The World Needs a Solution to the Oil Spill Crisis. Do You Have It? June 6

Maker collectives pledge cash rewards for Alternative Technology Responses.

MakerBot recently announced their support of the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command (DHUC) call for alternative technology responses to stop the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill either at the spill or the source level. Engineers, makers, and problem solvers of the world are asked to submit their solutions to BP.

Since MakerBot’s public pledge of $100 made yesterday, eight other individuals and collectives (including Ponoko) have pledged their support – bringing the cash bounty to $1100.

The bounty will be awarded based on:

1. The first person who actually gets a response from DHUC specifying interest and/or requesting more information, or
2. Even if there is no response from DHUC, we will hold a judging exercise on June 20th when the two weeks are up based on the following criteria:
-       simplicity of solution (is it easy to build, deploy and maintain?)
-       viability of solution (can the solution be feasible considering the high fluidic pressures, depth of the water column and the extreme low temperatures at depth?)

Design solutions can be submitted to BP through this form. Ideas are also being submitted to Thingiverse.

CLICK HERE for more details, ways to pledge monetary support, and updates on this call to action.

Posted in Contests + Competitions, Kristen Turner, Ponoko News by Kristen Turner | Comments are off for this post

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One Response to “The World Needs a Solution to the Oil Spill Crisis. Do You Have It?”

  1. Jon Says:
    June 6th, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    The only solution is to take the incredible public interest in OIL due to this disaster and using it to push dramatic gains in the alternative energy sector including Nuclear (of course). So far, I haven’t seen this… blaming BP for the disaster is like blaming the local drug dealer for your crack habit.

    Most oil actually goes into the production of plastic as well, so this would solve the world’s dependence on this material which is causing an even larger environmental disaster like the “plastic island” floating around in the Pacitic ocean. Plastic also releases a kind of estrogen and isn’t biodegradable making it even WORSE than oil in this regard. As a result, moving into sustainable wood production using locally produced goods (Ponoko & 100KGarages) would go a very long way.

    There are so many alternatives it’s rather annoying that the general public at large continues to accept the status-quo for fear of getting out of their comfort zone, trying new manufacturing, distribution and material methods that aren’t as environmentally damaging.

    You either get OFF oil or you accept the fact that this will happen, again and again, as it has in the past and will continue to well into the future. BP isn’t the problem, WE are the problem.

    Jon @ WoodMarvels.com