title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The BMW E34 is the third generation of the BMW 5 Series, which was produced from November 2, 1987, until 1996. Initially launched as a sedan in January 1988, the E34 also saw a "Touring" station wagon (estate) body style added in September 1992, a first for the 5 Series. BMW replaced the E34 with the E39 5 Series in December 1995, although E34 Touring models remained in production until June 1996.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The E34 generation marked the first time all-wheel drive was incorporated into the 5 Series with the 525iX, and the first V8 engine to be used in a 5 Series. The E34 also saw the introduction of stability control (ASC), traction control (ASC+T) a 6-speed manual transmission and adjustable damping (EDC) to the 5 Series range.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: There was an unusually large range of engines fitted over its lifetime as nine different engine families were used. These consisted of straight-four, straight-six and V8 engines.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The E34 M5 is powered by the S38 straight-six engine and was produced in sedan and wagon body styles.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Development ran from July 1981 to early 1987, with the initial design proposal penned by Ercole Spada in 1982. Under the guidance of chief designer Claus Luthe, BMW based much of the design on the E32 7 Series. Following Spada's departure from BMW and styling approval in 1983, J Mays finalized the design for production in mid-1985. Special attention was paid to aerodynamics, with the E34 basic sedan having a drag coefficient of 0.30.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Series production began in November 1987. In December 1987, the E34 sedan was unveiled to global press.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Sedan models have a length of , a width of and a height of . Wagon models have a length of and a height of . All models have a wheelbase of .


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Front suspension consists of double pivot MacPherson struts, with a replaceable shock absorber cartridge inside a steel strut housing. Control arms and thrust arms control front-to-back and side-to-side movement. Steering on most models is a recirculating ball design, however the all-wheel drive 525iX uses a rack and pinion steering system (along with front suspension) similar to the E30 3 Series 325iX model. All front suspension components are steel, except that the lower control arms on some models are aluminum.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The base model, available only in Europe, was the petrol-powered four-cylinder 518i. Only available with a 5-speed manual transmission, a total of 53,248 cars were produced.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The next petrol model up was the six-cylinder 520i, which began production in January 1988. It was initially powered by the BMW M20 single overhead camshaft engine, which was replaced by the BMW M50 double overhead camshaft engine in 1990. The 520i was the second most popular E34 model globally, with 426,971 units produced. The 525i was the most popular E34 model globally with 434,549 units produced. As per the 520i, the 525i initially used the M20 engine, which was replaced by the M50 engine in 1990.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Engine volume and year of manufacture often influenced the type of wiring. This was of great importance for decoding the configuration and the possibility of further retrofitting. Thus, cars can be divided into two types: high and low. Wiring had a big influence to the amount of possible options and functions of a car. There also was update after M50 and M60 introduce.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: A rare E34 model is the petrol-powered six-cylinder 525iX, of which only 9,366 cars were produced. The 525iX was the first all-wheel drive 5 Series, and the only all-wheel drive model in the E34 range. It was powered by the BMW M50 engine and was the first 5 Series to use a rack and pinion steering system.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: There are two versions of the E34 530i: an inline-six model produced from 1988 to 1990, and a V8 model produced from 1993 to 1995. The earlier model was one of the last applications of the BMW M30 inline-six engine. The V8 version, which replaced the six-cylinder 535i in the lineup, was powered by the new BMW M60 V8 engine and was available with a 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic transmission. Initially, the V8 models were differentiated from other models by the wide grill; in 1994 the wide grill became available on other models. Between the two versions of the 530i, a total of 57,570 cars were produced.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The highest six-cylinder model (except for the M5) was the 535i. Despite the '535i' model designation and '3.5' casting on the intake manifold, the BMW M30 engine found in the E34 535i actually has a displacement of . There was also a 535i Sport model with M-technic body kit, boot spoiler with brake light, sport seats, M-Tech sports leather steering wheel (M-tech 1 for 1988-1989 cars, M-tech 2 for 1990–1992), M-technic suspension (M-tech springs, stiffer shocks, M-tech 25mm front stabilizer bar, M-tech 18mm rear stabilizer bar), a polished rocker cover and also a limited-slip differential (25% lock) as standard. A total of 97,679 cars were produced, including the Alpina B10 (BiTurbo, 3.5) models. The 535i was replaced by the V8-engined 530i and 540i models in 1993.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: In 1993, the 540i model was added to the top of the 5 Series lineup, powered by the BMW M60 V8 engine and available in both sedan and wagon body styles (the latter not in US). Transmission options were a 6-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic. A total of 26,485 units were produced. Initially, the V8 models were differentiated from other models by the wider grilles. In 1994 the wide grilles became available on other models as well.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The first diesel model was the 524td, which was introduced in 1988. This model was replaced by the 525tds in 1991, and a lower-specification 525td was introduced in 1993. Only the 525tds model was fitted with an intercooler.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: In the United States, the E34 model range was launched in October 1988 with the 525i and 535i 6-cylinder models (for the 1989 model year). Over the course of the E34 generation, the 525i Touring, 530i, 530i Touring, 540i and M5 models were sold in the United States. The version of the M5 remained in production until 1993, by which time the version was being produced for other countries.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Introduced in September 1988 and produced until August 1995, the E34 M5 was produced in both sedan and station wagon ('Touring') body styles, the latter being the first M5 to be available as a wagon.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The E34 M5 is powered by the BMW S38 inline-six engine, originally with a displacement of and an output of , later upgraded to a engine rated at . This 3.8 litre version of the M5 was first seen by the public at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show, where the E34 M5 Touring also saw its debut.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: In its last year of production for the M5, the transmission was upgraded from a 5-speed manual to the Getrag 420G 6-speed manual (which was also used by the 540i model).


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: A model which could run on natural gas (as well as petrol) and was only sold in Germany. The 518g was based on the 518i Touring model and the only transmission available was a 5-speed manual. The engine, also used by the 1995-2000 3 Series Compact 316g model, was a re-tuned version of the BMW M43 four-cylinder engine. When running on natural gas, the engine produced , compared with when running on petrol. It was only produced in 1995 and just 298 units were built.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: After unveiling the BMW E1 and E2 concept car electric vehicles in 1992, BMW began a project to show it was possible to make a full-sized electric car, despite the obstacle of the weight of the lead-acid battery technology at the time. The batteries were a lead-acid type and the electric motors used a rotating-field AC electric drive. To assist the electric drivetrain, the 518iev also had a four-cylinder petrol engine and a continuously variable transmission, a configuration similar to the first production hybrid cars produced by other manufacturers several years later. BMW built at least one fully functional E34 prototype, which was tested in the late 1990s by Deutsche Post and others.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Because the M5 was discontinued for non-European markets in 1993, the 540i M-Sport model was built in 1995 for the North American market. On top of the regular 540i features, additional features included sports suspension equipped with EDC, bolstered sport seats, servotronic steering, and US-spec M5 brakes. 205 "M-Sport" models were built, 139 of them with the 6-speed manual transmission.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: An M540i model was produced for in Canada. It includes the features of the North American 540i M-sport, plus upgraded Euro-spec M5 brakes, 18-inch M-parallel wheels, and various trim pieces. Only 32 of these cars were built, all with a manual transmission.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The 540i LE (i.e. Limited Edition) sedan was sold in Australia and the United Kingdom. The 540i LE included the interior from the M5, "throwing star" M-System II wheels, EDC suspension with self leveling rear, Servotronic power steering, and front air dam. 70 of these 540i LE sedans were produced, all with a manual transmission, each individually numbered using an engraved metal plaque stuck onto the centre console beneath the handbrake lever.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: This model is based on the 525iX with an enlarged 3 litre engine producing 231bhp instead of 192bhp. Between 1993 and 1996 64 saloon cars and 70 Touring cars were produced by the Alpina factory in Buchloe with a very small number of right hand drive cars, 2 saloons and 1 Touring, converted by Sytner, the Alpina Dealer in Nottingham, England.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: This model is based on the 535i with a modified 3.5 litre engine producing 254bhp instead of 220bhp. Between 1988 and 1992 572 left hand drive cars were made in Buchloe, with perhaps 30 or so right hand converted by Sytner. The B10 3.5 was only supplied as a saloon car and no Touring cars were made.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: This model is based on the 540i with a modified 4 litre engine producing 315bhp instead of 286bhp. Between 1993 and 1995 45 saloon cars and 4 Touring cars were produced by Buchloe, all left hand drive, with a further two right hand drive saloon cars converted by Sytner.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: This model is based on the 540i with an Alpina designed 4.6 litre engine which was used also in the E36 Alpina B8 4.6. Between 1994 and 1996 27 saloon cars and 19 Touring cars were produced by Buchloe, all left hand drive except one right hand drive Touring car. With 7bhp more than the B8 4.6 (due to the larger exhaust manifold) it produces the same 340bhp as the E34 3.8 M5 Touring but with nearly 20% more torque. It was also available in right hand drive unlike the M5 Touring.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The B10 BiTurbo was based on a very modified 535i and was introduced in March 1989 after a $3.2million investment in R&D. Despite being nearly twice the price of a BMW M5 it sold tremendously well and production ceased in 1995 after 507 saloon models were made, and only after BMW ceased producing the M30 engine upon which the engine was based. It was not available in right hand drive due to the turbo-chargers placement or ever made as a Touring model. It produced 360bhp and 375lb/ft of torque on full boost, just 20bhp and 21lb/ft more than the B10 4.6. Along with the Lotus/Omega Carlton it was considered one of the fastest saloon cars in the world.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: BMW E34 had no facelift as such. All updates were introduced gradually and sometimes were country specific. Most changes occur in September each year, when the changes for the following model year go into production, as is typical BMW practice. Therefore, the changes for 1988 represent the 1989 model year, for example.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: Production of the E34 commenced on November 2, 1987, for the 535i, with 535i market launch being in January 1988 and other variants following a staggered launch. 520i and 530i production began in January 1988, for March 1988 market launch. Production of the 525i began in February 1988, being launched to market in April 1988, with the 524td entering production in March 1988 for May 1988 introduction. Touring production began in November 1990. Production ended for the sedan in December 1995 and Touring in June 1996.


