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$25M Bounty Offered for Global Warming Fix

Posted by Zonk on from the bring-me-the-head-of-global-warming dept.

SaDan writes "Richard Branson is offering $25M as a bounty for a fix to global warming. The person or organization that can devise a method to remove at least a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere will be able to claim the bounty. There are a few catches, of course. There can't be any negative impact on the environment, and the payment will come in chunks. A 5 million dollar payout will be paid when the system is put into place with the remainder of the bounty to be paid after 10 years of continuous use."

4 of 766 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yawn, Eco-Nazi talking about spending money... by sycodon · · Score: 3, Informative

    The US did not sign Kyoto. George Bush did not believe in global warming, so he reneged on the agreement made by Clinton to sign the protocol.

    Clinton did not sign the Kyoto agreement because the Senate voted 98-0 to reject it.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  2. Re:Yawn, Eco-Nazi talking about spending money... by I'll+Provide+The+War · · Score: 3, Informative
    Close, but it was 95-0.

    http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_li sts/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=1& vote=00205

    Declares that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to, or other agreement regarding, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, at negotiations in Kyoto in December 1997 or thereafter which would: (1) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the Annex 1 Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period; or (2) result in serious harm to the U.S. economy.
  3. Dump iron dust in the ocean to feed the plankton by denis-The-menace · · Score: 3, Informative


    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.11/ecohacking .html

    "Ecohacker Michael Markels claims he has a megafix for global warming: Supercharge the growth of ocean plankton with vitamin Fe and let a zillion CO2 scrubbers bloom."

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    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
  4. Re:I'm sure we could by trentblase · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you plated the entire US with solar panels, using the most efficient panels we currently know how to make, and you assume that there is no cloud cover or other weather obscuring the sun at any point during the year... you still wouldn't have a significant fraction of the power used by the entire US.

    Unless you have some calculations to back that up, I call BS. According to http://rredc.nrel.gov/tidbits.html, "Every day, more energy falls on the U.S. than we use in an entire year." Since solar panels are more than 3% efficient (quick googling tells us the most advanced ones are over 35%), you fail it. Saying this is not possible is simply foolish, and it undermines your larger argument of whether it is advisable.