SECOND-QUARTER-1997
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Peter Meisen updates U.S.
Vice President Al Gore, who wrote: "A
global energy network makes enormous sense if
we are to meet global energy needs with a minimal
impact of the world's enviroment" |
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| Mr. Meisen explains GENI
to Mikhail Gorbachev at State of the World Forum.
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Stories from around the world report a wide
range of global challenge:
- China's exploding economic growth is
causing severe environmental damage
- Numerous power outages in India cause
productivity losses in the millions
- UN Development Program sees a growing
divide between rich and poor nations
- World Resources Institute projects global
population to 8.3 billion in 2025
- Large insurance firms have tripled their
property losses over the past decade
- The World Bank warns of critical water
shortages and the growth of megacities
- Increased greenhouse warming threatens
the spread of tropical diseases
- Two billion people have no access to
potable water and burn wood for cooking
What do these issues have in common? The
GENI Initiative is a solution is each. Linking
Renewable Energy Resources Around the World
— A World Wide Web of Electricity —
A Compelling Global Strategy for Peace and Sustainable
Development — The World's Highest Priority
Objective. No matter how you define it, the
Energy Grid Initiative is a comprehensive design
strategy that engineers a solution to these
issues.
The GENI Initiative is receiving some high-level
attention. We were invited to participate in
the State of the World Forum, hosted by the
Gorbachev Foundation. Now that the Cold War
is over, hundreds of experts are gathering annually
to identify solutions for the next millennium.
In addition to presenting this work to President
Gorbachev, we again met Vice President Al Gore,
who has expressed his support several times,
including a section in his environmental book
Earth in the Balance (page
330).
While peace in the Middle East remains tenuous,
last year we offered an alternative project
to Prime Minister Shimon Peres and other leaders
engaged in the peace process. Our letter to
these world leaders is a model for building
peace between neighboring nations anywhere around
the world. Several of the world media have also
taken note of the GENI Initiative. You will
appreciate the excerpts from the New
Scientist , the Simulation
Journal and the Washington Post.
Geothe said nothing is so
powerful as an idea whose time has come.
GENI supporters, our international Affiliates
and Board members have worked for almost 10
years to provide a solid foundation for this
global strategy. Providing credible information
to 190 world leaders and their advisers is a
prime goal. We offer GENI in
Review to summarize this effort. I think
you'll find the section on Comprehensive
Anticipatory Design Science to be especially
important.
I want to thank you for supporting this
compelling solution to many of today's pressing
issues. We need your continued efforts. Please
consider expanding your support of this vision
with your own money, time, contacts or expertise.
The world needs it — and so do our children.
Sincerely,
Peter Meisen
President
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GENI DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS: Sara
Beattie, Anthony Davis, Bobbi DePorter, Graeme
Edwards, Joe Falcon, Nyhl Henson, Janathin
Miller, Bill Shopoff, Joanalys Smith, Peter
Wagshal
GENI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Peter Meisen
GENI ADVISORS: Raghbir Basi, Len Bateman,
Lowell Blankfort, David Cline, Mike Fisher,
Ashley Gardner, Floyd Geis, Mark Victor Hansen,
Robert Kiyosaki, Terry Lipman, Karen Morgan,
Robert Muller, Glenn Olds, Malcolm Roberts,
David Steven, Marshall Thurber
Newsletter
produced by Writing by Design, Jamul, California
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The GRID Initiative: A Compelling Global Strategy
This is a project that will affect the lives of every
person on the planet. It is both simple and complex.
Simply stated, the strategy is to link electrically
the renewable energy resources around the world.
This was determined to be the planet's highest priority
from the World GameTM, a global simulation
that asks the question:
How do we make the world work for 100% of humanity
in the shortest possible time through spontaneous
cooperation without ecological damage or the disadvantage
of anyone?
Two decades ago, both the United Nations and Buckminster
Fuller determined that a sufficient supply of electrical
energy provides the foundation for a decent standard
of living. By tapping the planet's abundant renewable
energy, the needs of all humanity could be met in
an environmentally sustainable fashion. The technology
exists today, and it is cost competitive.
The benefits of this strategy are enormous —
and proven. The complexity begins as you examine the
implications of 190 nations cooperating daily for
the mutual benefit of all. The interconnection of
electrical networks between countries and continents
tapping renewables will have huge impact. It would:
- increase universal living standards
- increase trade, cooperation and enhance world
peace
- increase energy efficiency and sustainable development
- reduce climate change and pollution due to current
fossil fuel usage and nuclear wastes
- reduce world hunger, literacy and poverty
- stabilize world population growth
Experts around the world have corroborated
these findings:
What if these experts are all right? GENI's goal
is to put this credentialed and compelling global
strategy for an interconnected global grid on the
agenda of 190 world leaders as quickly as possible.