title: BMW 5 Series (E34)

text: The production plants for the E34 were the Dingolfing plant in Germany and Rosslyn in South Africa. Total production was 1,333,412 units.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenhouse gas emissions and social and economic aspects such as energy poverty. Renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric power, solar, and geothermal energy are generally far more sustainable than fossil fuel sources. However, some renewable energy projects, such as the clearing of forests to produce biofuels, can cause severe environmental damage. The role of non-renewable energy sources in sustainable energy has been controversial. Nuclear power is a low-carbon source whose historic mortality rates are comparable to wind and solar, but its sustainability has been debated because of concerns about radioactive waste, nuclear proliferation, and accidents. Switching from coal to natural gas has environmental benefits, including a lower climate impact, but may lead to a delay in switching to more sustainable options. Carbon capture and storage can be built into power plants to remove their carbon dioxide () emissions, but is expensive and has seldom been implemented.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Fossil fuels provide 85% of the world's energy consumption and the energy system is responsible for 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Around 790 million people in developing countries lack access to electricity and 2.6 billion rely on polluting fuels such as wood or charcoal to cook. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels consistent with the 2015 Paris Agreement will require a system-wide transformation of the way energy is produced, distributed, stored, and consumed. The burning of fossil fuels and biomass is a major contributor to air pollution, which causes an estimated 7 million deaths each year. Therefore, the transition to a low-carbon energy system would have strong co-benefits for human health. Pathways exist to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking in ways that are compatible with climate goals, while bringing major health and economic benefits to developing countries.


title: Sustainable energy

text: In proposed climate change mitigation pathways that are compatible with limiting global warming to , the world rapidly phases out coal-fired power plants, produces more electricity from clean sources such as wind and solar, and shifts towards using electricity instead of fuels in sectors such as transport and heating buildings. For some energy-intensive technologies and processes that are difficult to electrify, many pathways describe a growing role for hydrogen fuel produced from low-emission energy sources. To accommodate larger shares of variable renewable energy, electrical grids require flexibility through infrastructure such as energy storage. To make deep reductions in emissions, infrastructure and technologies that use energy, such as buildings and transport systems, would need to be changed to use clean forms of energy and also to conserve energy. Some critical technologies for eliminating energy-related greenhouse gas emissions are not yet mature.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Wind and solar energy generated 8.5% of worldwide electricity in 2019. This share has grown rapidly while costs have fallen and are projected to continue falling. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that 2.5% of world gross domestic product (GDP) would need to be invested in the energy system each year between 2016 and 2035 to limit global warming to . Well-designed government policies that promote energy system transformation can lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. In many cases they also increase energy security. Policy approaches include carbon pricing, renewable portfolio standards, phase-outs of fossil fuel subsidies, and the development of infrastructure to support electrification and sustainable transport. Funding research, development, and demonstration of new clean energy technologies is also an important role of government.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The United Nations Brundtland Commission described the concept of sustainable development, for which energy is a key component, in its 1987 report "Our Common Future". It defined sustainable development as meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This description of sustainable development has since been referenced in many definitions and explanations of sustainable energy.


title: Sustainable energy

text: No single interpretation of how the concept of sustainability applies to energy has gained worldwide acceptance. Working definitions of sustainable energy encompass multiple dimensions of sustainability such as environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Historically, the concept of sustainable energy development has focused on emissions and on energy security. Since the early 1990s, the concept has broadened to encompass wider social and economic issues.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The environmental dimension of sustainability includes greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, hazardous waste and toxic emissions, water consumption, and depletion of non-renewable resources. Energy sources with low environmental impact are sometimes called "green energy" or "clean energy". The economic dimension of sustainability covers economic development, efficient use of energy, and energy security to ensure that each country has constant access to sufficient energy. Social issues include access to affordable and reliable energy for all people, workers' rights, and land rights.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The current energy system contributes to many environmental problems, including climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss, the release of toxins into the environment, and water scarcity. As of 2019, 85% of the world's energy needs are met by burning fossil fuels. Energy production and consumption are responsible for 76% of annual human-caused greenhouse gas emissions as of 2018. The 2015 international Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit global warming to well below and preferably to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F); achieving this goal will require that emissions be reduced as soon as possible and reach net-zero by mid-century.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The burning of fossil fuels and biomass is a major source of air pollution, which causes an estimated 7 million deaths each year. Fossil-fuel burning in power plants, vehicles, and factories is the main source of emissions that combine with oxygen in the atmosphere to cause acid rain. Air pollution is the second-leading cause of death from non-infectious disease. An estimated 99% of the world's population lives with levels of air pollution that exceed the World Health Organization recommended limits.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Cooking with polluting fuels such as wood, animal dung, coal, or kerosene is responsible for nearly all indoor air pollution, which causes an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million deaths annually, and also contributes significantly to outdoor air pollution. Health effects are concentrated among women, who are likely to be responsible for cooking, and young children.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Environmental impacts extend beyond the by-products of combustion. Oil spills at sea harm marine life and may cause fires which release toxic emissions. Around 10% of global water use goes to energy production, mainly for cooling in thermal energy plants. In dry regions, this contributes to water scarcity. Bioenergy production, coal mining and processing, and oil extraction also require large amounts of water. Excessive harvesting of wood and other combustible material for burning can cause serious local environmental damage, including desertification.


title: Sustainable energy

text: In 2021, UNECE published a lifecycle analysis of the environmental impact of numerous electricity generation technologies, accounting for the following: resource use (minerals, metals); land use; resource use (fossils); water use; particulate matter; photochemical ozone formation; ozone depletion; human toxicity (non-cancer); ionising radiation; human toxicity (cancer); eutrophication (terrestrial, marine, freshwater); ecotoxicity (freshwater); acidification; climate change.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Meeting existing and future energy demands in a sustainable way is a critical challenge for the global goal of limiting climate change while maintaining economic growth and enabling living standards to rise. Reliable and affordable energy, particularly electricity, is essential for health care, education, and economic development. As of 2020, 790 million people in developing countries do not have access to electricity, and around 2.6 billion rely on burning polluting fuels for cooking.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Improving energy access in the least-developed countries and making energy cleaner are key to achieving most of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which cover issues ranging from climate action to gender equality. Sustainable Development Goal 7 calls for "access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all", including universal access to electricity and to clean cooking facilities by 2030.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Energy efficiency—using less energy to deliver the same goods or services, or delivering comparable services with less goods—is a cornerstone of many sustainable energy strategies. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that increasing energy efficiency could achieve 40% of greenhouse gas emission reductions needed to fulfil the Paris Agreement's goals.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Energy can be conserved by increasing the technical efficiency of appliances, vehicles, industrial processes, and buildings. Another approach is to use fewer materials whose production requires a lot of energy, for example through better building design and recycling. Behavioural changes such as using videoconferencing rather than business flights, or making urban trips by cycling, walking or public transport rather than by car, are another way to conserve energy. Government policies to improve efficiency can include building codes, performance standards, carbon pricing, and the development of energy-efficient infrastructure to encourage changes in transport modes.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The energy intensity of the global economy (the amount of energy consumed per unit of gross domestic product (GDP)) is a rough indicator of the energy efficiency of economic production. In 2010, global energy intensity was 5.6 megajoules (1.6 kWh) per US dollar of GDP. United Nations goals call for energy intensity to decrease by 2.6% each year between 2010 and 2030. In recent years this target has not been met. For instance, between 2017 and 2018, energy intensity decreased by only 1.1%. Efficiency improvements often lead to a rebound effect in which consumers use the money they save to buy more energy-intensive goods and services. For example, recent technical efficiency improvements in transport and buildings have been largely offset by trends in consumer behaviour, such as selecting larger vehicles and homes.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Renewable energy sources are essential to sustainable energy, as they generally strengthen energy security and emit far fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Renewable energy projects sometimes raise significant sustainability concerns, such as risks to biodiversity when areas of high ecological value are converted to bioenergy production or wind or solar farms.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Hydropower is the largest source of renewable electricity while solar and wind energy are growing rapidly. Photovoltaic solar and onshore wind are the cheapest forms of new power generation capacity in most countries. For more than half of the 770 million people who currently lack access to electricity, decentralised renewable energy such as solar-powered mini-grids is likely the cheapest method of providing it by 2030. United Nations targets for 2030 include substantially increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the world's energy supply. According to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are now a commonplace source of electricity, making up 70% of all new investments made in the world's power generation.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The Sun is Earth's primary source of energy, a clean and abundantly available resource in many regions. In 2019, solar power provided around 3% of global electricity, mostly through solar panels based on photovoltaic cells (PV). The panels are mounted on top of buildings or installed in utility-scale solar parks. Costs of solar photovoltaic cells have dropped rapidly, driving strong growth in worldwide capacity. The cost of electricity from new solar farms is competitive with, or in many places, cheaper than electricity from existing coal plants. Various projections of future energy use identify solar PV as one of the main sources of energy generation in a sustainable mix.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Most components of solar panels can be easily recycled, but this is not always done in the absence of regulation. Panels typically contain heavy metals, so they pose environmental risks if put in landfills. It takes fewer than two years for a solar panel to produce as much energy as was used for its production. Less energy is needed if materials are recycled rather than mined.


