[extropy-chat] Save the World

[Damien Broderick]

At 07:48 PM 2/10/2007 -0500, Keith wrote:
> >
> > >  I had to come
> > >up with a way the energy and carbon crisis was solved.  That led to notes
> > >so extensive as to almost constitute a business plan.
> >
> >Send them to Richard Branson, collect $25 million.
>
>Any though as to how one might show something to Richard Branson?

why, yes, in general terms:


Airline tycoon Richard Branson has announced a 
$US25 million ($A32m) prize for the first person 
to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse 
gases out of the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming.

Flanked by climate campaigners former US 
vice-president Al Gore and British ex-diplomat 
Crispin Tickell, Sir Richard said he hoped the 
Virgin Earth Challenge would spur innovative and 
creative thought to save mankind from self-destruction.

The prize will initially be open for five years, 
with ideas assessed by a panel of judges 
including Sir Richard, Mr Gore and Mr Tickell as 
well as Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery, 
US climate scientist James Hansen and Briton 
James Lovelock. "Man created the problem and 
therefore man should solve the problem," he said.

"Unless we can devise a way of removing CO 2 
(carbon dioxide) from the Earth's atmosphere we 
will lose half of all species on Earth, all the 
coral reefs, 100 million people will be 
displaced, farmlands will become deserts and rainforests wastelands."

Sir Richard rejected suggestions that he, as an 
airline owner, was being hypocritical in offering 
the prize. "I could ground my airline today, but 
British Airways would simply take its place," he 
said, noting that he was investing in cleaner engines and fuels.

Top scientists predict that global average 
temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and four 
degrees this century due to human activities such 
as burning fossil fuels, putting millions at risk 
from rising sea levels, floods, famines and storms.

Mr Gore, whose campaign film An Inconvenient 
Truth has helped spread the message, said all 
science showed something was drastically wrong 
but that Armageddon was not inevitable.

The winner must devise a way of removing 1 
billion tonnes of carbon gases a year from the 
atmosphere for 10 years ­ with $US5 million 
($AS6.4m) of the prize being paid at the start and the rest at the end.

If no winner is identified after five years the 
judges can decide to extend the period.

"This is the world's first deliberate attempt at 
planetary engineering," Dr Flannery said via 
video-link from Sydney. "We are at the last 
moment. Once we reach the tipping point it will 
have been taken out of our hands."

REUTERS