Branson raises stakes for CO2 removal
Associated PressSir Richard Branson, head of Virgin Group, has offered $25 million for the first person or group who can come up with a technology to remove one billion tons of green house gases from the atmosphere per year for ten years.
Branson told reporters at a news conference that he created the Virgin Earth Challenge because, "The Earth cannot wait 60 years. We need everybody capable of discovering an answer to put their minds to it today."
The contest will be open for five years and entrants will be judged by a panel including Branson, Al Gore, climate scientist James Hansen, and Gaia hypothesis creator James Lovelock.
The financial incentive provides an added push intended to spur innovation faster than would otherwise come about through policy mandates or current research tracks. Currently, the most promising mitigation measure for removing CO2 is a practice known as carbon sequestration, which grabs CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere, captures it and puts it deep underground. There is some uncertainty in this technology however, as the long term consequences and success are unknown.
TreeHugger via BBC
Tags: al gore, Climate Change, Richard Branson, Virgin
February 11th, 2007 at 11:48 am
It's not strictly the financial commitment to sustainability that is promising; the influence on peers in the business world can be a difference-maker as well. Ray Anderson is a CEO who's an excellent example of this.
http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=r_anderson
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Anderson_(entrepreneur)
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
We have a patent pending computer cooling system, think about it - if you have a 10X10 room your cooling 100sq ft 24/7. but if you cooling only the parts of the servers that make the heat less than 10sq ft. thats up to 90% saving in engery (world wide in every server, storage, router room) ie less engery needed, less global warming. It also works for tower computers etc..
April 6th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Ok you want to remove tons of CO2 it’s simple as grassing over every house roof in the uk this works in a few ways 1 it cuts down heat loss thru the roof 2 it covers a larger foot print than the said building unless it’s flat roofed…now spend your $25 million in making it happen.
Also in citys like london etc solar powered roof filtering springs to mind getting all that nasty car stuff filtered out by the power of the sun at the source you could also use carbon filter netting along moterways to catch some of the gases also grow trees along the edging…I can think of many ways sadly I dont have lots of money thats needed to do these things but others have.
September 1st, 2009 at 11:02 pm
[...] it again to re-sequester it? ‘CO2 scrubber’ could help slow global warming - Telegraph Branson raises stakes for CO2 removal : amystodghill - Green Options VIRGIN EARTH CHALLENGE — I guess the coal industry wants more research dollars to investigate [...]