title: Sustainable energy

text: In concentrated solar power, solar rays are concentrated by a field of mirrors, heating a fluid. Electricity is produced from the resulting steam with a heat engine. Concentrated solar power can support dispatchable power generation, as some of the heat is typically stored to enable electricity to be generated when needed. In addition to electricity production, solar energy is used more directly; solar thermal heating systems are used for hot water production, heating buildings, drying, and desalination.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Wind has been an important driver of development over millennia, providing mechanical energy for industrial processes, water pumps, and sailing ships. Modern wind turbines are used to generate electricity and provided approximately 6% of global electricity in 2019. Electricity from onshore wind farms is often cheaper than existing coal plants and competitive with natural gas and nuclear. Wind turbines can also be placed offshore, where winds are steadier and stronger than on land but construction and maintenance costs are higher.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Onshore wind farms, often built in wild or rural areas, have a visual impact on the landscape. While collisions with wind turbines kill both bats and to a lesser extent birds, these impacts are lower than from other infrastructure such as windows and transmission lines. The noise and flickering light created by the turbines can cause annoyance and constrain construction near densely populated areas. Wind power, in contrast to nuclear and fossil fuel plants, does not consume water. Little energy is needed for wind turbine construction compared to the energy produced by the wind power plant itself. Turbine blades are not fully recyclable, and research into methods of manufacturing easier-to-recycle blades is ongoing.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Hydroelectric plants convert the energy of moving water into electricity. In 2020, hydropower supplied 17% of the world's electricity, down from a high of nearly 20% in the mid-to-late 20th century.


title: Sustainable energy

text: In conventional hydropower, a reservoir is created behind a dam. Conventional hydropower plants provide a highly flexible, dispatchable electricity supply. They can be combined with wind and solar power to meet peaks in demand and to compensate when wind and sun are less available.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Compared to reservoir-based facilities, run-of-the-river hydroelectricity generally has less environmental impact. However, its ability to generate power depends on river flow, which can vary with daily and seasonal weather. Reservoirs provide water quantity controls that are used for flood control and flexible electricity output while also providing security during drought for drinking water supply and irrigation.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Hydropower ranks among the energy sources with the lowest levels of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy produced, but levels of emissions vary enormously between projects. The highest emissions tend to occur with large dams in tropical regions. These emissions are produced when the biological matter that becomes submerged in the reservoir's flooding decomposes and releases carbon dioxide and methane. Deforestation and climate change can reduce energy generation from hydroelectric dams. Depending on location, large dams can displace residents and cause significant local environmental damage; potential dam failure could place the surrounding population at risk.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Geothermal energy is produced by tapping into deep underground heat and harnessing it to generate electricity or to heat water and buildings. The use of geothermal energy is concentrated in regions where heat extraction is economical: a combination is needed of high temperatures, heat flow, and permeability (the ability of the rock to allow fluids to pass through). Power is produced from the steam created in underground reservoirs. Geothermal energy provided less than 1% of global energy consumption in 2020.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Geothermal energy is a renewable resource because thermal energy is constantly replenished from neighbouring hotter regions and the radioactive decay of naturally occurring isotopes. On average, the greenhouse gas emissions of geothermal-based electricity are less than 5% that of coal-based electricity. Geothermal energy carries a risk of inducing earthquakes, needs effective protection to avoid water pollution, and releases toxic emissions which can be captured.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Biomass is renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. It can either be burned to produce heat and electricity or be converted into biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol, which can be used to power vehicles.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The climate impact of bioenergy varies considerably depending on where biomass feedstocks come from and how they are grown. For example, burning wood for energy releases carbon dioxide; those emissions can be significantly offset if the trees that were harvested are replaced by new trees in a well-managed forest, as the new trees will absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. However, the establishment and cultivation of bioenergy crops can displace natural ecosystems, degrade soils, and consume water resources and synthetic fertilisers. Approximately one-third of all wood used for fuel is harvested unsustainably. Bioenergy feedstocks typically require significant amounts of energy to harvest, dry, and transport; the energy usage for these processes may emit greenhouse gases. In some cases, the impacts of land-use change, cultivation, and processing can result in higher overall carbon emissions for bioenergy compared to using fossil fuels.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Use of farmland for growing biomass can result in less land being available for growing food. In the United States, around 10% of motor gasoline has been replaced by corn-based ethanol, which requires a significant proportion of the harvest. In Malaysia and Indonesia, clearing forests to produce palm oil for biodiesel has led to serious social and environmental effects, as these forests are critical carbon sinks and habitats for diverse species. Since photosynthesis captures only a small fraction of the energy in sunlight, producing a given amount of bioenergy requires a large amount of land compared to other renewable energy sources.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Second-generation biofuels which are produced from non-food plants or waste reduce competition with food production, but may have other negative effects including trade-offs with conservation areas and local air pollution. Relatively sustainable sources of biomass include algae, waste, and crops grown on soil unsuitable for food production. If the biomass source is agricultural or municipal waste, burning it or converting it into biogas provides a way to dispose of this waste.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Carbon capture and storage technology can be used to capture emissions from bioenergy power plants. This process is known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and can result in net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. However, BECCS can also result in net positive emissions depending on how the biomass material is grown, harvested, and transported. Deployment of BECCS at scales described in some climate change mitigation pathways would require converting large amounts of cropland.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Marine energy has the smallest share of the energy market. It includes tidal power, which is approaching maturity, and wave power, which is earlier in its development. Two tidal barrage systems in France and in South Korea make up 90% of global production. While single marine energy devices pose little risk to the environment, the impacts of larger devices are less well known.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Switching from coal to natural gas has advantages in terms of sustainability. For a given unit of energy produced, the life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of natural gas are around 40 times the emissions of wind or nuclear energy but are much less than coal. Natural gas produces around half the emissions of coal when used to generate electricity and around two-thirds the emissions of coal when used to produce heat. Reducing methane leaks in the process of extracting and transporting natural gas could further decrease its climate impact. Natural gas produces less air pollution than coal.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Switching from coal to natural gas reduces emissions in the short term and thus contributes to climate change mitigation. However, in the long term it does not provide a path to net-zero emissions. Developing natural gas infrastructure risks carbon lock-in and stranded assets, where new fossil infrastructure either commits to decades of carbon emissions, or has to be written off before it makes a profit.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuel and biomass power plants can be significantly reduced through carbon capture and storage (CCS). Most studies use a working assumption that CCS can capture 85–90% of the carbon dioxide () emissions from a power plant. Even if 90% of emitted is captured from a coal-fired power plant, its uncaptured emissions would still be many times greater than the emissions of nuclear, solar or wind energy per unit of electricity produced. Since coal plants using CCS would be less efficient, they would require more coal and thus increase the pollution associated with mining and transporting coal. The CCS process is expensive, with costs depending considerably on the location's proximity to suitable geology for carbon dioxide storage. Deployment of this technology is still very limited, with only 21 large-scale CCS plants in operation worldwide as of 2020.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Nuclear power has been used since the 1950s as a low-carbon source of baseload electricity. Nuclear power plants in over 30 countries generate about 10% of global electricity. As of 2019, nuclear generated over a quarter of all low-carbon energy, making it the second largest source after hydropower.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Nuclear power's lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions—including the mining and processing of uranium—are similar to the emissions from renewable energy sources. Nuclear power uses little land per unit of energy produced, compared to the major renewables, and does not create local air pollution. Although the uranium ore used to fuel nuclear fission plants is a non-renewable resource, enough exists to provide a supply for hundreds to thousands of years. However, uranium resources that can be accessed in an economically feasible manner, at the present state, are limited and uranium production could hardly keep up during the expansion phase. Climate change mitigation pathways consistent with ambitious goals typically see an increase in power supply from nuclear.


