Save the World. Earn $25 million Prize for Carbon Sequestration. Your Carbon Credits Machine will earn you $Billions!

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Images: Wikipedia

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Have you ever heard of Global Warming, Climate Change, The Prize? How about Greenhouse Gases? Carbon dioxide? Methane?
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On February 9, 2007, Sir Richard Branson and Al Gore announced the setting up of a new Global science and technology prize:

THE PRIZE: The Virgin Earth Challenge

$25 million if you meet the challenge!

The Challenge:

To encourage a viable technology which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects.

This scales up into major money! Better'n a rock star.
Basically, you go after the biggest target: Carbon dioxide. You sequester it; sentence it to incarceration or imprison it, change it's ways. . . Earn billions, really.

They believe that a challenge of this nature encourages technological advancements for the good of mankind. The Virgin Earth Challenge will award $25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects.

This removal must have long term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth’s climate.

Sir Richard also announced that he would be joined in the adjudication of the Prize by a panel of five judges - all world authorities in their respective fields:

Al Gore, Sir Crispin Tickell, Tim Flannery, Jim Hansen and James Lovelock. The panel of judges will be assisted in their deliberations by The Climate Group and Special Advisor to The Virgin Earth Prize Judges, Steve Howard.

Any youngsters reading this, especially young future scientists. This is the real thing -- and is likely to be around until it is won by you.

Older scientists, you also know the truth of this, and the Prize is a lot more heroic than the Nobel Prize. Engineers? You know this is real too. Join Xomba, send me a comment -- I do have some ideas.

Those who do not think global warming is a problem, you need not waste time posting, or responding to this posting. Stick your head in the mud, cover your ears and eyes. Suck in a deep breath and be preparing to pay for your shortsightedness. For you, the money, the prize, the honor as well as the real wealth are just out of reach. . .and good luck to you.

For those concerned, look at the climate temperature "proxies" for the correlation of the CO₂ observed levels in the Vostok Ice Core and other ice core's reaching back toward the million years prior, and those proxies, deuterium and oxygen will tell you the temperature and validate the CO₂ connection to temperature. That means sea level rises. That means losing lots of species that can't run fast enough or evolve fast enough. And the only thing different between 650,000 years ago and now is what homo sapiens pumps into the atmosphere.

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I include these next sections, Just For Fun, like a Dr. Strangelove approach to the problems, the following:

A very effective means of eliminating the emissions end of the Global Warming/Climate Change problem is to propose effective human diseases to vastly reduce human population. It may happen on its own, with mutations of Bird or Swine or any number of flu's or similar approaches from 20 or more years ago as in the late Frank Herbert's book, "The White Plague" which described surefire mechanisms to reduce population, just now perhaps at the edge of being realizeable.

The problem with population reduction in the above hypothetical scenario, however, is that it does not sequester more than the carbon contained in those who die; and that is a transient sequestration but effectively limits future anthropogenic climate modification -- at least for a number of centuries, perhaps.

But other than that, it sequesters not a significant bit of Carbon.
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To Sir Richard Branson and to the Judges:

My apologies to the judges, all. We know Sustainable isn't. That is, we can't continue business as usual. But the opportunities are there to turn most of this into that which will sustain the planet. A Carbon Credit Machine as you have outlined a prize to reward -- is feasible, and will be developed in several guises. The sooner the better.

Thank you for offering the Prize.
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See:

http://www.virginearth.com/

For the details.

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