Al Gore and Richard Branson offer $25M Prize to Fight Global Warming

[Herman Munster]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020900693.html

LONDON, Feb. 9 -- British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, with former vice president Al Gore at his side, on Friday offered a $25 million prize for anyone who can come up with a way to blunt global climate change by removing at least a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year from the Earth's atmosphere.

Branson, saying that the "survival of our species" is imperiled by current environmental trends, said the prize was similar to cash inducements that led to some of history's most notable achievements in navigation, exploration and industry.

"I believe in our resourcefulness and in our capacity to invent solutions to the problems we have ourselves created," said Branson, who has already pledged to invest $3 billion in profits from his transportation companies, including Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Virgin Trains, to fighting global warming.

"We are now facing a planetary emergency," said Gore, who has become one of the world's leading voices on climate change issues, most lately with his documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth." Gore, who will serve as a judge in the Virgin Earth Challenge, said he hoped the contest would spur scientific innovation without distracting from more practical steps people can take to battle global warming, such as using energy-efficient light bulbs or pressuring politicians to confront "the crisis of our time."

[keepCAblue]

1. WOW. k&r

:applause:

[silverweb]

2. Let's hope it works.

n/t

[trumad]

3. Do I win?

Oh shit--- I got this pic on Google images and didn't notice the lady bending over. sorry for that.

[halobeam]

8. LOL !!! Good One !

(The side show cracked all of us up over here) :rofl: :rofl:

[fidgeting wildly]

11. Great idea, but...

:spray:

[all.of.me]

24. oh god, i am eating.......

lol

[The Straight Story]

26. which one we supposed to ride?

:rofl:

[earth mom]

4. I LOVE this idea!

:applause: to Richard Branson and Al Gore! To both of you: :yourock:

[roguevalley]

5. Branson has been on this for a long time. God bless them both.

[Turn CO Blue]

6. Virgin Earth Challenge

I didn't find a site for the rules/terms of the contest yet. My son is a chemical engineer, has the smallest co2 footprint of anyone I know, and is a genius (so says the mom!) ---- so who knows?

This rocks!

[SoCalDem]

7. A buy-back for old polluter-cars and an AFFORDABLE "green" car

for the masses would go a long way for starters.

The technology exists and has for DECADES, but the costs are too high for most people. There's NO way that poor people can afford to get rid of the old clunkers they drive now, and as more and more people fall out of "middle class", the demand for cheaper cars will only climb.

Mass transit combined with affordable non-polluting vehicles is our first-best hope.

[w4rma]

9. Technology to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere would indeed help a lot, right now. (nt)

[Duer 157099]

10. "...come up with a way"??

To my understanding, "coming up with a way" is not the issue -- getting the pigs in control to *implement* such plans seems to be the bottleneck.

No?

[MzNov]

12. If they come up with a way, and they will, the pigs will have no choice!

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Hey, hey! Don't forget I came up with the micro-climate garden idea!

That's good for at least $75.00 and change.

[Shallah Kali]

14. 5% to 25% of electricity is used by electronics that are turned OFF

According to have I have read this is the range of American households energy wasted by devices in standby mode. Remember old TVs that took a few minutes to show a picture? Todays sets are in standby mode sucking power. Everything from microwaves to cell phone chargers are wasteful as well. Now the state of California is starting to require electronics to use less energy when OFF and Australia is planning to do the same the rest of America doesn't have that requirement. Until this happens plug as many of your electronics into power strips and turn them off when you are not using the device. Or unplug it but the powerstrip is easier IMO. Oh and please contact your Rep and Senators urging them to adopt the California standard to reduce standby power wastage.

A few articles on this standby power wasted energy:

"Vampire" Appliances -- They Suck Electricity Even When Switched Off -- Cost Consumers $3 Billion A Year, Says Cornell Energy Expert
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020926065912.htm

Slay perpetually plugged-in "power vampires" with one simple yank of the cord
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2003551757_ecoconsumer03.html

Eliminating "standby" electricity loss from home appliances could save up to 25 percent on electrical bills, study shows
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/02/09_energ.html

Phantom Energy Losses
The electricity consumption of major household appliances such as refrigerators has fallen dramatically in recent years. But those savings are being lost to the quiet invasion of inefficient small appliances such as VCRs, televisions and personal computers. Worse, much of this energy drain occurs when these appliances are turned “off”.
http://www.energysolutionsalberta.com/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=924

Pulling the plug on electricity leaks
Move afoot to prevent electricity from leaking from cell phones, TVs, DVD players and other devices as growing use causes energy waste to soar
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05128/500530.stm


As for this prize could it be more effective to use the money to help people put in solar or wind power in their homes or businesses? Have a lottery of sorts with the winners getting a set of panels or residential windturbine, which ever bests suits their location, installed? Keep 'em on the gird so on less sunny or windy days they won't be without power and on the good days they put energy into the gird.