title: Sustainable energy

text: There is controversy over whether nuclear power is sustainable, in part due to concerns around nuclear waste, nuclear weapon proliferation, and accidents. Radioactive nuclear waste must be managed for thousands of years and nuclear power plants create fissile material that can be used for weapons. For each unit of energy produced, nuclear energy has caused far fewer accidental and pollution-related deaths than fossil fuels, and the historic fatality rate of nuclear is comparable to renewable sources. Public opposition to nuclear energy often makes nuclear plants politically difficult to implement.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Reducing the time and the cost of building new nuclear plants have been goals for decades but costs remain high and timescales long. Various new forms of nuclear energy are in development, hoping to address the drawbacks of conventional plants. Fast breeder reactors are capable of recycling nuclear waste and therefore can significantly reduce the amount of waste that requires geological disposal, but have not yet been deployed on a large-scale commercial basis. Nuclear power based on thorium (rather than uranium) may be able to provide higher energy security for countries that do not have a large supply of uranium. Small modular reactors may have several advantages over current large reactors: It should be possible to build them faster and their modularization would allow for cost reductions via learning-by-doing.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Several countries are attempting to develop nuclear fusion reactors, which would generate small amounts of waste and no risk of explosions. Although fusion power has taken steps forward in the lab, the multi-decade timescale needed to bring it to commercialization and then scale means it won't contribute to a 2050 net zero goal for climate change mitigation.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The emissions reductions necessary to keep global warming below 2°C will require a system-wide transformation of the way energy is produced, distributed, stored, and consumed. For a society to replace one form of energy with another, multiple technologies and behaviours in the energy system must change. For example, transitioning from oil to solar power as the energy source for cars requires the generation of solar electricity, modifications to the electrical grid to accommodate fluctuations in solar panel output or the introduction of variable battery chargers and higher overall demand, adoption of electric cars, and networks of electric vehicle charging facilities and repair shops.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Some energy-intensive technologies and processes are difficult to electrify, including aviation, shipping, and steelmaking. There are several options for reducing the emissions from these sectors: biofuels and synthetic carbon-neutral fuels can power many vehicles that are designed to burn fossil fuels, however biofuels cannot be sustainably produced in the quantities needed and synthetic fuels are currently very expensive. For some applications, the most prominent alternative to electrification is to develop a system based on sustainably-produced hydrogen fuel.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Full decarbonisation of the global energy system is expected to take several decades and can mostly be achieved with existing technologies. The IEA states that further innovation in the energy sector, such as in battery technologies and carbon-neutral fuels, is needed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Developing new technologies requires research and development, demonstration, and cost reductions via deployment. The transition to a zero-carbon energy system will bring strong co-benefits for human health: The World Health Organization estimates that efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 °C could save millions of lives each year from reductions to air pollution alone. With good planning and management, pathways exist to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking by 2030 in ways that are consistent with climate goals. Historically, several countries have made rapid economic gains through coal usage. However, there remains a window of opportunity for many poor countries and regions to "leapfrog" fossil fuel dependency by developing their energy systems based on renewables, given adequate international investment and knowledge transfer.


title: Sustainable energy

text: To deliver reliable electricity from variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, electrical power systems require flexibility. Most electrical grids were constructed for non-intermittent energy sources such as coal-fired power plants. As larger amounts of solar and wind energy are integrated into the grid, changes have to be made to the energy system to ensure that the supply of electricity is matched to demand. In 2019, these sources generated 8.5% of worldwide electricity, a share that has grown rapidly.


title: Sustainable energy

text: There are various ways to make the electricity system more flexible. In many places, wind and solar generation are complementary on a daily and a seasonal scale: there is more wind during the night and in winter when solar energy production is low. Linking different geographical regions through long-distance transmission lines allows for further cancelling out of variability. Energy demand can be shifted in time through energy demand management and the use of smart grids, matching the times when variable energy production is highest. With grid energy storage, energy produced in excess can be released when needed. Further flexibility could be provided from sector coupling, that is coupling the electricity sector to the heat and mobility sector via power-to-heat-systems and electric vehicles.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Building overcapacity for wind and solar generation can help ensure that enough electricity is produced even during poor weather. In optimal weather, energy generation may have to be curtailed if excess electricity cannot be used or stored. The final demand-supply mismatch may be covered by using dispatchable energy sources such as hydropower, bioenergy, or natural gas.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Energy storage helps overcome barriers to intermittent renewable energy and is an important aspect of a sustainable energy system. The most commonly used and available storage method is pumped-storage hydroelectricity, which requires locations with large differences in height and access to water. Batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, are also deployed widely. Batteries typically store electricity for short periods; research is ongoing into technology with sufficient capacity to last through seasons. Costs of utility-scale batteries in the US have fallen by around 70% since 2015, however the cost and low energy density of batteries makes them impractical for the very large energy storage needed to balance inter-seasonal variations in energy production. Pumped hydro storage and power-to-gas (converting electricity to gas and back) with capacity for multi-month usage has been implemented in some locations.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Compared to the rest of the energy system, emissions can be reduced much faster in the electricity sector. As of 2019, 37% of global electricity is produced from low-carbon sources (renewables and nuclear energy). Fossil fuels, primarily coal, produce the rest of the electricity supply. One of the easiest and fastest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to phase out coal-fired power plants and increase renewable electricity generation.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Climate change mitigation pathways envision extensive electrification—the use of electricity as a substitute for the direct burning of fossil fuels for heating buildings and for transport. Ambitious climate policy would see a doubling of energy share consumed as electricity by 2050, from 20% in 2020.


title: Sustainable energy

text: One of the challenges in providing universal access to electricity is distributing power to rural areas. Off-grid and mini-grid systems based on renewable energy, such as small solar PV installations that generate and store enough electricity for a village, are important solutions. Wider access to reliable electricity would lead to less use of kerosene lighting and diesel generators, which are currently common in the developing world.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Infrastructure for generating and storing renewable electricity requires minerals and metals, such as cobalt and lithium for batteries and copper for solar panels. Recycling can meet some of this demand if product lifecycles are well-designed, however achieving net zero emissions would still require major increases in mining for 17 types of metals and minerals. A small group of countries or companies sometimes dominate the markets for these commodities, raising geopolitical concerns. Most of the world's cobalt, for instance, is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a politically unstable region where mining is often associated with human rights risks. More diverse geographical sourcing may ensure a more flexible and less brittle supply chain.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Hydrogen is a gas that can be burned to produce heat or combined with oxygen in fuel cells to generate electricity directly, with water being the only emissions at the point of usage. The overall lifecycle emissions of hydrogen depend on how it is produced. Nearly all of the world's current supply of hydrogen is created from fossil fuels. The main method is steam methane reforming, in which hydrogen is produced from a chemical reaction between steam and methane, the main component of natural gas. Producing one tonne of hydrogen through this process emits 6.6–9.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide. While carbon capture can remove a large fraction of these emissions, the overall carbon footprint of hydrogen from natural gas is difficult to assess , in part because of emissions created in the production of the natural gas itself.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Electricity can be used to split water molecules, producing sustainable hydrogen provided the electricity was generated sustainably. However, this electrolysis process is currently financially more expensive than creating hydrogen from methane and the efficiency of energy conversion is inherently low. Hydrogen can be produced when there is a surplus of variable renewable electricity, then stored and used to generate heat or to re-generate electricity. It can be further transformed into synthetic fuels such as ammonia and methanol.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Innovation in hydrogen electrolysers could make large-scale production of hydrogen from electricity more cost-competitive. There is potential for hydrogen to play a significant role in decarbonising energy systems because in certain sectors, replacing fossil fuels with direct use of electricity would be very difficult. Hydrogen fuel can produce the intense heat required for industrial production of steel, cement, glass, and chemicals. For steelmaking, hydrogen can function as a clean energy carrier and simultaneously as a low-carbon catalyst replacing coal-derived coke. Disadvantages of hydrogen as an energy carrier include high costs of storage and distribution due to hydrogen's explosivity, its large volume compared to other fuels, and its tendency to make pipes brittle.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Transport accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but there are multiple ways to make transport more sustainable. Public transport typically emits fewer greenhouse gases per passenger than personal vehicles, since trains and buses can carry many more passengers at once. Short-distance flights can be replaced by high-speed rail, which is more efficient, especially when electrified. Promoting non-motorised transport such as walking and cycling, particularly in cities, can make transport cleaner and healthier.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The energy efficiency of cars has increased over time, but shifting to electric vehicles is an important further step towards decarbonising transport and reducing air pollution. A large proportion of traffic-related air pollution consists of particulate matter from road dust and the wearing-down of tyres and brake pads. Substantially reducing pollution from these sources cannot be achieved by electrification; it requires measures such as making vehicles lighter and driving them less. Light-duty cars in particular are a prime candidate for decarbonization using battery technology. 25% of the world's CO2 emissions still originate from the transportation sector.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Long-distance freight transport and aviation are difficult sectors to electrify with current technologies, mostly because of the weight of batteries needed for long-distance travel, battery recharging times, and limited battery lifespans. Where available, freight transport by ship and rail is generally more sustainable than by air and by road. Hydrogen vehicles may be an option for larger vehicles such as lorries. Many of the techniques needed to lower emissions from shipping and aviation are still early in their development, with ammonia (produced from hydrogen) a promising candidate for shipping fuel. Aviation biofuel may be one of the better uses of bioenergy if emissions are captured and stored during manufacture of the fuel.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Over one-third of energy use is in buildings and their construction. To heat buildings, alternatives to burning fossil fuels and biomass include electrification through heat pumps or electric heaters, geothermal energy, central solar heating, reuse of waste heat, and seasonal thermal energy storage. Heat pumps provide both heat and air conditioning through a single appliance. The IEA estimates heat pumps could provide over 90% of space and water heating requirements globally.


