World x Change

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WorldxChange

An Information-Age Solution to the Tragedy of the Commons

The idea

Realign individual incentives to reflect global impacts

An automated system leverages remote sensing and international markets to enable payments to indigenous stewards who enhance the global commons.

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Methane Measurement
Sensing Before
Sensing After
Frontier science creates a bottom-up solution to the Tragedy of the Commons.
Integrating ideas from agriculture, anthropology, chemistry, complex systems, computer science, earth science, ecology, engineering, economics, and finance.
Driven by an Information-Age infrastructure that is easy to scale up with wide applicability.
Creates incentives for individuals to enhance the global commons rather than destroy it.
World class measurements of the environmentl impacts of stewards.
Creates a new standard for tracking and documenting world-improving activities.
Remote sensing provides the needed monitoring, verification, and reporting of successful stewardship.
Generating high-quality results that can be trusted by environmental patrons and markets.

World Improving Numbers

WINS

Remote sensing creates trustworthy WINs that translate the actions of the stewards into measurable outcomes such as tonnes of CO2e avoided or the amount of forest preserved in a natural state. High quality WINS generate payments for the stewards from global patrons and markets.

Our pilot project

Bali, Indonesia

Rice on Bali has been sustainably farmed for over a millennium. Unfortunately, flooded paddies produce methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. By altering their irrigation practices, the indigenous farmers can mitigate methane emissions. Compensating the farmers for taking on the additional risk and effort need to alter how they farm will allow the system to embrace a new regime of globally sustainable agriculture.

Rice and the Global Commons

of global anthropogenic methane emissions come from rice farming.

the Global Warming Potential of CO2. While methane has a limited lifetime in the atmosphere, it may push the global system beyond critical tipping points.

of methane emissions can be eliminated by not flooding the rice paddies. This also reduces the runoff of fertilizer that damages Bali's coral reefs.

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Subak Bena
Somya Pertiwi
In-field gas analyzers track emissions from adjacent fields that use different irrigation practices.
These world-class measurements provide critical insights not available using the current standards of syringe sampling or national averages.
The project integrates a deep understanding of the local people, culture, and institutions.
Incorporating such insights strengthens local traditions and organizations.
The project embraces local leadership.
The Balinese NGO Somya Pertiwi (Kindness of the Earth Goddess) leads the project.
Somya Pertiwi is working within the centuries old system of communally-governed subaks that coordinate the irrigation of the rice paddies.
Agricultural extension agents monitor and consult on the new farming practices.

A Letter to the Future...

UNESCO recognized the long-term sustainability of the subak system by forming a World Heritage site on Bali based on a proposal from Somya Pertiwi.

subaks in the UNESCO site are in the pilot project.

sources of happiness in the Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana that emphasize harmony among people, nature, and the gods.

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