What is National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge?

The Great Energy Challenge is an ambitious project designed to educate the world about the current state of energy. This project is made possible by a partnership between National Geographic and Shell. It is a project with many aspirations, including providing a space where influential citizens and energy stakeholders can convene and engage in solutions-based thinking and dialogue about the future of the energy industry.

According to National Geographic’s website, The Great Energy Challenge is a call to action to become involved, to learn, and to make change in the areas of renewable energy.

Thomas Lovejoy, a National Geographic conservation fellow and renowned biologist, is one of six individuals on The Great Energy Challenge’s advisory team, which will guide the entire project.

There will be many fun events and tools involved in The Great Energy Challenge, including:

• The Big Energy Question, where topics—such as advanced biofuels, natural gas, and how to supply energy to the world’s cities—are debated by knowledgeable experts who actually have the power to make these ideas into reality.

• Fun and informative energy quizzes that cover a wide range of subjects like food, transportation, and biofuels.

• Online tools like the Personal Energy Meter, which can measure your personal energy consumption. This information is easily sharable and comparable with your friends.

• The World Electricity Mix Interactive, an interactive and informative map that shows where each section of the world gets its energy from and in what form. Additionally, it includes a projection of those same numbers in the year 2035.

• The Great Energy Challenge Partnership Showcase creates a curated list of online content created during the challenge and related events occurring all over the world.

The National Geographic Great Energy Challenge is an ongoing project, so stay tuned to their website to make sure that you catch all of their updates.