Speaker: Chris Graber, Tucson, AZ, USA
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Chris Graber: Hi, I'm Chris Graber from the desert in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States, close to the border with Mexico. Uh Here we have a lot of issues uh with extreme heat challenges. Uh lots of air quality warnings, water access issues. Those are at the top of everyone's mind and the community here. So, solutions that are getting implemented here can be used in other regions. So we're on the forefront of things like rainwater harvesting uh and stuff like that. So I've been volunteering for some nonprofits here that are focused on uh uh sustainability solutions for environmental issues, climate change issues. So I took a course about rainwater harvesting. Another course about uh gray water harvesting. Tucson actually gives rebates to homeowners for implementing these projects. So that's amazing. So I've been doing lots of projects around the house and getting in touch with the community and I give a little talk about uh buying a used electric car using the Inflation Reduction Act tax credit since I did that recently. So just trying to get plugged in uh to everything that's going on here in the community and um talking to friends and neighbors that's helped with uh expanding rooftop solar just even on my own street. So we was like the first house about four years ago on the street to to put rooftop solar in place and now about half the street has that. So that's really positive. Uh People want change, people want clean air, clean water, clean food, you know, communities, they need housing that's affordable and efficient and healthy. So all these issues are really important to me when I saw the project dry down. Uh Post, it said roughly one third of the solutions to combat climate change are best implemented at the household or family level. Uh that just really resonated with me to be able to take action and have other people uh learn from it. Everybody connect with their different skills and their perspectives. Uh This real community based type of learning environment here in Tucson. So that's really inspiring to me.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Chris Graber: So I grew up in Southern California and the weather was amazing. We did not have natural disasters left and right. Uh It was a peaceful childhood. A lot of times spent outdoors, I was just deeply connected to nature on a daily basis, going to the beach, going to the mountains. Uh My mom would take me on hikes with the native plant society. My relatives had an organic farm in Southern California that we'd visit. So it was just this constant deep connection uh and peaceful time in nature and feeling healthy and fit. And um so I now realize how lucky I was to have that. I, I wanna share that as much as possible with other people with future generations to come. Uh So nature has been my, you know, kind of primary inspiration and lens into climate change and climate solutions and then just people that also have those similar interests. Um I had a teacher in high school that talked about plant based living. So I tried that and up doing that for 20 years and getting really connected with that community and a community of athletes interested in, in that and all the different connected issues. So, animal welfare, climate change, uh sustainability in general, et cetera. Um and also, you know, with the organic food movement, just the pesticide exposure of farm workers and their families. If you know these families and interact with them, how, how could you send them out? Ok. Here are these chemicals to go apply? Yes, we need to make a profit, right? But um there are better solutions out there and nature's wisdom should be uh passed along. So my daughter is actually in the Agroecology uh department in college right now. And that's basically sustainable organic farming, which we obviously need to greatly expand um in a thoughtful way. So that's inspiring to me, young people with fresh ideas, looking at all these solutions, bringing any resources, all different angles, looking at these solutions. That's very inspiring. Yeah.