title: Sustainable energy

text: A highly efficient way to heat buildings is through district heating, in which heat is generated in a centralised location and then distributed to multiple buildings through insulated pipes. Traditionally, most district heating systems have used fossil fuels, but modern and cold district heating systems are designed to use high shares of renewable energy.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Cooling of buildings can be made more efficient through passive building design, planning that minimises the urban heat island effect, and district cooling systems that cool multiple buildings with piped cold water. Air conditioning requires large amounts of electricity and is not always affordable for poorer households. Some air conditioning units still use refrigerants that are greenhouse gases, as some countries have not ratified the Kigali Amendment to only use climate-friendly refrigerants.


title: Sustainable energy

text: In developing countries where populations suffer from energy poverty, polluting fuels such as wood or animal dung are often used for cooking. Cooking with these fuels is generally unsustainable, because they release harmful smoke and because harvesting wood can lead to forest degradation. The universal adoption of clean cooking facilities, which are already ubiquitous in rich countries, would dramatically improve health and have minimal negative effects on climate. Clean cooking facilities, e.g. cooking facilities that produce less indoor soot, typically use natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (both of which consume oxygen and produce carbon-dioxide) or electricity as the energy source; biogas systems are a promising alternative in some contexts. Improved cookstoves that burn biomass more efficiently than traditional stoves are an interim solution where transitioning to clean cooking systems is difficult.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Over one-third of energy use is by industry. Most of that energy is deployed in thermal processes: generating heat, drying, and refrigeration. The share of renewable energy in industry was 14.5% in 2017—mostly low-temperature heat supplied by bioenergy and electricity. The most energy-intensive activities in industry have the lowest shares of renewable energy, as they face limitations in generating heat at temperatures over .


title: Sustainable energy

text: For some industrial processes, commercialisation of technologies that have not yet been built or operated at full scale will be needed to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Steelmaking, for instance, is difficult to electrify because it traditionally uses coke, which is derived from coal, both to create very high-temperature heat and as an ingredient in the steel itself. The production of plastic, cement, and fertilisers also requires significant amounts of energy, with limited possibilities available to decarbonise. A switch to a circular economy would make industry more sustainable as it involves recycling more and thereby using less energy compared to investing energy to mine and refine new raw materials.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Well-designed government policies that promote energy system transformation can lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality simultaneously, and in many cases can also increase energy security and lessen the financial burden of using energy.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Environmental regulations have been used since the 1970s to promote more sustainable use of energy. Some governments have committed to dates for phasing out coal-fired power plants and ending new fossil fuel exploration. Governments can require that new cars produce zero emissions, or new buildings are heated by electricity instead of gas. Renewable portfolio standards in several countries require utilities to increase the percentage of electricity they generate from renewable sources.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Governments can accelerate energy system transformation by leading the development of infrastructure such as long-distance electrical transmission lines, smart grids, and hydrogen pipelines. In other cases divorcing government from fossil fuel investments can contribute to a less hindered, more transparent and accelerated approach to implementing policies to support sustainable energy usage and production. In transport, appropriate infrastructure and incentives can make travel more efficient and less car-dependent. Urban planning that discourages sprawl can reduce energy use in local transport and buildings while enhancing quality of life. Government-funded research, procurement, and incentive policies have historically been critical to the development and maturation of clean energy technologies, such as solar and lithium batteries. In the IEA's scenario for a net zero-emission energy system by 2050, public funding is rapidly mobilised to bring a range of newer technologies to the demonstration phase and to encourage deployment.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Carbon pricing (such as a tax on emissions) gives industries and consumers an incentive to reduce emissions while letting them choose how to do so. For example, they can shift to low-emission energy sources, improve energy efficiency, or reduce their use of energy-intensive products and services. Carbon pricing has encountered strong political pushback in some jurisdictions, whereas energy-specific policies tend to be politically safer. Most studies indicate that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, carbon pricing would need to be complemented by stringent energy-specific policies. As of 2019, the price of carbon in most regions is too low to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Carbon taxes provide a source of revenue that can be used to lower other taxes or help lower-income households afford higher energy costs. Some governments, such as the EU and the UK, are exploring the use of carbon border adjustments. These place tariffs on imports from countries with less stringent climate policies, to ensure that industries subject to internal carbon prices remain competitive.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The scale and pace of policy reforms that have been initiated as of 2020 are far less than needed to fulfil the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. In addition to domestic policies, greater international cooperation will be required to accelerate innovation and to assist poorer countries in establishing a sustainable path to full energy access.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Countries may support renewables to create jobs. The International Labour Organization estimates that efforts to limit global warming to 2 °C would result in net job creation in most sectors of the economy. It predicts that 24 million new jobs would be created by 2030 in areas such as renewable electricity generation, improving energy-efficiency in buildings, and the transition to electric vehicles. Six million jobs would be lost, in sectors such as mining and fossil fuels. Governments can make the transition to sustainable energy more politically and socially feasible by ensuring a just transition for workers and regions that depend on the fossil fuel industry, to ensure they have alternative economic opportunities.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Raising enough money for innovation and investment is a prerequisite for the energy transition. The IPCC estimates that to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, US$2.4 trillion would need to be invested in the energy system each year between 2016 and 2035. Most studies project that these costs, equivalent to 2.5% of world GDP, would be small compared to the economic and health benefits. Average annual investment in low-carbon energy technologies and energy efficiency would need to be six times more by 2050 compared to 2015. Underfunding is particularly acute in the least developed countries, which are not attractive to the private sector.


title: Sustainable energy

text: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimates that climate financing totalled $681 billion in 2016. Most of this is private-sector investment in renewable energy deployment, public-sector investment in sustainable transport, and private-sector investment in energy efficiency. The Paris Agreement includes a pledge of an extra $100 billion per year from developed countries to poor countries, to do climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, this goal has not been met and measurement of progress has been hampered by unclear accounting rules. If energy-intensive businesses like chemicals, fertilizers, ceramics, steel, and non-ferrous metals invest significantly in R&D, its usage in industry might amount to between 5% and 20% of all energy used.


title: Sustainable energy

text: Fossil fuel funding and subsidies are a significant barrier to the energy transition. Direct global fossil fuel subsidies were $319 billion in 2017. This rises to $5.2 trillion when indirect costs are priced in, like the impacts from air pollution. Ending these could lead to a 28% reduction in global carbon emissions and a 46% reduction in air pollution deaths. Funding for clean energy has been largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and pandemic-related economic stimulus packages offer possibilities for a green recovery.


title: Jim Cramer

text: James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality and author. He is the host of "Mad Money" on CNBC and an anchor on "Squawk on the Street". A former hedge fund manager, founder, and senior partner of Cramer Berkowitz, Cramer wrote several books, including "Confessions of a Street Addict" (2002), "Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World" (2005), "Jim Cramer's Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich" (2006), and "Jim Cramer's Get Rich Carefully" (2013). He co-founded TheStreet.com, which he wrote for from 1996 to 2021. Cramer hosted "Kudlow & Cramer" from 2002 to 2005.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer was born in 1955 in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Philadelphia), to Jewish parents. Cramer's mother, Louise A. Cramer (1928–1985), was an artist. Cramer's father, N. Ken Cramer (1922–2014), owned International Packaging Products, a Philadelphia-based company that sold wrapping paper, boxes, and bags to retailers and restaurants.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Among his first jobs, starting sometime in 1971, Cramer sold Coca-Cola and then ice cream at Veterans Stadium during Philadelphia Phillies games.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 1977, Cramer graduated "magna cum laude" from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts in government. While at Harvard, Cramer was the president and editor-in-chief of "The Harvard Crimson". Additionally, Cramer was a National Merit Scholar.


title: Jim Cramer

text: After college, Cramer was an entry-level reporter, making $15,000 per year. Beginning March 1, 1978, Cramer worked for the "Tallahassee Democrat" in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was one of the first people to cover the Ted Bundy murders since he lived only a few blocks away. Then-executive editor Richard Oppel said: "[Cramer] was like a driving ram. He was great at getting the story." He subsequently worked for the "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner" writing obituaries. During this time, his apartment was robbed and he lost everything, forcing him to live out of his car for 9 months. He also worked for Governor of California Jerry Brown. Cramer was one of the first reporters at "American Lawyer".


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 1984, Cramer received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. Cramer started investing in the stock market while he attended law school. He made enough from trading to cover tuition. Cramer began promoting his holdings by leaving stock picks on his answering machine. While at Harvard, alumnus Michael Kinsley introduced him to "The New Republic" owner Martin Peretz, who contacted Cramer to write a book review. After first profiting from the stock picks he heard on Cramer's answering machine, Peretz gave Cramer $500,000 to invest. In two years, Cramer made $150,000 for Peretz. During his years at Harvard Law School, Cramer worked as a minor research assistant for Alan Dershowitz. He assisted Dershowitz's campaign to acquit alleged murderer Claus von Bülow even though Cramer believed von Bülow was "supremely guilty."


