To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Google had a great idea: Ask individuals if they have ideas that would make the world a better place.
We felt we had a good idea and so we submitted it. On January 27th, 2009, Google will be asking the public to vote on some of the top suggestions. Our goal is to be among those chosen.
We really believe in our idea so we thought we’d share it with you all before January rolls around:
Check out this 30 second video that explains the idea.
THE IDEA: Calorie Offsets for a calorie neutral planet
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN: Calorie Offsets = balancing non-essential nutrient consumption with offsets to get nutrients for undernourished children = a sustainable “calorie neutral” lifestyle.Calorie Offsets
IN OTHER WORDS: Calorie Offsets will attack malnutrition, by far the world’s biggest health issue.
Malnutrition is a problem that concerns poor and rich – too many people do not get enough essential nutrients (undernourished) and too many people overeat non-essential nutrients (obesity).
Undernourished malnutrition is not about rice. It’s a medical emergency that leads every year to 3.5 million deaths in children under five. There are 178 million children (equal to half the US population) malnourished in the world.
On the flipside, The World Health Organization predicts that obesity will soon replace undernourishment as the most important cause of bad health. In the US alone between 1971-2000 obesity rates doubled from 14.5% to 30.9%.
Here’s the kicker: we will not solve famine – it’s a complex issue that caused by wars, droughts, and other breakdowns. Nor will we overcome our love affair with high-calorie treats. We need a different sustainable solution. We think that Calorie Offsets might be one of the answers.
Thoughts?
Post by Marie-Eve Best, Nov 4th
Love the idea! How would you go by implementing such a market. Would junk food lover be paying more for there snacks? Would it be a voluntary market where individuals would be given there amount of non essential calories consume at the time of purchase and then advise to buy calorie credits via a web site such as http://www.liveneutral.org/ ?
And would fast food chains be forced to take part in a compliance market?
Good questions indeed. Let’s jam live to discuss - some i think i have figure out…others need more brain power.