Graham Meriwether

Finding solutions, both big and small, to spark the reversal of global warming.

On Monday April 21st Graham Meriwether came in to see us to give a talk.

Graham is a documentary videographer finding the answers to tough

environmental questions. His company, Leave It Better, focuses on finding

and telling stories about people who work to improve the way we relate to our

food, design our buildings and furniture,  and dispose of our electronics and waste.

He will be discussing finding the solutions, both big and small, to spark

the reversal of global warming.

Hello! Thank you so much for visiting with me today.

I'd like to talk about what we can all do to leave the world better for future generations. In the summer of 2006, I watched the documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth" featuring Al Gore. The film scared me. When the movie was over, and the credits were rolling down the screen, I was left with a nagging question: 

What can I do, what can we all do, to reverse global warming?

After weeks of thought, I decided to find people across the United States who are actively working to leave the world better for future generations. I found leaders in agriculture, green building, electronics recycling and even those who created zero waste for an entire month. It is very inspiring to see how many people across the US are actively working for the betterment of our environment. Tonight, I am going to share the wisdom I've absorbed from these individuals with you. When we make small changes to are daily routine, we can have a profound impact on our families, friends and communities. The first green pioneer I'd like to tell you about is a fiery and controversial farmer in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. His name is Joel Salatin. Joel is a third generation farmer and he is working to change food in America . How does one change food? Joel uses the natural symbiotic relationships between animals, plants and insects to completely eliminate the need for antibiotics for his animals. In other words, his animals are healthy, His cows eat grass. Cows in the industrial food system live in places called CAFOs. CAFOs is an acronym that stands for: Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. A cow living in a CAFO lives in excrement, and is force-fed corn so it can get to weight. Cows have multiple stomachs with a "Rumen" so they can digest grass. They cannot appropriately digest corn. It's acidity leads to lesions on the stomach, and consequently they need antibiotics. The problem is the antibiotics get into the meat, and we breed "super" germs that way. BTW, the word "Ruminate" comes from the word "Rumen" referring to the lengthy period it takes a cow to digest food. But I digress, Joel's cows eat grass. They live outside. They live on green pastures, and they don't need antibiotics. This brings us to the first thing you can do to stop global warming:

1) BUY LOCAL FOOD

Buying local food from your small farmers helps to reduce global warming. When you buy meat or produce from Argentina or China , a great deal of carbon dioxide has to be expelled in order to get the food to you. In a recent study, it was found that the average bite of food in America travels 1500 miles. That's a lot of gas.

If you buy at a farmer's market, the food only has to travel 25 miles, That's saving gas, and helping to leave the world better for our next generation. You also get to know where your food comes from, and who is growing it.

At industrial farms, they have security guards who are paid to keep you out. Why is this? Anyone want to guess?

To stop the protesters?

So that we don't know what's going on the food

pesticides and other chemicals

or even how they actually grow them

because it would ruin your appetite

That's right, so we don't know what's going in to the food. Pesticides that are carcinogenic. Animals that are sick. When you go to Joel Salatin's farm you can walk around and pet the animals. Why is that?

because they're free range

lol - so you will become a vegetarian

yes, because they are healthy animals, so my challenge to you this week is to eat one meal that comes entirely from local farms! The food is more fresh, more healthy, and it doesn't take as much oil to get to your dinner plate..

One more comment on food, I highly recommend the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. This book follows four different meals from the plate to their origin. Joel is a main character in this book, and this is how I found Joel. It will change the way you eat forever....

Okay, now onto electronics...

James Burgett runs the ACCRC. He's fat, tattooed and proud of it! When he was 16 years old, he was kicked out of his home. He quickly turned to drugs, heroin, PCP, whatever he could get his hands on. James had a natural gift with electronics. Having no money, he would go through dumpsters to find broken computers. He would fix the computers and sell them to get money for heroin. After finding love, he was able to beat his addiction. He now uses his knowledge of electronics to run the largest electronics recycling center in the US . The Alameda County Computer Resource Center in Berkeley CA. www.accrc.org

They process hundreds and hundreds of tons of electronic waste each year. Microwaves, computers, cell phones

He uses some of the computers to provide a free workshop for the area's youth. He also employs recovering drug addicts, like himself, to sort through the computers people drop off. In this country, it seems like a computer becomes obsolete every 6 months. When we get a new computer, we must take care of the old one, which brings us to our second tip for the evening on how to reduce global warming:

2) DON'T SEND ELECTRONICS TO THE LANDFILL

You can either resell your computer or microwave on craigslist or you can donate it through an organization like FREECYCLE This will avoid sending the toxic materials to the landfill, which will in turn minimize the pollution to our rivers, oceans and lakes, and help to preserve the biodiversity necessary for healthy ecosystems. There is also another important point regarding computers and global warming:

3) DON'T UPGRADE UNTIL YOU HAVE TO

To often people buy a whole new computer when all they needed was more RAM. When you buy a whole new computer, there are so many more parts that get built and the more parts, the more water and energy the manufacturing plants have to expend. By buying one chip, instead of one entire machine, you greatly reduce waste and you more efficiently use the earth's resources. Another point, is that it is more environmentally friendly to use LINUX and non-proprietary computers. Unfortunately, many of us, myself included, can't do this because certain software necessary for our jobs is difficult to run on LINUX or on non-proprietary boxes. But briefly, the reason why non-proprietary computers is more eco friendly is because you can use generic parts to replace

old parts. James has had the same box for 15 years. All interchangeable parts. Companies like DELL and APPLE have proprietary software, making it very difficult to replace parts. Thus, customers are forced to buy an entire new tower. This is not good for the environment, and is not an efficient use of resources.