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1985 but did not practice. His license to practice law was suspended on April 2, 2009, for failure to renew his registration.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 1987, Cramer left Goldman Sachs and started a hedge fund, Cramer & Co. (later Cramer, Berkowitz & Co.). The fund operated out of the offices of Michael Steinhardt. Early investors included friend and classmate Eliot Spitzer, Steve Brill, and Martin Peretz. Cramer raised $450 million in $5 million increments and received a fee of 20% of the profits he generated.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer claims to have sold all of his stocks on the Friday before Black Monday (1987). From 1988 to 2000, Cramer claims to have had only one year of negative returns – 1998, a year when the S&P 500 Index rose 29%. The underperformance in 1998 led to significant investor withdrawals. In 1999, the fund returned 47% and in 2000, it returned 28%, beating the S&P 500 Index by 38 percentage points. Cramer claims to have produced a 24% average annual return over 14 years and "routinely [taken] home $10 million a year and more." However, his results have been disputed.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 2001, Cramer retired from managing the hedge fund. The fund was then taken over by his former partner, Jeff Berkowitz.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer was also an "editor at large" for "SmartMoney" magazine and was accused of unethical practices when he made a $2 million personal gain after buying stocks just before his recommendation article was published.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 1996, Cramer and Peretz launched TheStreet.com, a financial news and investment website. In August 2019, TheMaven acquired the company for $16.5 million.


title: Jim Cramer

text: From 2002 to 2005, Cramer co-hosted "Kudlow & Cramer" (first called "America Now") with Larry Kudlow.


title: Jim Cramer

text: "Mad Money with Jim Cramer" first aired on CNBC in 2005. The stated goal of the show is to provide people engaging in do-it-yourself investing with "the knowledge and the tools that will empower you to be a better investor". Cramer is required to disclose any positions he holds in a stock that is discussed on the show and is not allowed to trade any security he has spoken about on CNBC for five days following the broadcast.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer hosted a one-hour radio show, "Jim Cramer's Real Money", until December 2006, which spawned "Mad Money".


title: Jim Cramer

text: On November 13, 2005, Dan Rather interviewed Cramer on "60 Minutes". Among the topics of discussion was Cramer's past at his hedge fund, including his violent temper.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 2005, Cramer appeared as himself in two episodes of "Arrested Development". He announced that he had upgraded Bluth Company stock to a "Don't Buy" from a "Triple Sell," and then said that the stock was not a "Don't Buy" anymore, but a "Risky."


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer has also made appearances on "Today", "NBC Nightly News", "Live with Regis and Kelly", "Cheap Seats", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Show with David Letterman", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in February 2008 and as a guest judge on "The Apprentice" in January 2007 and was interviewed by Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" in March 2009 (see Jon Stewart–Jim Cramer conflict).


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer also appeared in the 2008 motion picture "Iron Man" spoofing Stark Industries on his show "Mad Money", and he also appeared in the movie "". He also claims to have consulted for the original "Wall Street" movie by telling the filmmakers how he would get through to Gordon Gekko.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 2000, Cramer and TheStreet.com settled a lawsuit with Fox News Channel in which Fox had claimed Cramer had reneged on a deal to produce a show for Fox. The conflict began when Fox complained that Cramer promoted TheStreet.com stock on its network.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In a December 2006 interview, Cramer described activities used by hedge fund managers to manipulate stock prices—some of debatable legality and others illegal. He described how he could push stocks higher or lower with as little as $5 million in capital when he was running his hedge fund. Cramer said, "A lot of times when I was short at my hedge fund ... When I was positioned short—meaning I needed it down—I would create a level of activity beforehand that could drive the futures." He also encouraged hedge funds to engage in this type of activity because it is "a very quick way to make money."


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer stated that everything he did was legal, but that illegal activity is common in the hedge fund industry as well. He also stated that some hedge fund managers spread false rumors to drive a stock down: "What's important when you are in that hedge-fund mode is to not do anything remotely truthful because the truth is so against your view, that it's important to create a new truth, to develop a fiction." Cramer described a variety of tactics that hedge fund managers use to affect a stock's price. Cramer said that one strategy to keep a stock price down is to spread false rumors to reporters he described as "the Pisanis of the world", in reference to CNBC correspondent Bob Pisani, whom Cramer insinuated was able to be manipulated, saying "You have to use these guys." He also discussed giving information to "the bozo reporter from "The Wall Street Journal"" to get an article published. Cramer said this practice, although illegal, is easy to do "because the SEC doesn't understand it." During the interview, Cramer referred to himself as a "banking-class hero."


title: Jim Cramer

text: As manager of his hedge fund, Cramer claimed to have realized a "rate of return of 24% after all fees for 15 years" until he retired from the hedge fund in 2001. He self-reported a 36% return in 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble. However, this performance has not been independently verified.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In January 2000, close to the peak of the dot-com bubble, Cramer recommended investing in technology stocks and suggested a repeat of the stock performance of 1999.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In February 2000, the year in which Cramer claimed to have produced a 36% return, Cramer claimed that there were only 10 stocks he wanted to own and he was buying them every day. These stocks were 724 Solutions, Ariba, Digital Island, Exodus Communications, InfoSpace, Inktomi, Mercury Interactive, Sonera, VeriSign, and Veritas Software. He also dismissed the investing strategy of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd and claimed that price–earnings ratios did not matter. All 10 of these stock picks fell in value significantly during 2000 as the dot-com bubble burst, making the 36% reported return during that year questionable.


title: Jim Cramer

text: On October 6, 2008, on "Today", when the S&P 500 Index was valued at 1,056, Cramer suggested to investors, "Whatever money you need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market." Five months later, the market bottomed at 666, a 36.9% decline. Five years after Cramer's sell advice, on October 6, 2013, the S&P 500 Index was valued at 1,678, an increase of 58.7%.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer was criticized for repeatedly giving erroneous advice during the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. He recommended investing in Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, and Lehman Brothers before the stocks fell in value significantly and several went out of business. On August 8, 2008, before the climax of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, Cramer recommended investing in bank stocks.


title: Jim Cramer

text: An August 20, 2007, article in "Barron's" stated that "his picks haven't beaten the market. Over the past two years, viewers holding Cramer's stocks would be up 12% while the Dow rose 22% and the S&P 500 16%."


title: Jim Cramer

text: A February 9, 2009, article in "The Wall Street Journal" noted that betting against Cramer's Buy recommendations using short-term options could yield 25% in a month.


title: Jim Cramer

text: On the March 11, 2008, episode of Cramer's show "Mad Money", a viewer named Peter submitted the question "Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there?" Cramer responded "No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they're more likely to be "taken over". Don't move your money from Bear." On March 14, 2008, the stock lost more than half of its value on news of a Fed bailout and $2/share takeover by JPMorgan Chase. On March 17, 2008, Cramer claimed his statements were made in regards to the liquidity of accounts held at Bear Stearns as opposed to the stock. Cramer stated he was not recommending the common stock but allaying concerns about the account holder's liquidity held in a Bear Stearns brokerage account. Cramer later wrote about the incident: "I did tell an emailer that his deposit in his account at Bear Stearns was safe, but through a clever sound bite, (Jon) Stewart, and subsequently (Frank) Rich—neither of whom have bothered to listen to the context of the pulled quote—pass off the notion of account safety as an out-and-out buy recommendation. The absurdity astounds me. If you called "Mad Money" and asked me about Citigroup, I would tell you that the common stock might be worthless, but I would never tell you to pull your money out of the bank because I was worried about its solvency. Your money is safe in Citi as I said it was in Bear. The fact that I was right rankles me even more."


title: Jim Cramer

text: An article by author Michael Lewis for Bloomberg News states that TheStreet.com listed Bear Stearns as a "Buy" at $62 per share on March 11, 2008, which was the same day as the caller's question and a day before the collapse of Bear Stearns. During the Jon Stewart–Jim Cramer conflict, on "The Daily Show" on March 12, 2009, Cramer admitted he made mistakes on his Bear Stearns calls.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer claims that, between 2002 and May 2009, the performance of his ""Action Alerts PLUS"" charitable trust outpaced the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 2000 Index. The charitable trust realized a return of 31.75%, the S&P 500 had a return of 18.75% and the Russell 2000 had a return of 22.51%. On an annual basis, the trust outperformed the S&P 500 by 7.35% and the Russell 2000 Index by 3.33%. Paul Bolster explains that Cramer beats the market in part because of the excess risk in his picks. "If we adjust for his market risk, we come up with an excess return that is essentially zero", Bolster said, adding that "zero", in this case, means his returns are roughly in line with the risk he's taking on. Another criticism of Actions Alerts Plus is that it does not compare itself to indexes that include dividend reinvestment (as the SEC requires for stock-oriented mutual funds). According to Kiplinger's article "One recent [Action Alerts PLUS] and included a chart, under the headline "Action Alert PLUS is CRUSHING the S&P 500," showing that the picks returned about 39% from the portfolio's inception through last March 31, compared with 15.5% for the S&P 500 over the same nine-year, three-month period. But the S&P figure did not include reinvested dividends. With them, the S&P 500 returned 38.3%."


title: Jim Cramer

text: A study done by Wharton researchers Jonathan Hartley and Matthew Olson found that in the timeframe of August 2001 to March 2016, Cramer's charitable trust underperformed the S&P 500 primarily as a result of underexposure to market returns in years after the 2008 financial crisis. As of March 31, 2016, Cramer's trust since inception had a cumulative return of 64.5% whereas the S&P 500 fewer dividends returned 70% during the same time frame. Wharton finance professor Robert Stambaugh said he didn't think the findings showed significant underperformance or outperformance when adjusting for a variety of factors, but did state "It's a commendable attempt to dig more deeply into the style that underlies Cramer's stock picks."


