Well, Hello you all, and I wish I was there
in beautiful San Jose.
I'm actually in Africa where people are doing
incredible work right now on spreading renewable
energy to people who have never had any power
before - their first lights they've ever had
- the first comes from the solar panel on
the side of their small house.
That's powerful and that's happening all over.
We need it to happen just as fast around the
rich and developed world, because that's where
most of this trouble comes from.
I wrote the first book about climate change
30 years ago.
We knew then we were in trouble but we didn't
know how much trouble - we didn't know how
fast..
We didn't know the oceans would be 30% more
acidic within 40 years, we didn't know coral
reefs would be dying left and right, we didn't
know that places like California would be
quickly stuck in a cycle of hideous drought
and amazing flood.
So we need to go to work very very fast on
climate change.
Now there's things that you guys can do close
to home and you know what they are - changing
your lightbulbs, riding your bike, eating
low on the food chain.
If you're going to use a car, see if you can't
take an electric one, take the bus.
Those are all important things.
My house is covered with solar panels.
But I don't try to fool myself that that's
actually how we are going to solve climate
change.
We're so far behind at this point that we
actually need everybody working together.
We need people becoming less of individuals
and more parts of big movements.
That's why I started 350.org with seven college
students 10 years ago, and now it has grown
into this big thing.
We think we've done 20000 rallies around the
world and in pretty much every country on
Earth.
You can join efforts like that, you can find
all kinds of other environmental groups, just
make sure that what you're doing is big enough
to matter - that it's part of some effort
- it's really starting to go after the roots
of our problem, and the root of our problem
is that the fossil fuel industry wants to
keep selling us coal and oil and gas far into
the future, and we've got to say "No".
We've got to say that we are moving to renewable
energy and we have to do it now.
So I really want to thank you all for taking
this seriously, for being engaged in this
battle, and I just want to say as I close:There
is no particular need to think of yourself
as "youth", "activists", or whatever else.
Most of the people I work with here, my own
people are from around the world.
But I tell them to stop thinking of themselves
as young people and just think of themselves
as people with a real stake in this fight.
You're going to be coming into the prime of
your lives when climate change is reaching
its peak.
So if we can do things now to slow it down
and limit it, it'll make your lives much much
easier going forward, but your lives are probably
going to be more or less okay anyway.
It's the lives of billions of other people
around this planet who've done nothing to
cause this problem that are at more immediate
risk and in their name, I urge you to work
as hard as you can and for all of us - I want
to just say thank you very much.
First, let’s talk a little bit about a typical
house in Silicon Valley that you, me, he,
she, we live in.
How does it affect the environment?
Simple actions such as leaving the lights
on, or taking long showers, or even constantly
flushing the toilet cause more detrimental
damage to the world around us than what we
realize.
A standard family of five uses on average
of 24,000 gallons of water each year just
by flushing the toilet.
And even though we’re not trying to say
humans need to limit their natural bodily
processes, a smart house can help cut down
on the energy and water used throughout the
home.
This house may seem like any normal house,
but it's more than that, it's a smart house.
With the rise of consumerism, there has been
an obvious increase in global warming and
other detrimental issues caused by humans.
Therefore, to control our burden on the Earth,
we propose the implementation of the Smart
Home.
Net zero means that your footprint, whether
it's carbon, or water or energy or food, it
is not having a negative impact.
We need to do more, and we can do more.
Growing your own food locally, making your
own energy, even making your own water...
If you make 2 watts, and you use only one
watt, you're giving 1 watt back.
So, what is a Smart Home?
Smart homes are houses in which individually
installed appliances are capable of communicating
with each other to provide full comfort to
the homeowner.
In addition to bringing ease to a person’s
home life, the Smart Home can also be utilized
as an environmentally friendly alternative
to normally constructed houses.
Let’s go explore the various appliances
available in a Smart Home!
One smart home appliance is smart windows
/ smart curtains.
The windows and curtains adjust the lighting
in a room by closing or opening based on the
time of day and outside light and temperature.
It’s able to do this using Accuweather API,
which has been coded into it.
Accuweather API predicts the weather, and
windows and curtains respond based on the
prediction.
For example, if it’s predicted to be very
sunny outside, the smart curtains will close.
Smart lights are another smart home appliance.
They use a coded in heat density sensor which
has the ability to sense when someone’s
in the room.
When someone is in the room, the light turns
on, and when there is no one room, the light
automatically and conveniently turns off.
Motion sensors are a smart home appliance
that most are probably more familiar with.
For example, motion sensors can be placed
on faucets so that the faucets run sparingly
and only when a person needs to use it.
The great thing about smart home appliances
is that they can all be controlled through
a single smartphone.
This way, you can turn on and off appliances
even without directly being next to them and
can make the home owner’s life much easier.
Smart homes also use a combination of solar
energy and electricity, as smart home appliances
are powered by both.
In return, a substantial amount of electricity
and water can be saved, which would significantly
help the current climate change issue.
But I have different living habits.
Will the smart home just turn off while I'm
working?
Good question!
Let’s fix that - we train the system on
your own dataset.
See this?
This is a machine learning algorithm that
allows your smarthome to learn from your actions
to determine your average shower time, average
bath time, and more.
So after a while, your shower will know when
to turn off even if you forget to.
Oh!
So my house won't get flooded!
You got it!
So to sum up, smart homes aid in our solution
to climate change by allowing us to effectively
communicate with various aspects of our homes
in order to produce this concept of a net
positive energy.
Making your home smart does not mean sacrifices
and heavy expenses, there are actually affordable
and easy steps you can take that allow the
way you function at home to keep the Earth
functioning.
So, it’s a win-win for everyone!
Smart homes make you smarter.
With the environment!!
