Bill Gates asks: 'Who will suffer most from climate change?'

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna -- “Who will suffer most from climate change?” Bill Gates posed this question in his latest blog post.

“The world’s poorest farmers show up for work each day for the most part empty-handed. That’s why of all the people who will suffer from climate change, they are likely to suffer the most,” Gates wrote, answering his own question.

Gates is optimistic, noting that many of the tools farmers need to adapt are quite basic, including better seeds, fertilizer, and training.

“The Gates Foundation and its partners have worked together to develop new varieties of seeds that grow even during times of drought or flooding,” he added.

The tools he mentioned included the “scuba” rice, a flood-tolerant rice variety that can survive underwater for up to two weeks. So far, 10 million farmers in South Asia have access to scuba rice, among other climate-smart rice varieties.

Scuba rice is being promoted by the Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) Project, an IRRI-led project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In April of this year, senior officers of the Gates Foundation came to IRRI headquarters in Laguna to see for themselves the work being done at the world’s premier research center on rice. They toured IRRI’s research facilities and heard updates on the science and partnership between the two organizations, including the latest on climate change-ready rice varieties.

Gates’s response aligns with the International Rice Research Institute’s mission to confront the challenges of growing rice in the midst of the changing climate.

, , IRRI director general, pointed out that many farmers who belong to the poorest of the poor have not benefited fully from the first Green Revolution of the 1960s-70s. This time around, the second Green Revolution seeks to leave no farmer behind.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook, Gates Foundation Team Up to Create Apps For Future College Students

Facebook hosted a hackathon in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Thursday, kicking off the foundation’s College Knowledge Challenge — a $2.5 million investment fund to encourage developers to make apps that meliorate the college process.

Thursday’s Hackathon, “HackEd,” aimed to mesh the digital Facebook crowd with the Gates’ altruistic mission in hopes of creating apps that are useful to students (and their parents) nearing college years. At the end of the hack, a panel of judges will announce winners and give out prizes.

Stacey Childress, deputy director for the foundation’s College Ready Challenge, tells Mashable the app developers will focus on one or more of these problems facing future college students: the application process, admissions and financial aid.

The reason the Foundation’s partnership with Facebook is so important, she said, is because teens will best be reached through the use of the social networking site. Childress said today’s teens rely on social networking to pick the college they’ll attend.

Adding other useful and easy-to-find apps on Facebook such as how to find financial aid, will be essential in encouraging young people to attend college. The apps will be platform agnostic, not tied to Facebook.
So how many apps does $2.5 million fund? Each finalist will get $50,000-$100,000 in funding to develop their app — so about 25-50.

Hackathons are a common occurance at Facebook. Usually fun and voluntary events for employees that occur after work, they allow tech-savvy minds at the company to develop projects of their own.
The goal: build something that either impacts the site (Timeline sprung from an idea at a Facebook Hackathon) or simply something interesting and useful.

Typically, hacks at Facebook begin after work hours and go until the early morning hours. This hack, though, is a day-long event starting at 9 a.m. and ending around 7 p.m. PT.

The Gates Foundation wants to encourage more developers, particularly women and minorities, to create these new tools. The request for proposals is open to anyone, and people who participated in the hack — whether they won or not — will be eligible to apply.

The contest goes through January, with the development challenge running through Nov. 16.

source: mashable.com

11 more US billionaires join Gates, Buffett charity pledge

NEW YORK - Eleven billionaires added their names Tuesday to the effort by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to donate half their fortunes to charity, bringing the total to 92.

The newest members of the club include Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, and Charles Bronfman, the Canadian-born former head of Seagram Co.

The Giving Pledge, announced in 2010, was launched by Microsoft mogul Gates and investment guru Buffett who want to convince the richest people in the country to give 50 percent or more of their fortune to charity.
The group includes CNN founder Ted Turner, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Hollywood director George Lucas, as well as Buffett and Gates.

"We've said from the beginning that this is a long-term effort, so it's exciting to see continued progress over the last two years," said Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"This new group brings extensive business and philanthropic experience that will enrich the conversation about how to make philanthropy as impactful as possible. Their thoughtfulness and deep commitment to philanthropy are an inspiration to me, and I'm sure to many others as well."

The newest members also include Manoj Bhargava, India-born founder of 5-hour Energy; and Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Also pledging were Peter Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance; Jonathan Nelson, founder of Providence Equity Partners; Jorge Perez, chairman and CEO of The Related Group; Albert Lee Ueltschi, founder of FlightSafety International; and Symphony Technology Group founder Romesh Wadhwani.
New pledges also came from Claire Tow, co-founder of a major cable television company, and husband Leonard Tow, the CEO of New Century Holdings.

Lewis said in his pledge letter that he would make donations aimed at "promoting a healthy democracy, broad civic participation and public policy -- from the support of progressive think tanks to leadership training for public servants, to investigative journalism, ethics in government, and a democratic media."
He added that another effort he would fund is "taboo for most philanthropists yet exemplifies disastrous public policy... our nation's outdated, ineffective marijuana laws."

Lewis said he has already funded efforts to enact laws that give patients access to marijuana as relief for pain and nausea and has "made no secret of being one of those patients myself, using marijuana to help with pain following the amputation of my lower leg."

"A majority of Americans are ready to change marijuana laws, yet we continue to arrest our young people for engaging in an activity that is utterly commonplace," he said.

Bronfman said in his letter that philanthropy "is in the DNA of my family," adding that his parents were active participants in Jewish, local Montreal and Canadian charities.

"The dining table conversation was a place for discussing what was important to them in that world -- it is no surprise then, that each of us has contributed to society."

source: interaksyon.com

Bill Gates wants to 'Reinvent the Toilet'

SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates on Tuesday launched a search for a new toilet better suited to developing countries.

The charitable foundation founded by Gates and his wife kicked off a "Reinvent the Toilet Fair" in Seattle and awarded prizes for promising innovations.

"Toilets are extremely important for public health and, when you think of it, even human dignity," Gates said in a statement at thegatesnotes.com.

"The flush toilets we use in the wealthy world are irrelevant, impractical and impossible for 40 percent of the global population, because they often don't have access to water, and sewers, electricity, and sewage treatment systems."

The Toilet Fair was described as a swirl of about 200 inventors, designers, investors, partners and others passionate about creating safe, effective, and inexpensive waste management systems.

Universities from Britain, Canada, and the United States were awarded prizes in a competition launched a year ago challenging inventors to come up with a better toilet.

First place went to the California Institute of Technology for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen gas and electricity.

Loughborough University came in second for a toilet that transforms waste into biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water.

Third place went to the University of Toronto for a toilet that sanitizes human waste and recovers minerals and water.

"Four in 10 people worldwide don't have a safe way to poop," the Gates Foundation said in a message beneath a Reinvent the Toilet video at its gatesfoundation.org website.

Approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide don't have access to safe sanitation systems for handling the basic and vital need to dispose of bodily waste, according to Gates.

"Beyond a question of human dignity, this lack of access also endangers people's lives, creates an economic and a health burden for poor communities, and hurts the environment," Gates said.

Food or water tainted with fecal matter causes intestinal diseases that kill 1.5 million children annually -- a figure higher than deaths from AIDS and malaria combined, according to Gates.

"Inventing new toilets is one of the most important things we can do to reduce child deaths and disease and improve people's lives," Gates said.

"It is also something that can help wealthier countries conserve fresh water for other important purposes besides flushing."

source: interaksyon.com