title: Jim Cramer

text: On March 2, 2009, Cramer said that President Barack Obama was on a "radical agenda" and said that was responsible for "the greatest wealth destruction I have seen by a president". In response to a reporter's question, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs replied, "If you turn on a certain program, it's geared to a very small audience. I'm not entirely sure what he's pointing to make some of the statements...You can go back and look at any number of statements he's made in the past about the economy and wonder where some of the back-ups for those are, too."


title: Jim Cramer

text: On March 5, 2009, Cramer responded to the White House, saying, "Backup? Look at the incredible decline in the stock market, in all indices, since the inauguration of the president, with the drop accelerating when the budget plan came to light because of the massive fear and indecision the document sowed: Raising taxes on the eve of what could be a second Great Depression, destroying the profits in healthcare companies, tinkering with the mortgage deduction at a time when U.S. house price depreciation is behind much of the world's morass and certainly the devastation affecting our banks, and pushing an aggressive cap and trade program that could raise the price of energy for millions of people." By the end of Obama's term in office, major stock market indexes had more than doubled from the levels of March 2009.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Referring to March 8, 2009, charges leveled against Cramer by "The New York Times" columnist Frank Rich, Cramer said that he does not understand how Obama and his staff plan to raise taxes, institute cap-and-trade limitations, and rework the healthcare system all during a recession. The article says: "It isn't that Cramer disagrees with Obama's vision for the country – he even agrees with taxing the rich – but now is not the time to put those plans into action. The president needs to solve our housing, employment, and financial problems, and only then turn his attention to healthcare and changing the mortgage deduction."


title: Jim Cramer

text: On March 12, 2009, Cramer appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". Stewart reiterated earlier claims regarding the CNBC host's "silly and/or embarrassing and/or stupid financial observations." Moreover, he claimed CNBC shirked its journalistic duty by believing corporate lies rather than being an investigative "powerful tool of illumination." Cramer disagreed with Stewart on a few points, but acknowledged that he could have done a better job foreseeing the economic collapse: "We all should have seen it more."


title: Jim Cramer

text: Stewart also discussed how short-selling was detrimental to the markets and investors. Cramer admitted to Stewart that short-selling was detrimental, stated his opposition to it, and claimed that he had never engaged in it. This contradicts earlier statements in which he described going short while managing a hedge fund. In a December 2006 interview from TheStreet.com's "Wall Street Confidential" webcast, Cramer said, "A lot of times when I was short at my hedge fund. ... When I was positioned short—meaning I needed it down—I would create a level of activity beforehand that could drive the futures." He said, "I will say this: I am trying to expose this stuff, exactly what you guys do, and I've been trying to get the regulators to look at it." However, Stewart played several video clips from 2006 where Cramer discussed the spreading of false rumors to drive down stock prices and encouraged short-selling by hedge funds as a means to generate returns. At one point in a clip from December 22, 2006, he said, "I would encourage anyone in a hedge fund to do it." He called it a very quick way to make money and very satisfying. He continued, "By the way, no one else in the world would ever admit that, but I don't care, and again, I'm not gonna say it on TV." Stewart responded, "I want the Jim Cramer on CNBC to protect me from that Jim Cramer." Cramer again admitted that he could do better and that he should try to change. The interview ended when Stewart pointedly suggested: "Maybe we can remove the 'financial expert' and the 'In Cramer We Trust' and start getting back to fundamentals on the reporting, as well, and I can go back to making fart noises and funny faces." Cramer responded: "I think we make that deal right here".


title: Jim Cramer

text: On August 3, 2007, in what was described a "rant" Cramer made a plea for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. Cramer said of the Fed Committee, "They're nuts. They know nothing. This is a different kinda market. And the Fed is asleep." When the transcript from the August 7, 2007, meeting of the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee was subsequently released on August 28, 2007, it showed that Cramer's comments elicited laughter from participants during a comment from Dennis Lockhart, president, and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. "I believe that the correct policy posture is to let the markets work through the changes in risk appetite and pricing that are underway, but the market observations of one of my more strident conversational counterparts—and that is not Jim Cramer [laughter]—are worth sharing." Cramer was vindicated for his negative outlook when the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the Great Recession took hold.


title: Jim Cramer

text: On "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on September 19, 2008, Cramer blamed the Federal Reserve for the United States housing bubble.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 2022, in response to a long-running series of unrelated humorous comments on betting against Cramer's stock recommendations, "The Financial Times" uncovered SEC filings which revealed that Tuttle Capital Management, the same firm behind an ETF which betted against Cathie Wood's ARK funds, had filed to launch two funds with one labeled "LJIM" and the other "IJIM", representing "Long Cramer" (which would bet with all of Cramer's recommendations) and "Inverse Cramer" (betting against everything that Cramer recommended) respectively. The Inverse Cramer ETF listed in its filings that aside from jokes or obviously meritable investment recommendations, in general, the fund would bet against all of Cramer's recommendations both on "Mad Money" and Cramer's Twitter feed, and the fund estimates to have a "high turnover rate". The fund gained additional coverage upon Meta Platforms' Q3 2022 earnings miss and Cramer's subsequent apology, which outlined another loss for the company and was seen by some that Cramer's apology was seen as a sign to buy Meta stock.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Upon the launch of the fund, prior to Meta's earnings, Cramer responded on Twitter by touting his reputation and claiming the ETF would not last long before stating he wouldn't be making further comments on the company. He apparently reversed this decision, though, and continued to make comments before seemingly reversing course and "welcoming" the fund, though further touting his reputation.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In February 2006, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission served subpoenas requesting information from several journalists, including Cramer, in conjunction with allegations of collusion between short-sellers of Overstock.com and Gradient Analytics, a stock research firm. The SEC indicated it had no intention of enforcing the subpoenas after lawyers for Dow Jones objected to the government's demands for communications between journalists and their sources. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said neither he nor any of the SEC's four other commissioners were aware of the subpoenas, which he called "highly unusual."


title: Jim Cramer

text: On September 15, 2020, during a TV interview with US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Cramer addressed her as "Crazy Nancy", and then sent several tweets in which he defended his actions. He later apologized for using the phrase, which was also employed frequently by President Donald Trump. During a discussion about the likelihood of a coronavirus relief bill, Cramer expressed doubt over the deal saying, "I mean, what deal can we have, Crazy Nancy?" He then quickly added "I'm sorry, I—that was the president. I have such reverence for the office, I would never use that term." "But you just did," Pelosi replied.


title: Jim Cramer

text: From 1988 to 2009, Cramer was married to Karen Backfisch, with whom he had two children. On April 18, 2015, Cramer married Lisa Cadette Detwiler, a real-estate broker, and general manager of The Longshoreman, an Italian bistro/restaurant in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In a 2013 interview on "The Carlos Watson Show" Cramer stated that he dealt with mental health issues surrounding his anger and his workplace behavior, attributing the problem to his childhood experiences with his father.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer lives in Summit, New Jersey. He also has a 65-acre estate in the New Jersey countryside and a summer house in Quogue, New York, on Long Island.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In 2009, Cramer and four other investors purchased the DeBary Inn in Summit, New Jersey. He and his wife also own Bar San Miguel, a restaurant and bar serving Mexican cuisine in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.


title: Jim Cramer

text: Cramer loves Philadelphia and has said the key to an economic resurgence of the city is a high-speed rail connection with New York City.


title: Jim Cramer

text: He is a passionate Philadelphia Eagles fan and cried after the team was victorious in Super Bowl LII. He has held season tickets for 20 years and has met former Eagles coach Doug Pederson many times.


title: Jim Cramer

text: In December 2021, Cramer announced he tested positive for COVID-19 after attending an event that required PCR testing. He said his symptoms were mild due to having two injections of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and a Moderna booster. His wife was sicker and she received the Johnson & Johnson initial dose and the Moderna booster.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: Patrick Jean André Mouratoglou (born 8 June 1970) is a French tennis coach and sports commentator of Greek descent. He was the coach of Serena Williams from June 2012 to 2022. Since Spring 2022, Mouratoglou has been the coach of Simona Halep. Patrick is now married to Ada Obilu.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: He founded the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in 1996 near Paris (later relocated to the outskirts of Nice), and has coached many up-and-coming players, including Marcos Baghdatis (whom he coached to the final of the 2006 Australian Open), Julia Vakulenko, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Aravane Rezaï, Irena Pavlovic, Jérémy Chardy, Laura Robson, Yanina Wickmayer and Grigor Dimitrov.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: Mouratoglou started coaching the ATP player Marcos Baghdatis in 1999 when Mouratoglou invited him to his Tennis Academy in October 1999, on a one-week basis. Baghdatis was, according to Mouratoglou, "not an athlete at all", however within seven years he would become a junior world No. 1, win the 2003 Australian Open boys' title, reach the final of the same tournament in 2006 and reach the world's top ten.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: In July 2007, he started coaching Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Within two years, Pavlyuchenkova reached the world's top 30 and has since made two Grand Slam quarterfinals and reached a career-high ranking of world No. 13. They ended their association in August 2009, and Mouratoglou moved onto coaching both Aravane Rezaï and Yanina Wickmayer. Rezaï enjoyed a successful 2010 season, entering the world's top 20 and winning the Premier event in Madrid whilst Wickmayer reached a career-high ranking of world No. 12, in April 2010. Mouratoglou stopped working with both Rezaï and Wickmayer in August 2010 and April 2012, respectively.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: In December 2010, Mouratoglou started coaching Laura Robson, who was world No. 217 at the time and still struggling to break into the senior tour. They worked together for six months before separating shortly before Wimbledon in 2011, when Robson was still struggling to make any progress on the WTA Tour, having slipped further to world No. 257. During this same period, Mouratoglou also coached Jérémy Chardy within his academy.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: In March 2012, Mouratoglou started coaching Grigor Dimitrov and set about guiding him back into the world's top 100, having dropped to No. 102 by the time he started. This association ended in September that year and Mouratoglou moved on to coaching Serena Williams.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: By the time Mouratoglou started coaching Williams, she had just suffered her first-ever opening-round defeat in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, losing in the first round of the 2012 French Open. Since then, Mouratoglou has guided Williams to her fifth, sixth and seventh Wimbledon titles, the Olympic gold medal, her fourth, fifth, and sixth US Open titles, her second and third French Open titles, three consecutive year-end championships titles, her sixth and seventh Australian Open title and lifted her back to No. 1 in the WTA rankings.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: In 2015, Stefanos Tsitsipas started training in his tennis academies, as well as being coached by Patrick Mouratoglou and his father Apostolos Tsitsipas.


