing experience. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Eating seasonal, so stuff that is growing in season. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If it is in the middle of January and you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 see strawberries in the store, thinking 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Where are these strawberries actually from?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the simplest things we can do with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 food is actually eat it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The average person wastes about 25% of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all of their food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Actually eating the food rather than 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 throwing it away. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Another big one is eating a lot more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 grains, and a lot less meat. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This actually is the one that causes the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most environmental impact, eating meat and animal products. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That one actually should be more at the top. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Which leads into the next one, which is water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The average.... sorry, to create 1 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hamburger takes about 660 gallons or about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 3,000 liters of water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To put that in perspective, on my bike 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ride across the country, I went 104 days without showering. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Imagine 104 days without showering. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now image turning that into an entire 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 year, which is what I did, and 1 year of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not showering, that was the equivalency 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of 6 hamburgers worth of water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 2 months of showering is the equivalent of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one hamburger, that is how much water it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 takes to produce meat, well, that is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 particularly beef that is the most water intensive. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Other things you can do, is flush the toilet less. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If it is yellow, let it mellow, if it is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 brown, flush it down. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Do you have that saying here? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is new? I brought it to Belgium! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Take shower showers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Every minute off of the shower is about 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 2 gallons. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Grow food and not lawns. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is really one of the most enjoyable 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things is rather than growing grass, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually just growing food instead. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Using that water to grow food instead of grass. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Harvesting rain water, some people make 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 these things really complicated. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One thing about all of these things that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I am naming off is they are all designed 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to decrease your environmental impact. but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the nice thing is that they do not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually cost you money, they are all 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 designed to save you money, which means 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can work less and spend more time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 doing the things that you want. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then lastly, besides the fact that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most of these make the earth healthier, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they also make you healthier, which is the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 nice thing about it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Harvesting rain water, some people make 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that really complicated and they get like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a $300 system, I did that when I first 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 started to harvest rain water. but then I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 realized, you literally just have to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 stick a bucket under your gutter, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 collect that water, it is as simple as that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Installing efficient faucets, you can get 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 little faucet heads that cost about $3, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they use 75% less water, so switching 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 those things out takes a couple of minutes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and then you are saving a gallon and a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 half for minute that you have it on. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Planting native, planting things that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 naturally grow in the area. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Installing greywater, another thing that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can do really simple is for example 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 put a 5 gallon bucket under your sink and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 unscrew the thing so that it goes out to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the bucket, and then that goes out to the garden. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is the simplest form of gray water. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Switching to CFL or LED bulbs. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 LED bulbs cost more, but after about 3 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 months to a year they already have paid 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for themselves in the amount of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 electricity that you are using. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Finding an electricity free alternatives, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for example getting a juice press that is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a hand juice press rather than an electric one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Or investing in alternative energy, you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can put solar panels on your roof or you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can just invest in a energy COOP that uses 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the COOP money from people to create... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 basically investing in an energy COOP. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then the last thing, nature, simply 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 put, the more time that you are out in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 nature, the less time that you are burning energy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then for waste, the 5 "Rs" are refuse, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reduce, reuse, repair, recycle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the things that I never knew, even 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the 3 "Rs" are reduce, reuse, recycle, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are actually in that order for a reason. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 First it is reduce, then it is reduce, and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then lastly recycle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 People like Bea Johnson or Lauren Singer, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 some of the leaders in the zero waste 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 movement and the people that are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 practicing zero waste, the idea is not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually recycle more, it is actually to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 recycle less, because recycling is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a very energy intensive process, that is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 why it is at the bottom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Carrying a reusable water bottle, one of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the big ones is saying no to disposable items. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Anything that you look at and you would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 say "Will I use this just one time and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 then throw it away", instead finding a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reusable alternative, instead carrying 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 your own plate or bowl or utensils rather than disposables. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Buying unpackaged foods, buying used stuff. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What kinds of websites do you have around 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here for buying used stuff? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They have Gumtree, Freecycle, Freegle in the UK. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Do you have those here as well? Yeah? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Buying used stuff, which means no virgin 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 materials are needed for you to have something. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Repairing things, so when something is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 broken or slightly functioning, fixing it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rather than throwing it away and getting a new one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Donating stuff that you do not need 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 anymore. giving it to friends or a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 thriftshop rather than throwing it away. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Buying high quality stuff that wont 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 break, and composting. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then for transportation, which is the last one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the huge ones is going car free, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not owning a car. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Joining a car share program if you still 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 need to drive a car. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Driving less is a simple one if you are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 going to own a car still, just simply 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 driving less makes a huge difference. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you ride a bike, which there is no 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 point in even talking about this here, I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 saw like a million bikes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is just unique for me to see... