XPrize_E29: Ecosystems for Anyone [6/1/2021]
Dan Selz (Impact Director), and Peter Houlihan (VP of Biodiversity and Conservation) at The XPRIZE Foundation in Los Angeles [6/1/2021]
Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.
INTRO:
1:00 Dan shares the history of the XPRIZE Foundation, spanning 25 years, starting with the Ansari XPRIZE — with space flight (see links in Sources). Discusses the size of prizes and length of engagements with participants. Also shares the announcement of The Carbon Removal Prize of $100M, sponsored by Elon Musk — one of the largest private prizes ever launched
SECTION1: XPRIZE
6:00 Shares the competitions recently launched to support the pandemic. They have launched 25 prizes, in health and human equity, space, robotics, and recently the rainforest.
7:00 Dan talks about the Water Abundance Prize and the Prize’s success a few years back, and how some solutions come out of the prize in unexpected ways. Dan talks about how teams get nurtured, and working with communities the companies work in. XPRIZE also likes to help first time Entrepreneurs, in collaboration with Young President’s Organization (YPO) to help leverage their skills.
SECTION2: Agnostic Solutions
11:00 Dan shares his background in screenwriting, and what led him be inspired by SpaceX — and the interplanetary idea. Led him to start thinking about false-dichotomies. Shares how he landed at XPRIZE and the new XPRIZE Rainforest. We also discuss Dan’s background in prize design, and how to build a program around existential threats.
16:00 Peter shares the Rainforest Prize partners ESRI, GCFTF (with Ministers of Environment around the world), along with great relationships with The Society for Conservation Biology, and other NGOs.
SECTION3: Rainforests
17:00 Peter talks about his passion for biodiversity and education. As we recorded on Earth Day, he talks about preserving habitats into the future. He also discusses the reefs and rainforests as centers for biodiversity. Also discusses his experience in operating projects for scientific data collection around the world for policy makers and conservation orgs. Worked with teams, of predominantly local teams, and how the analyses were used in his former work. He worked as a National Geographic Photographer and Film Maker to help influence the public in previous experiences. This led Peter to The XPRIZE Foundation — and found the opportunity to be thrilling.
21:00 Peter talks about his experience setting up expeditions, some projects alone in the rainforest along with leading teams of up to 50 people. Over time studying plants and animals around the world, Peter learned how to support research projects efficiently. He himself started his research in Borneo with butterfly ecosystems. This led him to researching Orangutans and other primates around the world.
25:00 Peter talks about the different forms of extraction and deforestations facing threats to the rainforests. Also talks about poaching threats from roads being built for forestry. We discuss the participation of Universities in Rainforest Prize, and their expertise. Currently there are 40+ teams competing for the prize, but encourage new teams to enter late. The further impacts are being explored, and future educational influence beyond the life of the competition.
30:00 Dan shares that 80% of biodiversity of planet is on indigenous lands, and is managed better by the indigenous communities. He recognizes the knowledge and wisdom which is stored in those ecosystems. Peter points to the need to collaborate with indigenous communities to help unlock more positive impacts — taking a technology layering approach.
45:00 Dan wraps up the technical idea problem, how teams can transfer into business — using the power of telling stories, and communicating to investors. Refers to the genius meets lay-marketing-microphone. Both Dan and Peter share their passion for the future projects at the XPRIZE , and how carbon-debt plays into solution sets. They also ask for COVID prize participants in the Rapid Testing prize — they need deployment sites.
SOURCES:
-XPRIZE Foundation: https://www.xprize.org/
-X Prize Rainforests: https://www.xprize.org/prizes/rainforest
-Dan Selz [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danselz/
-Peter Houlihan [Website]: https://www.peter-houlihan.com/
-Peter Houlihan [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-houlihan-2a038a53/
-Ansari X Prize [25 yrs ago]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansari_X_Prize
-YPO: https://www.ypo.org/what-is-ypo/
-Carbon Removal Prize [Sponsored by Elon Musk]: https://www.xprize.org/prizes/elonmusk
-Water Abundance Prize: https://www.xprize.org/prizes/water-abundance
-ESRI: https://www.esri.com/en-us/home
-Governors Climate and Forest Taskforce: https://www.gcftf.org/
-Society for Conservation Biology: https://conbio.org/
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Song Credit: The Croft — By Joakim Karud
[ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
