Convenient Truth: Branson Offers 25 Million to Solve Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Reuters reports that Sir Richard Branson owner of Virgin Atlantic has announced a 25 million dollar challenge to individuals and groups to come up with a method of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by one billion tons per year for ten years. Accompanying Sir Richard during the announcement was Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and Crispin Tickell a former British diplomat.

According to Sir Richard, "unless we devise a way of removing 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."

A panel of judges has been selected by Sir Richard which includes; Al Gore, Australian environmentalist Tim Flannery, Crispin Tickell, noted U.S. climate scientist James Hansen and British expert James Lovelock and lastly Sir Richard himself. The duration of the contest is five years, but the panel may extend the offer if no viable ideas are accepted. The prize if awarded would provide five million at the beginning of the project and the balance at the end of the project.

The prize is intended for new ideas not currently in development like technologies that capture and store carbon dioxide from gross emitters like coal-fired electricity plants, according to the International Herald Tribune.

According to Professor Steve Rayner of Oxford University, "This project holds a particular appeal for the aviation industry as there are really no other viable, cleaner fuels in the pipeline." Professor Rayner is quoted as saying that while the "Synthetic Tree," developed by Klaus Lachner of Columbia University holds promise for as a method of removing vasts amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere the idea has never left the drawing board. He mentions the carbon dioxide removal methods employed on nuclear submarines as being an example of one viable method currently in use.

Another large scale method for reducing global warming invented by Philip Kithil is currently under study. According to an article in The Guardian, dated December 14, 2006, Mr, Kithil has developed an ocean pump which exploits the use of barrel-type plankton called salps which feed on algae and excrete dense pellets of carbon which sink to the ocean floor. The way it works in practice is the use of a 1,000 meter plastic tubing measuring 1.5 meters wide that rests on the oceans surface pumping cold, nutrient enriched water from the depths of the ocean to the surface.

The nutrients brought up from the depths to the surface encourage algae to grow rapidly and in turn utilizing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the locking of these emissions. The plankton "salps," are then enable to work their wonders by feeding on the algae and creating the dense pellets of carbon dioxide, which will sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Mr. Kithil presented his findings in San Francisco in the Fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. According to Larry Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who also sees the value of harnessing the uses of plankton estimates that salps could trap 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per 100,000 sq. km. miles of ocean per day. Mr. Kithil estimates that if his invention the ocean pump were employed around the world, carbon dioxide could be reduced by a little over seven tons per year. This figure represents nearly 29 percent of the annual emissions made by humans.

The cost of installing a global net work of Kithil ocean pumps is estimated to cost 268 billion with an additional 670 billion for maintenance over the next 10 years. While the figure may seem steep from a layman's point of view, the actual cost is about $27 per ton of carbon which is the going rate for carbon credits on the open market.

The biggest test for Mr. Kithil comes in the Summer 2007 when his invention will have its biggest test off the coast of Bermuda. His ocean pump invention will be scientifically measured for their biological and chemical impacts, according to The Guardian. Mr.Kithil, an economist by training has set up a company called Atmocean to test and market the ocean pumps.

In summary, Sir Richard the innovator and his cohorts may well be on to something by having an open competition for all to compete. Ideas come from everywhere and anywhere on the planet. Sometimes, all it takes is focus and access to available funding to transform the idea to a viable solution for the world's most serious problem--self annihilation.