We welcome the involvement and support of everyone.
We have 3 main projects which require financial support.
Please see GENI in Review for
more information on the Computer Simulation Model,
The Powerful Planet Film,
and an International Conference.
International Attention
Global
Power: The electric hypergrid, New Scientist,
July 8, 1995 (magazine excerpts)
Dreams of a global electricity grid are close
to reality. The New Scientist looks ahead to a world
in which electrical power is traded worldwide.
When Arab energy ministers met in Cairo in April,
there was one thing at the top of their agenda --
plans for a regional electricity grid that would stretch
more than 5000 kilometers from Morocco in the west
to the Gulf states in the east. And for Maher Abaza,
Egypt's Energy Minister and the meeting's host, that
would only be the start. Abaza foresees a network,
with Egypt at its heart, that would give the energy-hungry
countries of Europe access to the hydropower of Africa's
mightiest rivers. Ultimately, he envisages a worldwide
power system that would cut the cost of electricity
everywhere. This, says Abaza, represents the
hope for the peoples of the developing world.
Intercontinental electricity grids are the only way
to harness the planet's great sources of renewable
energy and link them to centers of population, according
to Peter Meisen of Global Energy Network International
in San Diego. This non-profit organization is dedicated
to promoting Buckminster Fuller's vision of a global
grid. Modern transmission lines can
efficiently span up to 6000 kilometers, says Meisen.
This is enough to bring power to large industrial
centers from hydroelectric sites on the great Arctic
rivers, such as the Ob and Yukon, Mackenzie and Lena,
and tidal power sites in Argentina, China, Australia
and India. A global grid could also tap solar power
right around the tropics, and the geothermal potential
of the ring of fire around the
Pacific Ocean, in Iceland and the rift valley of Africa.
Special Issue: Environmental Simulation and
Mission Earth April 1995
The
GENI Model: The Interconnection of Global Power Resources
to Obtain an Optimal Global Sustainable Energy Solution,
by Paul-Michael Dekker, Peter Meisen, Amy
Bruton
(magazine excerpts)
The GENI Model quantifies the economic, environmental,
and social benefits of developing remote renewable
energy sources and linking them to population centers
via long distance electrical transmission lines. The
model investigates an optimal sustainable global energy
solution by comparing the GENI alternative to those
alternatives presented by the World Energy Council
and others. . .
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Global Energy Grid on Dymaxion™
Map
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Currently 82% of electricity is generated by burning
finite nonrenewable fuels (fossil 77.1%, nuclear 4.9%).
Renewable energy is extremely abundant, relatively
inexhaustible, and potentially less polluting than
nonrenewables. Technologies for converting this energy
to electricity are now becoming cost competitive with
fossil fuel generation. Unfortunately, most large
scale renewable energy sites are located far from
population centers. However, current transmission
line technology is now capable of economically delivering
electricity as far as 4000 miles from the source.
From a technological viewpoint, interconnection of
renewable energy sources is a viable and feasible
energy alternative today.
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Reported January
24, 1996, in
The
Washington Post
Israel's Vision of Syrian Pact Is Ambitious:
Foreign Minister Defines 'Full Peace'
by Thomas Lippman
With peace negotiations between Israel and
Syria set to resume today, Israel Foreign Minister
Ehud Barak yesterday offered a tough, ambitious
definition of the full peace Israel would demand
as the price of a complete withdrawal from the
occuppied Golan Heights.
He said Israel wants diplomatic relations,
an open border, trade, tourist exchanges, a
free flow of goods, services and people, communication
and transportation links, joint water projects
and even the integration of the two countries'
electricity grids.
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Interlocking electrical grids could save Israelis
and Arabs millions of dollars.
Why Now? What's the Urgency?
Global Population on way to 8.3 billion
World Update Reuters,
April 19, 1996
The world's population should increase 50 percent
to 8.3 billion by 2025, with two-thirds massed in
congested cities and having more impact on the environment
than ever before, according to a report released yesterday.
The report by the World Bank, the United Nations
Environment and Development Programs and the World
Resources Institute also said intense industrial growth
likely will diminish efforts to cut climate-changing
gas emissions. The report said water shortages could
become critical in 30 years.