title: Patrick Mouratoglou

text: In spring 2022, Simona Halep began training with Mouratoglou. He began coaching rising young phenom Holger Rune in October of 2022 in the absence of Halep from the WTA Tour due to her doping suspension, and helped lead him to his first Masters 1000 Title, defeating Novak Djokovic in the final.


title: Joe Francis

text: Joseph R. Francis (born April 1, 1973) is an American entrepreneur, film producer and the founder and creator of the Girls Gone Wild entertainment brand. Francis worked as a production assistant on the syndicated program "Real TV" before releasing the direct-to-video film "Banned from Television" in 1998.


title: Joe Francis

text: Francis has, at various times, been convicted of tax evasion, bribery, false imprisonment, assault causing great bodily injury, dissuading a witness, and record-keeping violations; and has pleaded no contest to child abuse and prostitution.


title: Joe Francis

text: Joe Francis was born on April 1, 1973, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Raymond and Maria Francis, the latter of whom was from Austria. According to Francis, when he was seven years old, the family moved to Newport Beach, California, where he attended Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Elementary School, and then a series of boarding schools. At some point, he lived in Laguna Beach and attended Laguna Beach High School. His first job was at a computer and video store.


title: Joe Francis

text: Francis attended the University of Southern California's Business Administration program, concentrating his education at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He also took several courses in film and television, graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor's Degree from the USC Entrepreneurial Program.


title: Joe Francis

text: Francis's first business venture began when he was working as a production assistant for "Real TV", a syndicated reality television program that aired footage of extraordinary events that were not usually covered in mainstream news. It was there that Francis came up with the idea for "Banned from Television". During his time at "Real TV", people who worked in the studio would often view footage involving car accidents, violent attacks and other graphic events. Francis licensed the footage, which he then sold through the "Banned from Television" videos which he marketed via infomercials. The first "Banned from Television" video was released in 1998, followed by two sequels that were also released the same year. Some of the more famous footage included in the series was: footage of Luis Donaldo Colosio's assassination; the rampage of circus elephant Tyke; the executions of Roberto Girón and Pedro Castillo; footage of the Royal Jomtien Resort Hotel fire; and the death of Mary T. Wojtyla, a woman hit by a speeding train in Downers Grove, Illinois.


title: Joe Francis

text: Other footage included: the murder of Pete Shrum, the murder of Lea Mek, the attempted suicide of Terry Rossland, the extrajudicial execution by burning of Rodolfo Hernandez, footage of the 1998 Cúa hostage crisis, footage of a 1990 Lucas Oil 200 (ARCA) race in which Slick Johnson was killed and paramedic Mike Staley was injured, and the deaths of motorcycle stunt riders Corey Scott and Butch Laswell. Due to the films' graphic content, Francis stopped the series after three films, because he found it too disturbing to watch them back-to-back. While viewing footage for inclusion on "Banned from Television", Francis came across footage of female college students flashing their breasts during Mardi Gras and spring break. It was this footage that sparked Francis's next business venture with Girls Gone Wild.


title: Joe Francis

text: Francis created the Girls Gone Wild franchise in 1997 when he began using direct-response marketing, such as infomercials, to sell videos that he had produced. The videos were of college-aged women who willingly exposed their bodies or acted wildly on camera. In its first two years, Girls Gone Wild made more than $20 million. By 2002, Francis had produced 83 different Girls Gone Wild titles and was airing 30-minute infomercials on all major U.S. networks.


title: Joe Francis

text: In 2005, the company planned to donate 100% of their gross sales of their Mardi Gras-themed DVDs to the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.


title: Joe Francis

text: Abbey Wilson, who won Girls Gone Wild's "Search for the Hottest Girl in America" contest in 2012, became Francis's long-term girlfriend. The two appeared on season 3 of the VH1 reality series "Couples Therapy". In 2013, Wilson's iPad, containing private sexual videos of Francis and Wilson, was stolen. In retaliation, and to prevent distribution of the video before it was sold to any media outlets, Francis's lawyer David Houston threatened, "When we catch you, we will see that you are prosecuted to the fullest extent of both the criminal and civil laws." In 2014, Wilson became pregnant with twins via in vitro fertilization. On October 7, 2014, she gave birth to two girls.


title: Joe Francis

text: In June 2007, Ashley Alexandra Dupré alleged that Francis and his company filmed her without permission, but she dropped her lawsuit after Francis released footage showing her consent. The following year, four women sued Girls Gone Wild for allegedly filming them as minors. Francis represented himself for part of the trial, until the judge cited him for contempt of court and fined him $2,500 for asking a plaintiff during cross-examination if she was a prostitute. Francis hired two lawyers the same day to represent him for the duration of his trial.


title: Joe Francis

text: In February 2012, Clark County, Nevada judge Mark Denton awarded $7.5 million to businessman Steve Wynn for defamatory statements made by Francis. In September 2012, a jury awarded $20 million to Wynn in a slander case against Francis for claiming that Wynn had threatened to kill him over a gambling debt. Francis's witnesses all denied hearing Wynn make such threats. The jury added an additional $20 million in punitive damages. In November 2012, Judge Joanne O'Donnell reduced Wynn's award to $19 million, reasoning that the jury's award was "speculative" and based on their dislike of Francis.


title: Joe Francis

text: As part of his January 2015 no contest plea to child abuse and prostitution charges, Francis also agreed to settle a 2003 lawsuit which involved allegations of videotaping the exposed breasts of underage girls.


title: Joe Francis

text: In 2003, officials in Panama City Beach, Florida, attempted to halt Girls Gone Wild from filming, prompting Francis to sue them for violating his First Amendment rights. The same officials arrested Francis for racketeering; he was released on bond. At a July 2006 hearing, the judge disallowed most of the evidence and in January 2007 dismissed most of the charges. Francis pleaded guilty to record-keeping violations, was fined $1.6 million and sentenced to community service. Francis later pleaded guilty for having contraband in his cell. He served 339 days and paid over $60,000 in fines.


title: Joe Francis

text: In January 2011, Francis brought a group of three women to his home, leading to five charges: three misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment, one of assault causing great bodily injury, and one of dissuading a witness. On May 6, 2013, Francis was convicted on all five charges. He faced a maximum of five years in prison and/or $13,000 in fines. On May 22, Francis did an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", calling the jurors "mentally ... retarded" and suggesting they "should be euthanized." He later apologized for his remarks, but stated that he had been manipulated by the media.


title: Joe Francis

text: On August 27, 2013, Francis was sentenced to serve at least 270 days in county jail, 36 months' probation, and was ordered to complete a Level 3 Anger Management course and a year of psychological counseling. Francis' attorneys immediately filed a new trial petition.


title: Joe Francis

text: On March 25, 2015, Francis was sentenced to 336 days in jail after pleading no contest to child abuse and prostitution charges.


title: Joe Francis

text: In April 2007, in Reno, Nevada, Francis was indicted by a grand jury for two counts of tax evasion. The Department of Justice alleged that Francis claimed over $20 million in false deductions on his corporate returns in 2002 and 2003.


title: Joe Francis

text: In April 2008, the venue for the trial was changed to the United States District Court for the Central District of California. At a hearing in July 2008, Francis pleaded not guilty to tax evasion. His attorney, Robert Bernhoft, said that tax returns for the businesses were prepared and filed by a former accountant and not shown to Francis. Bernhoft said that when the accountant left the company, he reported the returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to collect a bonus from the Tax Whistleblower Program.


title: Joe Francis

text: In September 2009, Francis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of filing a false return and bribery. He received credit for time served. In November 2009, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero accepted Francis's plea including $250,000 in restitution to the IRS.


title: Joe Francis

text: In 2004, Riley Perez (also known as Darnell Riley) broke into Francis' home where he filmed a humiliating blackmail video and arranged for payment so that the video did not go viral. Held at gunpoint, Francis was forced to disrobe on camera. Riley has claimed that he was asked to do so by mafia criminals.