One more suggestion. I read of a neat sounding gizmo that saves up to 10% of electicity used in homes and businesses called a voltage regulator. Power companies put out higher voltage than most houses need to ensure that dips in energy won't leave people under powered. The problem with this is that it leaves many over powered so electronics are forced to take in more energy than needed raising one's electric bill and wearing out lightbulbs and electronics faster. One company that makes voltage regulators say their device stops this and has been testing it around the US and europe. Links:


http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/04spr/megawatt3.asp
http://www.djc.com/news/en/11159587.html
http://www.microplanetltd.com/section.asp?catid=141&subid=144&pageid=43
http://ase.org/content/article/detail/2291
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/the_th_intervie_4.php

[RedEarth]

16. Excellent links, thanks...........

[Shallah Kali]

20. You are very welcome. I am glad I can help people save energy

which helps the environment and saves everyone money.

[FredStembottom]

17. I do the power-strip thing for my computer music stuff.......

....that's no less than about 25 separate pieces of equipment that get fully turned off!

BUT......... look out everyone! There IS a problem to power-stripping: some things totally lose their brains when truly cut off. TV sets especially. Most won't even be able to tune in a station after being unplugged or cut off - not without going through a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong set-up procedure again!

Radios with pre-set stations can be the same way. Anything with a lot of preferences you have set-up (that doesn't store the settings to a hard-drive - like a computer) are not practical to power-strip. You'll be very sorry.

BUT..... a lot of stuff sure can be - and it's kinda fun!

[Shallah Kali]

19. re: tvs and presets - yes that's why we need the gov set standards

on how much power devices can draw so we can keep the tvs programmed at under a watt instead of 25 watts or more as some do. I wonder how much programmable coffee makers use... Anyhow until then we can at least plug the rest of our gizmos such as toasters and microwaves into a power strip and turn them totally off to save a chunk of wasted energy.

[FredStembottom]

25. There may be an even better idea coming up.........

Memory chips that retain memory with no power!

(and I don't mean because they have a bettery).

Should be everywhere near you soon!

[Shallah Kali]

27. That would be wonderful if only manufactuers use 'em. Right now they are fighting energy standards

so unless it is required many probably won't do it since they aren't the ones paying our electric bill.

[AwakeAtLast]

15. This so cool in sooo many ways!

:bounce: Kick for two awesome people! :bounce:

[file83]

18. I win!! I win!! (my idea...)

Make politicians stop talking.

That should remove about a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year from the Earth's atmosphere.
:patriot:

[RestoreGore]

22. I like it n/t

[RestoreGore]

21. Something tied to chemical weathering or a carbon filter?

Chemical weathering leads to lower atmospheric CO2 as the oceans capacity to store CO2 in other chemical forms increases, but then sediments in the form of calcium carbonate can be released back in the form of volcanic eruptions, etc. If there were a way scientifically to "rain" the CO2 out of the atmosphere without causing sinkholes or other disruptions in the climate process, that might be an idea.

I'm just wondering if there is a way to lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere already in a non natural way without doing harm to the process that regulates the Earth's thermostat.

Hmm, perhaps a CO2 filter for cars, planes, trucks, etc.? Solar panels on planes? Oh, what the hell, I'm going for the prize ;-). It will be interesting to see who if anyone gets this prize and what they do with the money. And you know, I was taken back a bit when Harry Smith on The Early Show called this a "Johnny Appleseed" venture as if to diminish it. He was actually a great environmentalist who did much good for this country, much like Mr. Gore.

[cgrindley]

23. Idiocy

The only thing that will combat global warming is a massive relocation of population, and the *forced* reduction of the carbon footprints of entire nations. Until the world is ready to make some difficult--and quite possibly totalitarian--choices, and start telling nations that they cannot divert water resources, have more than 1 child, burn low grade fossil fuels, drive private automobiles, etc. NOTHING will change. NOTHING will improve. It's too late for a lame ass 25 million dollar feel good award. It's probably too late to do anything.

[goforit]

28. Come on Bill gates, chip in.