The CLEANEST, GREENEST AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR on the Surface of The EARTH

More than 1.4 MILLION DIESEL-powered agricultural tractors are manufactured and put into operation EACH YEAR in just two countries (India and China).

They will release over 50 MILLION tons of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere each year.

Based on very conservative estimates (see below), the owners of these tractors will pay OVER $15 BILLION in fuel costs each year.

PETITION:

Have ALL PARTIES seriously interested in / concerned about CLEAN AIR / CO2 EMISSIONS JOIN HANDS to post up to 5 BOUNTIES / REWARDS worth $1.5 BILLION each for the first 5 individuals or groups to come up with a VERIFIABLY WORKABLE DESIGN for "THE CLEANEST, GREENEST AGRICULTURAL TRACTOR on the face of the EARTH".

This machine should be able to 

-- perform AS WELL AS a conventional, 80 HP (eighty horsepower), DIESEL-powered agricultural tractor, yet     

-- SHOULD NOT REQUIRE ANY HYDROCARBON FUEL (edit on Feb 10, 2025 - Per specific request, this condition broadened to include any system or method that REDUCES hydrocarbon fuel requirements by AT LEAST 80%), and

-- SHOULD NOT draw its POWER from BATTERIES.

Were these requirements to be seen by many as an IMPOSSIBILITY… ALL THE BETTER for those posting the bounties: their likelihood of having to PAY OUT would be INSIGNIFICANT.

On the other hand, IF all 5 bounties were successfully claimed, the amount to be paid out (U$D7.5 BILLION) would add up to 50 percent of the money saved -- EVERY YEAR thereafter -- IN FUEL COSTS ALONE. 

This PETITION is, in that sense, a CHALLENGE to ALL THOSE (individuals, government agencies, NGO's etc) who CLAIM to CARE DEEPLY about AIR POLLUTION and / or CO2 Emissions, to PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS, at virtually NO RISK.

Dear Sierra Club, dear 350.org, dear Natural Resources Defense Council, dear Greenpeace, dear Race to Zero, dear Extinction Rebellion, dear Greta Thunberg, dear Mission Innovation, dear Breakthrough Energy, dear UNEP Climate Initiatives Platform, dear Earthshot Prize, and SO, SO MANY OTHERS: please PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS, at absolutely NO RISK of EVER having to PAY OUT. (Which do you guess the average tractor buyer will choose: a $10,800 yearly bill for DIESEL or a $5,400 one-time “surcharge” on the price of their tractor, and ZERO cost of "consumables" to operate it thereafter?)

Important additional conditions:
a) the award money should be deposited into escrow -- or, at the very least, reliably secured by a bond -- before any of the proposed solutions are revealed by the individuals / groups entering submissions. This is to give them some reasonable assurance that the funds ARE in place, and that they WILL be paid out once the claimants’ proposed solutions are confirmed to be valid.

b) Typical “appropriation by default” clauses — commonly present on such sites as the “Environmentalist” Multi-Billionaires’ Club known as Breakthrough Energy — which imperatively state that BY THE VERY ACT of WRITING to THEM, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING contained in your communication AUTOMATICALLY BECOMES THEIR PROPERTY, with FULL and UNRESTRICTED “rights” for them to do with it WHATEVER THEY WISH (or words to that effect), should NOT be included, but rather THE OPPOSITE should be the case: the tightest possible guarantees of protection for the intellectual property contained in the submissions should be provided.

NOTE: The no-batteries-as-source-of-power stipulation addresses the various concerns with the battery approach: from extended recharging times to electricity being sourced from coal-fired plants to the batteries themselves -- particularly the Lithium-Ion type, most "in vogue" these days -- "spontaneously" CATCHING on FIRE. And -- last, but not least -- two issues that quite a few people would point to as the most worrisome: the impact of mining for lithium, and the cost of disposal once the batteries reach end-of-life.

CALCULATIONS: Assuming that

--the average output of the 1.4 million DIESEL tractors’ engines is 48 HP (48 horsepower), that

-- their fuel consumption is 2 gallons an hour, and that

-- each of them is used for just 1800 hours a year (225 days, 8 hours)

they will collectively burn 3600 gallons TIMES 1.4 million which equals 5,040,000,000 gallons of DIESEL fuel a year.

Based on EPA estimates of 10 Tons of CO2 equivalent for every 1,000 gallons of DIESEL burned, they will put over 50 MILLION tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

A 48HP DIESEL engine will typically consume 10 liters of fuel (2.64 US gallons) per hour of operation. We use 2 gallons to be ultraconservative.

The historical average price of a gallon of DIESEL is approximately U$D3.00. Today it is more like $5  or $6, but let's take the historical average.

1800 hours x 2 gallons an hour x $3 a gallon = $10,800 a year per tractor.

Multiplied by 1.4 million = U$D15,120,000,000.

The AWARDS suggested above -- 5 AWARDS worth U$D1.5 BILLION each -- amount to FAIR COMPENSATION. As stated, they represent 10% of what would be saved on fuel alone over the first five years, OR 50% of the savings in the first year in which all 1.4 million tractors ceased to require hydrocarbon fuel to operate (OR any power to charge runtime batteries). This doesn't even BEGIN to consider ANY NUMBER of other applications (long-haul tractor-trailers, locomotives, ships… you name it…) that would simultaneously benefit from the implementation of the one idea.