Virgin's Branson Offers $25 Mln Global Warming Prize
by: Jeremy Lovell 9 February 2007
Airline tycoon Richard Branson announced on Friday a $25 million 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 U.S. Vice President Al Gore and British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell, Branson said he hoped the prize would spur innovative and creative thought to save mankind from self-destruction.
"Man created the problem and therefore man should solve the problem," he told a news conference to reveal the Virgin Earth Challenge.
"Unless we can devise a way of removing CO2 (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 rain forests wastelands."
Branson rejected suggestions that he, as an airline owner, was being hypocritical in announcing the prize.
"I could ground my airline today, but British Airways would simply take its place," he said, noting that he was investing heavily in cleaner engines and fuels.
Top scientists predict that global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to human activities like burning fossil fuels, putting millions at risk from rising sea levels, floods, famines and storms.
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.
"We are now facing a planetary emergency. The planet has a fever," he said. "This is an initiative to stimulate someone to do something that no one knows how to do. This is right at the cutting edge."
The prize will initially only be open for five years, with ideas assessed by a panel of judges including Branson, Gore and Tickell as well as U.S. climate scientist James Hansen, Briton James Lovelock and Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery.
The winner will have to come up with a way of removing one billion metric tons of carbon gases a year from the atmosphere for 10 years -- with $5 million of the prize being paid at the start and the remaining $20 million 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," Flannery said via videolink from Sydney. "We are at the last moment. Once we reach the tipping point it will have been taken out of our hands.
He said 200 metric gigatons of carbon had accumulated in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, raising concentrations by 100 parts per million. The challenge was to find ways of bringing that back down again.
from : stopglobalwarming.org
Participant GlobalWarming Awareness2007 | Contestant GlobalWarming Awareness2007 | Learn SEO GlobalWarming Awareness2007 Search Enggine GlobalWarming Awareness2007 | GlobalWarming Awareness2007 Championship
12.02.2007. 10:56
Cars must be electric, and, with a (to some) lack of private driving being disturbing, not being able to hoon about and do donuts will be missed. Infrastructure would be quite handy, as a third rail could be on tracks (although old locomotives would be steam heated by a fuel cell car or three, not coal) and on major limited access highways, where at least one lane could be fitted with computer controlled third rail for cars and trucks. This way, instead of having to carry thousands of pounds of batteries, only a 150 km. max need to get to the infrastructure, or service "quick charge" stations, and chatge up while the computer takes you for controlled ride and you can have a nap until the bell rings, telling destination is close. Also, charge up where you are going. If you want to spend ten dollars a litre on fuel, go outback. Enjoy! Better with horse anyway.
Stephan Michael Weingarten, a.k.a. xols on 16.07.2007. 00:45
In less than 150 words: Hydrogen only answer. We must stop burning Carbon, precious for a million other uses. Re-tooling? every day we wait could cost a billion dollars more to fix. Small electric turbines next to fuel cells, ergo no storage; big coal-fired (or gas)...............(computer stupidity line break)
easily converted, only water need be heated by H2 made in proximity, by giant or myriad fuel cells. All exhaust from all power-making machinery is steam. Steam makes clouds denser. Denser clouds have bigger, more reflective tops to reflect a fair percentage of sun's radiation. Hence, global cooling. 95 words.
On another subject, lift weights, cities, 1,000,000,000 to 1 ratio hydraulically, or with gearing. 20% of solar or wind powered generation would be stored lifting a trillion tons, giving back that energy, or a goodly part of it, at night or when windless. Thank You
Nikolay Burenkov on 09.05.2007. 03:26
I propose alternative energy source -
mechanikal "PERPETUUM MOBILE-BURANLO".
The engineering specifications is to
the address of:
http://mydiler.narod.ru/nm/ener.html
http://www.skif.biz/index.php?name =
Files&op=view_file&lid =347
Globalwarming Awareness2007 on 24.04.2007. 09:07
This website is good which update about seo contest!
Write a comment