G Adventures Seeks Global Ideas to Solve Local Issues

Most innovative idea will receive $25,000 in United Nations supported initiative.

2013-04-10

TORONTO, ON, April 10, 2013 (Press-News.org) What will you do today, for tomorrow? This is the question being asked in a global initiative seeking ideas to generate positive change in the world.

The G Project, powered by G Adventures and its non-profit foundation Planeterra, encourages people to submit ideas that will help solve social and environmental issues at a local level.

Submissions will be collated and showcased on the G Project website and the four people with the ideas with the greatest potential will be invited to pitch to a panel of high-profile judges in Costa Rica. The person with the idea the judges believe will have the most positive impact will receive a US$25,000 development grant and the backing of Planeterra to bring their project to life.

Participants can register their ideas up until June 3, 2013 in one of four categories: Community, Freedom, Beauty or Knowledge. Entrants must complete a questionnaire identifying the critical need, the impact their idea will have and the feasibility of execution. Opinions on the ideas submitted will be publicly canvassed online and a list of 16 will be announced on June 4, 2013.

A panel of thought leaders, innovators and social entrepreneurs, including Lonely Planet's Tony Wheeler and Dr. Jane Goodall, will then select a shortlist of four finalists based on a set of criteria that favour small-scale, sustainable ideas that focus on local communities and have a strong social element.

The four finalists will be announced on June 24, 2013 and they will then be flown out to the inaugural Summit in the Jungle in Costa Rica in September. Here they will hone their ideas before pitching them to G Adventures' founder Bruce Poon Tip and a selection of judges.

"The G Project is more than traveller philanthropy or charitable giving. It's a unique initiative designed to bring people from different backgrounds together to lead, build and foster positive change all over the world," says Poon Tip.

"The G Project was devised as a means to help and enable aspiring change-makers to take their idea from conception to action and impact."

Meet the Panel
- Braulio Dias - Assistant Secretary General of the UN & United Nations Executive Secretary on Biological Diversity
- Jane Goodall - Founder, Jane Goodall Institute; Humanitarian; Primatologist; Conservationist; Author
- Jonathan Tourtellot - Founding Director of National Geographic Centre for Sustainable Destinations; Writer Editor
- Cameron Sinclair - Co-founder, Architecture for Humanity
- Tony Wheeler - Co-founder of Lonely Planet; Traveller; Entrepreneur
- Les Stroud - Star of the TV series Survivorman; Filmmaker; Outdoor Adventurer
- Wade Davis - Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic; Anthropologist
- Jennifer Adams - Founder & Executive Director of Places We Go; Filmmaker
- Jordan Romero - Youth Health Advocate; Mountaineer; Fundraiser

The winner will be announced on September 24, 2013 at the Future of Tourism event in Toronto, Canada.

For more information please visit: www.thisisyourplanet.com.

About G Adventures
G Adventures is an adventure travel pioneer offering the widest selection of affordable small-group tours, safaris and expeditions to more than 100 countries on all continents. It was the first adventure travel company to offer 100% guaranteed departures in 2013. Powered by an international team of passionate travellers, the award-winning trips embrace authentic accommodation, exotic cuisine and local transport to put travelers on a first-name basis with the planet's people, cultures, landscapes and wildlife. The intimate, authentic and sustainable approach to small-group travel introduces travellers to the highlights of a destination while offering the freedom to explore it on their own. Whatever age, interest, ability or budget, G Adventures has a genuine life-changing experience. For more information please visit www.gadventures.com.

About the Planeterra Foundation
Established in 2003 by adventure travel tour operator G Adventures, Planeterra is a non-profit organization that supports social and environmental solutions in destinations around the world via its global network of travellers. The foundation focuses on local education, health, small-business development, emergency relief and conservation work. For more information please visit www.planeterra.org.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

G Adventures Seeks Global Ideas to Solve Local Issues 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Currently approved drugs found effective in laboratory mice against bioterror threats

2013-04-09

In the most extensive screen of its kind, Texas Biomed scientists in San Antonio have demonstrated the feasibility of repurposing already-approved drugs for use against highly pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The pathogens included emerging diseases and potential bioterror threats ranging from anthrax to the Marburg and Ebola viruses. In testing a library of 1,012 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs, commonly used for treatment of every-day ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure, the scientists found that ten were active against two or more bacteria and ...