What more evidence is needed for a comprehensive
global strategy?
What Can You Do?
Global and local activities are needed to accelerate
the attainment of the GENI vision. Your participation
can take many forms. Please contact the GENI office
for more information on any of the following opportunities.
Contribute Your Money
Make a pledge
to help bring this vision into reality. We need monthly
donors!
You can contribute cash, stocks, real estate,
put GENI in your will or create a charitable remainder
trust.
GENI has project funding requirements of:
GENI is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization. Your
contribution
is tax-deductible in the United States.
Contribute Your Contacts
We need to reach the key leadership in 190 countries.
Please share this information with your nation's
policy-makers, business executives, media and spiritual
leaders.
Each of them is looking for new solutions to global
problems. Copy this newsletter or send
us your referrals.
Contribute your time or expertise:
Bringing an idea to the world needs assistance in
many ways. You can write
to the editor of your favorite magazine or newspaper
(we have excellent opinion
editorials for you to submit).
Help market our Web Site http://www.geni.org/
to your favorite news groups and create Hot Links with
related sites.
You could book
a presentation on the GRID Initiative for your trade
association annual meeting or host a fund raising event
in your home.
GENI Support
and Products
New GENI Computer Animation
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- GENI
Video:
What if... a new global option
This 15 minute video has been seen
around the world. Designed for the general public,
it's the best overview of the GENI Initiative. Introduction
by John Denver.
- GENI T-shirts (no longer offered)
"Connect the World with GENI"
— three color shirt along with Dymaxion™
Map and Grid is guaranteed to get attention and
conversation. White shirts with Map in blue and
yellow, Grid and print in red.
- GENI
Brochures
A concise statement on GENI, as well as the benefits
in the areas of economics, the environment, international
trade and cooperation, hunger and overpopulation.
This piece will explain GENI to your firends in
3 minutes.
- GENI
Membership and Placement on the GENI Mailing
List
You'll receive documentation and
support literature on the Global Energy Grid proposal,
priority mailing of hardcopy GENI Newsletters, and
monthly e-mail updates on the status of this discussion
around the world.
 Dymaxion™
Globe
Folded from the Dymaxion™ Map,
this four-color 6" globe generates conversation
on global issues and solutions.
- GENI
Video:
A WIN-WIN Solution
A 15 minute discussion by ten delegates
who participated in the International Workshop in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in July 1991. The consensus
statement strongly corroborated the GENI initiative
as very credible. It's a win-win
proposal for everyone involved. Joe Falson
- GENI
Technical Package
For the engineer and policy maker,
a compendium of reports, thoughtful analysis and
policy proposals from IEEE, World Bank and the United
Nations. $50 donation.
The Buckminster Fuller Institute
owns all rights to the Dymaxion™ Map
design. The word Dymaxion™ and the
Dymaxion™ Map design are trademarks of
the Buckminster Fuller Institute. The Map
is copyrighted by the Buckminster Fuller Institute,
1938, and is used here by permission.
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Beautiful four color poster
printed on heavy-gauge paper.
Promises to generate discussions in your
home and office.
GENI Mission —
to accelerate the attainment of optimal, ecologically
sustainable energy solutions in the shortest
possible time for the peace, health and prosperity
of all. GENI is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation
registered in the State of California.
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A compelling global strategy
for peace and sustainable development.
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Two decades
ago, the late R. Buckminster Fuller
proposed interconnecting regional power
systems into a single continuous global electrical
energy grid. • While this vision is still years
away, tech-
nological advances have made the linking of
international and
inter regional energy networks practicable today.
• Transmission
lines allow utilities to level the peaks and
valleys of demand. This is
accomplished between East-West time zones, as
well as North-South
seasonal variations in demand. • The origin
of the energy grid initiative
emerged as the highest priority of the World
Game™. Its stated purpose
is “to make the world work for 100% of humanity
in the shortest possible
time through spontaneous cooperation without
ecological damage or the
disadvantage of anyone.” Research reveals that
these major benefits will
result from expanding electrical networks. •
Increase in everyone’s stan-
dard of living • Reduction of fossil fuel demand
and the resultant pollu-
tion • Relief of the population explosion •
Reduction of world hunger
• Enhancement of world trade • Promotion of
international
cooperation and peace • The purpose of GENI,
Global
Energy Network Institute, is to educate all
people,
especially world leaders, to the potential
benefits of this win-win
solution. •
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"It isn't enough
to talk about peace. One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must
work at it."
Eleanor Roosevelt
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How can I support
GENI?
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