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actually when I got here, when I got into 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the train station, that was the most bikes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I have seen in my entire life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the United States if there is like 6 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bikes in the same space, it is like "Whoa, bikers!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is pretty cool to see what is going on here. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I will take the lesson from you on that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one and be quiet about the biking. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Public transportation, which I think is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pretty good in Belgium, when you are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 complaining about transportation just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 imagine being in the United States for a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 little while, because it sucks over there, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and think about it that way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Living near the places that you spend 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 your time, so that you spend less time 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 banging your head or being depressed in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the car and in public transportation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 being closer to places. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then simply walking. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One of the last ones is supporting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmental organizations, supporting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmental non-profits. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As far as philanthropy goes, only 3% of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 all philanthropic donations go to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmental nonprofits, 97% goes elsewhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Donating to nonprofits that are working 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on environmental issues goes a huge way. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The other thing is just volunteering with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 them, just getting involved. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A lot of the time that is much... that can 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 be much more beneficial than money to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 them, just getting involved and volunteering. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There is a really awesome nonprofit 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which was started by Patagonia, the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 clothing company, about 10 years ago. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you own a business, you can join 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "1% for the Planet", and your company 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 gives 1% of all of the revenue to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 environmental nonprofits. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You donate directly to the nonprofits, not 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to1%, and they certify it, like "Rainforest Alliance". 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But just a month ago they started that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 or individuals, so now we can donate 1% to different nonprofits. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And again, it does not go to them, they 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 just certify you as a "1% for the Planet" donor. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Just supporting environmental nonprofits 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 by volunteering or donating. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is everything, and we have plenty of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 time for questions, right? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who has questions? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Forwarding? On, voting. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The question is, is there a reason why I 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 do not put voting in the things that you can do? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 No, I think that voting is one tool in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the arsenal of making positive changes, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but it is definitely not my focus by any means. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I think especially on the local level 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 voting can be extremely effective. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I do not know what the political 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 situation is like here, but I know that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 voting at the local level is where often 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it can be the most beneficial for your community. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I did not... enough people vote and are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not doing these things, so I focus on 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 these things too. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yeah? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Actually, the biggest thing that any of us 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 can do to make the largest environmental 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 impact is to eat a lot less meat, and eat 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a lot more fruits and vegetables, a lot more plants. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 One thing as I have said many times, I do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a lot of very extreme things, but when it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 comes to all of this, my message is very much moderation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is not go 100% zero waste, maybe it is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not be 100% vegan, maybe it is not 100% 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 never get into a car, but it is do things more moderately. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Eating a lot more plant-based, is the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 largest thing that we can do environmentally, really. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That would be the biggest one. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Plus, often most people eat way too much 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of it and they become a lot healthier 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without it, and so you start to feel better too. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Yeah? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everything has been a transitional process. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Back in 2011 I started a marketing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 company, I was at that time still fairly money oriented. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My first campaign, the bike ride across 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the country, I had money from running a marketing company. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My earlier projects cost more money, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because the more you have, the more you spend. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But during this whole time I have been 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 transitioning away from having a lot of money. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So currently, my yearly annual salary cap 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is $5,000 a year to keep myself as 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 minimally involved with money. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now, my adventures are funded by being 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 really simple adventures. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You can bike across the country, living 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 simply without spending a penny doing that. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, dumpster diving for a lot of my food. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Wherever I stay, I always just stay with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 friends or family. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I carry a tent so I can camp outside, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 never staying in hotels. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By focusing on the very basic needs in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 life, like this year I am doing a project 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where I am not buying anything new, or 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 being given anything new for an entire year. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The less you need, the easier, so now with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 my campaigns, they are mostly about how 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you can live more simply. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As I have learned, early on I had that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 money from the marketing company, but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 overtime it has become less and less 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 necessary to have money. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And also, largely by living a life that is about relationships. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because the more... the thing is that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 everyone in this room, if we work 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 together, we can meet most every single 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 one of each others needs. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 By sharing stuff, sharing resources, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sharing time, sharing skills, there is so 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 much more that we can accomplish. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example with my videos, a lot of times 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I work with videographers who want to make 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a positive difference through their film, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and I am able to do something where they 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are going to get good viewership on it 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and feel good about it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Does that kind of answer the question? Cool. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I still fly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I try to minimize my flying, I have flown 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 twice in the last 12 months or so, maybe 3 times. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I am doing now is... for me 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 personally, I find the more that I give to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 others, the more that I live in the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 service of others. often the more my basic 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 needs are met. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Which has been one of the really positive 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 things in life, is seeing that when you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 put yourself out there and you help 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 others, that they are more likely to help 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you as well. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So as far as flying, m