Mark A. Ruffalo, Marco Krapels and Mark Z. Jacobson: Power the World with Wind, Water and Sunlight

What happens when you put a movie scientist in the room with a real scientist? You hope to inspire millions to take part in an energy revolution!

Mark Ruffalo, known for his portrayal of Dr. Banner and the Incredible Hulk, will speak with Mark Jacobson of the Stanford Atmosphere/Energy Program and Marco Krapels of Rabobank about powering the world with wind, water and sunlight.

Global warming, environmental pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today. This talk discusses a technical plan to solve these problems by powering 100% of the United States' and world's energy for all purposes, including electricity, transportation, industry, and heating/cooling, with wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) within 20-40 years. As part of the plan, we consider transmission infrastructure, resources, reliability, catastrophic risk, materials, costs, health effects, job creation, revenue streams, and policies needed. We discuss a detailed version of the plan for New York State and its potential application to California and other states. We also discuss the public engagement needed and how social media can help to implement the plan on the state, national, and international levels.

About the Speakers:

Mark A. Ruffalo is an Oscar-nominated actor and advocate of addressing climate change and renewable energy. In March 2011, Mark co-founded Water Defense to raise awareness about energy extraction impact on water and the public health. A regular contributor to the Guardian and the Huffington Post, Mark is a recent recipient of the Global Green Millennium Award for Environmental Leadership, and the Meera Gandhi Giving Back Foundation Award. He was named one of Time Magazine's "People Who Mattered" in 2011. Most recently, he played Dr. Banner and the Incredible Hulk in the box-office hit, The Avengers.

Marco Krapels is the Executive Vice President of Rabobank N.A,,where he runs the commercial banking product groups including its capital markets and renewable energy finance divisions. He co-chairs the bank's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee, where he's initiated notable sustainability efforts, including a Rabobank solar/Tesla electric car project featured in the New York Times. Marco is co-founder and board member of Empowered by Light, which promotes renewable energy solutions for 1.6 billion people living without electricity.

Mark Z. Jacobson is Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment and Senior Fellow of the Precourt Institute for Energy. He is on the Energy Efficiency and Renewables Advisory Committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. He co-authored a 2009 cover article in Scientific American and two more recent articles in Energy Policy with Dr. Mark DeLucchi of U.C. Davis on how to power the world with renewable energy.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Christopher Beau]

Since 1960 the oil and gas industry has received $400 billion in US subsidies, they're still getting $4 billion per year...This is INSANE. All that to keep the status quo going, lobby in Washington, corrupt politicians, amass ever increasing profits at our expense, buy and/or kill any invention that might threaten their monopole, lie about global warming and pollution, destroy our ecosystem, ruin our health, make us fight wars...We need a new paradigm, a resource based economy & we need it now!

[anderwan]

Gates has been pretty awesomely wrong about little things like, say, the internet, before. I'll believe your FUD when the subsidies for fossil energy end, & when a price of fossil carbon emissions is applied, & everything else still can't compete. I can make my money back 3 times over the lifetime of the panels on my house WITHOUT any incentives.The transition is underway. What we need to do is speed it up, & replace aid to fossil carbon with a price on it, because we owe it to our children.

[Aurélio Rosa]

12 people from the oil industry watched this video

[abundancehawk]

We Need Entrepreneurs Like Peter H Diamandis & Ray Kurzweil Check Them Out^~^

[rajrajadoyetuNehT]

This video needs more views. more people should know about this.

[Rodaa9]

You seem to posses both brain and individuality. On behalf of my brethren, I welcome you to the European Union.

[anderwan]

I'm confused, you just said it was a good deal for consumers, but not for the planet. Now you say it's a charitable donation to the planet. I'm done!  Leaf and Mitsu. i have 8 year/100k mile warranties on the batteries. You sound irrationally opposed to EVs.

[Christopher Beau]

Yes an electric car can pull 20% less carbon footprint all factored in, but at a huge additional purchase cost to the owner compared to a similar fuel efficient car, and once you start factoring in the life expectancy of the batteries having to be replaced every 5 yrs at best, then the cost is even more horrific. At this time of our "evolution", buying an EV is like a charitable donation to the environment, and that's good for the planet, and I LOVE the planet...but it's not financially viable.

[anderwan]

Google before you post. Figuring that a coal plant can pull off 40% efficiency and that an EV is 90% efficient, an EV is better than most cars even if 100% of your power is from coal. No state gets 100% of its power from coal. For everyone reading, buying an EV is good for them personally (as you say) and at least as good for the planet as buying an efficient gas car. For 99% of the people reading, buying an EV is good for them personally and better for the planet than buying a hybrid.

[Christopher Beau]

I totally hear what Professor Mark Jacobson is saying about electric energy being 4 times more efficient than gasoline, and that the cost for you and I to run the car is like the equivalent of a $.80/gallon of gas, etc...but the issue in the U.S. and elsewhere to a greater extent is that the energy used to charge your vehicle is coming from burning coal for 60%+, natural gas, etc...mostly fossil fuels, so yes, it's good for you the individual, but not for the planet as a whole, at least not now