When I introduced myself to Steemit, I posed the question, can one person change the world starting with nothing? It was a question that surfaced during a conversation with a friend. She thinks it can't be done, I believe it can be. At the end of our discussion (argument), she simply proposed I put my money where my mouth was, saying, OK Richard, do it then... go change the world.
At 60 years old, my life is a mess (something I'll go into more detail about in the future). For now, after what I considered to be a pretty good run (more on that later as well), suffice it to say I'm broke, buried in debt, a felon, and have some significant physical impairment, the result of a nasty airplane crash. Still, I think I have one good escapade left in me.
At this point in my life, money is no longer a primary motivation. In fact, I pretty much hate the stuff and would be more than happy to live without it if I could figure out how to pull it off. Regardless, all I really want to do, financially speaking, is keep my bases covered while I determine the best way to change the world.
There are endless ideas one could undertake to change the world. While a guy could start to chase new ideas and technologies to accomplish a global change, it seems to me, one would have a better chance at pulling it off employing existing, proven technology, in a fashion that would solve one or more problems currently plaguing humanity.
I don't really need to go into all the major problems that we collectively face. Nuclear proliferation, war, sex trafficking, biosecurity, government corruption, poverty, pollution, economic reform, education, water scarcity, financial inequity, food, etc., etc. One could write an infinite number of pages on global problems and the havoc they wreak on mankind.
Within the list of problems we collectively face, there are those that I don't know how to fix. I don't know how to stop things like war, wholesale corruption, biosecurity, and the like. Regarding things like sex trafficking, education, water scarcity, etc., I think a person could go to work and make some kind of an impact, but I don't know how to make enough of an impact for it to be considered "world changing".
Without writing the novel it would require to describe all the recent research I've done to determine the problems I think I can solve and that I've decided to attack, let me just get to the point and tell you... pollution, hunger, and poverty.
I began to further research the issues I chose.
As of January 1, 2017, some 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead healthy active lives. Hunger is responsible for nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year. Every six seconds of every day, the life of a child is extinguished by hunger.
Coal-burning power plants are the single largest producer of pollution in the world, creating almost half of the world’s electricity. Thousands of these plants litter the world’s landscape, puking out unimaginable quantities pollutants and there are over 1,500 more that will shortly come to fruition.
80% of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day. Over half of those, more than 3 billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty, less than $1.25 a day. 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty… 22,000 die each day because of it.
I'm going to change that.
I Googled “what is the biggest source of pollution in the world”. The article that showed up in the first position was written by Live Science suggesting that energy production, food production, and transportation were the biggest culprits. Their findings were based on eleven studies in a special edition of the Yale Journal of Industrial Ecology, which looked at the environmental impact of major product groups.
I continued to research, typing all kinds of related words, phrases, and sentences into my Google search box, and my findings were pretty much what I already knew. An article by the Union of Concerned Scientists, states that coal-fired power plants are one of the biggest sources of pollution in the world.
I had trouble determining exactly how many coal fired power plants currently exist in the world today. According to Wikipedia, there are 196 coal-fired power plants that produce over 2,000 MW of power. Those are HUGE plants, meaning there are probably thousands of sub 2,000 MW plants currently in existence as well. This blog post by Ailun Yang back in 2012, states there were 1,199 additional coal-fired power plants being proposed back then.
The bottom line is, there are thousands of coal-fired power plants in existence, puking out an insane amount of pollution every single minute of every single day.
Food production. This article posted on the Food Empowerment Projects website is a good summation of pollution issues surrounding commercial food production. While I’m not a vegan and don’t intend on becoming one anytime soon, I get it. Chemicals, waste, fuel emissions, etc., etc., created by factory farming and industrial food production are a huge burden on the world.
Back to power. I won’t bore you by giving you detailed results of the hours and hours of research I completed. Suffice it to say that of all the ways to create power today, the most efficient, cost-effective, cleanest way to create power is with gas-fired, cogeneration power plants. This cogeneration power plant in Klamath Oregon is a great example.
Back to food again. The cleanest, most efficient way to produce high quality, non-GMO, chemical free, naturally fertilized, real food, with ZERO pollution, is through aquaponic greenhouse farming with an added poultry component. Simply speaking, it works like this: Fish are raised in large, fresh water tanks. Organic produce is grown in hydroponic grow trays. Free range chickens are also raised on site. The waste from the fish nourish the plants, the plant waste feeds the chickens, the chicken waste feeds the fish. As a bonus, the waste from the plants is converted to fuel for the power plant.
The result is high quality, pesticide and chemical free, naturally fertilized, organic produce, fish, poultry, and eggs that grow year round, with NONE of the pollution associated with current farming methods. It produces more real food per square foot than any other type of farming in existence. One acre can provide enough food to feed 1,000 people perpetually.
Although gas-fired cogeneration power plants are one of the cleanest methods of creating the energy we need, they still produce waste, the two biggest of which are heat and Co2. Two of the biggest aquaponic greenhouse farming needs are heat and fertilizer. Power plants produce heat, and through photosynthesis, plants, along with water and light, convert carbon dioxide (Co2) to oxygen. Carbon dioxide is a natural fertilizer for plants. It’s a perfect marriage.
The heat and Co2 produced by the power plant will be routed to the greenhouses, warming them and providing additional fertilizer (Co2) for the plants. Through photosynthesis, the exhaust will effectively be scrubbed, significantly reducing the impact of exhaust gasses released back into the air. It’s as close to carbon neutral power production as you can get while eliminating almost all of the pollution associated with current farming a food production methods in use today.
I had a creator at Fiverr whip up a diagram to demonstrate the concept...
Poverty. I’m going to introduce and implement a new business model, starting with this project. Simply put, the new model requires the 20% of the proceeds from any given project to be distributed to the principles and 80% of the proceeds to be invested into other projects that are 1. positive for humanity, and 2. adhere to the same 20/80 business model.
The concept is simple and straightforward. People who invest in a project receive 20% of any profits from the business or project they invested in. By moving 80% of the profits into other worthy projects or business ventures, they will have a stake in those projects, or as I like to say, they’ll have skin in the game. This model perpetuates projects and businesses that are good for humanity, rewarding the principals who help others bring their worthy projects to fruition. In a way, it’s a “pay it forward” business model, where everyone wins and no one loses.
I will employ this new business model in this adventure, distributing 20% of the project to the project principals and distribute 80% to like minded ideas that fit the criteria I mentioned above. If you have a project or business idea that fundamentally benefits humanity and you’re willing to perpetuate the business model, you may submit your ideas HERE for consideration.
Replacing all of the pollution-intense, coal burning power plants currently in operation with clean, gas-fired, cogeneration power plants with an aquaponic greenhouse farming component, global pollution will be reduced by over 50%, and enough high quality, real food will be produced to end hunger.
Then, it can be your turn. As other people who are smarter and more talented than I am begin to adopt this model and perpetuate the results, the world will begin to transform.
As I continue to write, I’m sitting in a little coffee shop I frequent in Central, Oregon. I overhear two young women talking about their boyfriends, a family sips coffee and plans their weekend getaway, an older woman looks out the window across the lake at the mountains in the background. None of them have any idea that I’m going to change the world.
Now, I have to design things in detail and figure out how to fund this adventure. Your ideas are welcome!
Thanks for your ear...
Rich