Human shadow cast over the Caribbean slows coral growth

2013-04-09

Striking Caribbean sunsets occur when particles in the air scatter incoming sunlight. But a particulate shadow over the sea may have effects underwater. A research team, including staff scientist Héctor Guzmán from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, linked airborne particles caused by volcanic activity and air pollution to episodes of slow coral-reef growth. Like tree rings, long-lived coral skeletons preserve a record of coral growth. Previously, scientists linked coral-growth patterns in the Caribbean to a phenomenon called the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation—fluctuations ...

Stanford seeks sea urchin's secret to surviving ocean acidification

2013-04-09

Stanford scientists have discovered that some purple sea urchins living along the coast of California and Oregon have the surprising ability to rapidly evolve in acidic ocean water – a capacity that may come in handy as climate change increases ocean acidity. This capacity depends on high levels of genetic variation that allow urchins' healthy growth in water with high carbon dioxide levels. The study, co-authored by Stephen Palumbi, a Professor in marine sciences and the director of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, reveals previously unknown adaptive variations that ...

New evidence that natural substances in green coffee beans help control blood sugar levels

2013-04-09

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6042 Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society New evidence that natural substances in green coffee beans help control blood sugar levels NEW ORLEANS, April 9, 2013 -- Scientists today described evidence that natural substances extracted from unroasted coffee beans can help control the elevated blood sugar levels and body weight that underpin type 2 diabetes. Their presentation ...

Spring rains bring life to Midwest granaries but foster Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone'

2013-04-09

Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society Spring rains bring life to Midwest granaries but foster Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone' NEW ORLEANS, April 9, 2013 — The most serious ongoing water pollution problem in the Gulf of Mexico originates not from oil rigs, as many people believe, but rainstorms and fields of corn and soybeans a thousand miles away in the Midwest. An expert on that problem — the infamous Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" — today called for greater awareness of the connections ...

'Chemistry of the Bar' symposium focuses on New Orleans' Hurricane Cocktail and more

2013-04-09

Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 504-670-4707 (New Orleans Press Center, April 5-10) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society 'Chemistry of the Bar' symposium focuses on New Orleans' Hurricane Cocktail and more NEW ORLEANS, April 9, 2013 — Call their taste and effects appealing or appalling, no matter. In a city that claims credit for invention of the cocktail, the Hurricane, Sazerac, Pimm's Cup, Bayou Bash, Hand Grenade, Ramos Gin Fizz and other concoctions are the spirits of the French Quarter and its most famous thoroughfare, which happens to be named Bourbon ...

Fox Chase researchers show that a promising drug can help prevent head and neck cancers

2013-04-09

WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2013)—Head and neck cancers typically begin in squamous cells that line moist surfaces inside the mouth, nose and throat. Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is the sixth most common type of cancer in the United States, and it is sometimes preceded by the appearance of changes inside the oral cavity called precancerous lesions. The most common type of change is a white patch known as a leukoplakia. Because it often takes decades for leukoplakias to develop into HNSCC, there is a window of opportunity to recognize and revert precancerous ...

New treatment holds promise for resistant lung cancer

2013-04-09

WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2013)—A new chemotherapy regimen appears to produce minimal side effects in patients with lung cancer that has not responded to previous therapy, paving the way for additional research to determine if the new regimen also helps shrink tumors, according findings to be presented by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 on Tuesday, April 9. "I'm very optimistic that we will show this protocol helps lung cancer patients who have run out of other options," says study author Hossein Borghaei, MS, DO, director of Thoracic ...

Omega-3 fatty acids more effective at inhibiting growth of triple-negative breast cancer

2013-04-09

WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2013)—Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center have found that omega-3 fatty acids and their metabolite products slow or stop the proliferation, or growth in the number of cells, of triple-negative breast cancer cells more effectively than cells from luminal types of the disease. The omega-3s worked against all types of cancerous cells, but the effect was observed to be stronger in triple-negative cell lines, reducing proliferation by as much as 90 percent. The findings will be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 on Tuesday, April 9. Omega-3 ...

Removal of hypothalamic hamartoma curbs compulsive eating and excessive weight gain

2013-04-09

Charlottesville, VA (April 9, 2013). Neurosurgeons at the University of Texas–Houston and Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital (Houston, Texas) report on the success they achieved when they removed a hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) from a 10-year-old girl to combat hyperphagia (excessive appetite and compulsive overeating) and consequent unhealthy weight gain. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time resection of an HH was performed for this particular reason. Findings in this case are reported and discussed in "Successful treatment of hyperphagia by resection ...

G Adventures Seeks Global Ideas to Solve Local Issues

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: