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$25M Bounty Offered for Global Warming Fix
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."
The easiest way to remove billions of tons of CO2 would be to have a billion people or so stop breathing. Perhaps these global warming fear mongers can lead the way.
Ride a bicycle.
Where's my money?
This is just stupid. I can't believe it actually made it on /.
I love how all these plans are about reducing global warming yet don't take global cooling into question.
We don't have a clue what's going on and everyones planning some huge stupid scheme around best guesses. Maybe we should work out exactly what is going on first.
I like muppets.
Anyone who thinks global warming is strictly a man-made problem: stop driving cars, stop using airplanes, stop using air-conditioning, stop using electricity, stop eating beef, stop drinking milk, stop farting, and stop breathing. With a billion fewer people on the planet, this problem might just go away.
Simple solution. Mass genocide of all developing countries humans then use that now vacant land to plant the trees.
And this benifits humans in two ways:
*The fertilizer is in place so the plants will grow well...
*Overpopulation concerns are dealt with.
Here are my ideas not in any particular order.
1) Corn stover dumped into the ocean. I have seen real proposals on this; cost: $10 billion.
2) convert sewage plants from aerobic digester (releasing co2) to anaerobic methane producers, burn methane (in O2), use mineral waste to grow duckweed, use duckweed in bio-diesel production. Net effect should be zero CO2 emissions and More food and human usable energy.
3) Burn hydrocarbons in pure O2, pump the gas into certain kinds on minerals that absorb it -- actually bond it to its structure. There are many hundreds of years worth of these minerals close to coal deposits. -- Much like creating gypsum boards from the fly ash from coal fired plants.
4) Eat the environmentalists; less SUV use, less air travel, less hot air, less sewage. Yuck!
5) Spray small quantities of iron in the oceans. It will promote plant growth, which will feed animals (sequestered briefly), when they die they fall to the bottom (maybe). Empty oil tankers would seem to be prime possibilities. It might also reduce the problems of iron laiden acid mine drainage.
6) End Socialism. Economic prosperity will allow people to adjust to the changing climate better. More socialism is more death and misery.
7) "repeal" Kyoto protocols. They don't work, they are counter productive, they will cause more global warming.
8) Cut down all the old growth forests and plant corn. Corn sequesters 5 times the carbon as an old growth forest. Sequester the corn stover (roots and stem)
9) Cut off china's oil. War/famine will then wipe out half a billion people or more.
10) Reclaim the Sahara. via wind mills pump huge quantities of salt water to the desert, grow mangos and salt tolerant algae. Evaporation might cause it to rain there once again. It might also reduce hurricanes.
11) Worry more about methane. Our technology has sired huge quantities of animals that produce huge quantities of methane. Either put bags/hoses on the cows or switch to eating kangaroo.
Understand that there are two definitions of global warming:
1) The scientific theory that the aggregate temperature of the planet has increased (and decreases) from many complex causes and effects.
2) Global Warming the religion: Claim scientific proof of man's influence on the environment to change ECONOMIC conditions. The effect is to transfer large amounts of my money to unelected officials to spend as they wish "to help the third world". Bunk.
When you look into the cost of wind, solar, electric cars (that ARE viable and BETTER than petrol ones, when done right), you start to realise that for the price of the ABSOLUTE FUCKING MADNESS that is called war (esp war on iraq) and the ongoing costs of the war machine, we could completely switch away from fossil (and nuclear) fuels and go wind/solar.
DONT tell me its not possible due to variability in the power source, THIS IS BULLSHIT, just build more than we need so even in low wind/sun there is enough power, and also pay for some damn energy storage (eg water towers or hydrogen production, whatever; solutions exist, and are not a problem when you start throwing the billions/trillions that are WASTED on the millitary at the problem.). DOnt tell me electric cars arent viable as they take too long to charge: this problem has been SOLVED (look up nano batteries and similar), (and posted on here multiple times I might note) its just not being used (and would have been solved LONG ago if it had any sort of decent money thrown at it (im talking millitary/nuclear funding decent, not the shit leftovers renewables get now)
watch "the money masters" on google video
We do NOTHING, and the world goes on efficiently, and it self corrects by growing more plants. I therefore claim the $25 million prize for the least expensive solution.