4) DONATE YOUR OLD COMPUTERS

Next, I want to talk about green building.

For this segment of the film, I have followed Dax Ponce de Leon. He is a young man trying to build one of the greenest buildings in Michigan, specifically in Ann Arbor, MI. Because of the difficult state of the MI economy

he has faced some hurdles. The building is going to have a living wall, which will act as a water filtration device.

All of the water from the building will be reused. There will be no waste water. On the roof, wind turbines will be implemented, and on the southern face, solar Photo voltaic panels will use the sun's energy. Green building is big on using the natural energy sources to minimize the operating costs of the building. Green buildings provide healthier places for us to work, live, breathe. Obviously, most of us live in buildings that aren't green. The easiest way for us to make are own living spaces and work spaces healthier is... would anyone like to venture a guess?

Bicycle generator

Put thermostat 1 degree down

Bicycle generator! what a great idea... that's not what I had in mind, but that would work put the thermostat down... that works too

PLANTS

Plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and make air healthier to breathe. They also reduce stress levels, when a garden is put on the roof of a building, it insulates the home or office, drastically reducing heating costs,

Green roofs also capture rain water and minimize runoff. This cuts down on the need for gutters, and also minimizes leaks. Green roofs are really simple and really economical. Another thing we can do is to use passive ventilation. So that brings us to our fifth and sixth actions for reducing global warming:

5) BUY A PLANT, OR PLANT A TREE

6) MINIMIZE OR ELIMINATE USE OF AC

By using passive ventilation, we can minimize the use of air conditioners this cuts our electric bill and also cuts our contribution to global warming. Plants actually reverse global warming!! How exciting is that!

After the talk Graham took a short Question and Answer Session.

How do you know if the meat you're buying is from a local farm?

Great Question: How do you know if the meat you are buying is from a local farm? The only way to be sure is to go to a farmer's market and talk to the farmer who raised the animal. Getting to know your farmers, if possible, is the best way.

Is there a list somewhere online? Where such markets are?

Yes, www.eatwild.com is a great resource for local farms

It would seem that the food that is grown "organically" would be less expensive to grow because of the lack of chemicals. Why then is the food more expensive to consumers?

Why does organic food cost more?

Yes

This is a tough one. Often, this has to do with government subsidies for industrial agriculture, The government actually gives the industrial giants, such as ConAgra, money and doesn't give small farmers like Joel anything. This allows ConAgra to have lower prices than Joel even though they spend much more on feed and antibiotics. Often you will find that small farmers are getting more and more competitive. You can be a part of a group that buys in bulk from farmers to reduce the cost. These are called CSA or Community Supported Agriculture.

I've heard about buying meat directly from the farmer before it is packaged and cut.  Has this passed the health and safety checks and laws?

Joel Salatin recently wrote a book called "Everything I want to do is Illegal" In it, he outlines why government regulation often makes healthy local food illegal. As for buying meat that hasn't been inspected by the USDA, I would say that your inspection is better than theirs. If you know the farmer, and trust the farmer, and can see that the animals are healthy...go for it! Just because the USDA stamps some meat that has been raised in a excrement filled CAFO, does not mean that it is healthy.

What does the proprietary software have to do with hardware replacement?

James tells me that proprietary software is bad for the environment because the companies sell the new versions in boxes with packaging, and new disks. They waste resources in the name of profit. James is a champion if UBUNTU, and finds Microsoft to be the most environmentally unfriendly company of all. Apple being a close second.

What’s the best way to make sure that I have no personal information on a computer before donation or giving it away?

At James' ACCRC facility they wipe the computer clean. At other facilities, they might not.

To protect your self, delete any files you don't want others to see. You can request that they reboot the computer and reload the Operating System.

Or you could do that yourself...

What is the average cost of replacing a conventional roof with a green one?

Tough question: what is the average cost of green roof?

Yes

This depends on the scope of the renovation. Green roofs can be really, really cheap. You can start small by flipping a box spring upside down, putting soil in it and planting a tomato seed, or you can hire a professional to have terraces and water treatment facilities running in the tens of thousands of dollars.

We've got to wind up tonight.

You've been great!

Thanks to Justine and to everyone here for having me!

It was a pleasure!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me at graham@leaveitbetter.com

Goodnight!!

Remember everyone, their website will be going live in August

and will have all these stories of people doing what they can on it.

The website will be www.leaveitbetter.com