Branson's $25m Carbon Earth Challenge Prize

[eeyore]

I wouldnt disagree with anything you have said james

but it does seem a little unfair that Branson attracts flak for at least doing something while other airline and such big buisness men who are doing 9/10 of nothing stay below the publicity horizon

[James_Owen]

I think therein lies the problem, by announcing this prize he's not actually doing anything, it just looks like he is.

[svenrufus]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

Except that we're polluting the oceans even more rapidly than the atmosphere - seawater will soon become absolutely toxic .....
There have been many calculations with wide-ranging results - just assume it's not quick enough

Too true.

I wasn't suggesting that the oceans will be our saviour, just using it to show the futility of looking for a man-made solution to a man-made problem. Nature does a fantastic job for free, we think we can do better to solve the problems we create. We're wrong. Presumably all the solutions that people come up with will have their own carbon footprint - job creation in the best whitehall tradition!

Unless we change the way we are messing up the planet, we can't expect nature to bale us out. I'm no fan of Lovelock, but "Gaia's Revenge" indeed.

[Re-search]

I think the Branson idea is ill-concieved per se.

His money would be better spent of donating rainwater retention barrels made from recycled plastics to poor families in Africa so that water can be collected and then scattered for evaporation. This new habit would help to dilute air pollution and to restore our troposphere to good health.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Re-search

I think the Branson idea is ill-concieved per se.

His money would be better spent of donating rainwater retention barrels made from recycled plastics to poor families in Africa so that water can be collected and then scattered for evaporation. This new habit would help to dilute air pollution and to restore our troposphere to good health.

I cant help feeling that poor families in africa may have better things to do with collected rain water (assuming it rains in their area ) - such as drinking it and using it to irrigate their crops

Also rain water evaporating from africa would have no major impact in diluting industrial polution from the industrialised nations as it will be in the wrong place , but even if it was brought here by air currents - after all it is in the sky before it falls as rain in the first place , and there is no shortage of water in our skys anyway as we have seen over the last few days

and finally the CO2 and methane load which is causing climate chane would not be effected in any case because CH4 isnt soluble in water while CO2 is slightly but not to any great extent.

[jayjitsu]

Richard Branson and his team have developed a space shuttle that freefalls back down into the earths atmosphere, before it does this procedure it has to offload its fuel. They therefore offload Ntrous Oxide liquid in the upper atmosphere. Without going into detail, Nitrous Oxide will cause major problems in the ozone layer, by offloading this at this altitude is just a spit in the face for our battle with climate change and goes to show this recent publicity should be viewed with caution.
I personally contacted the design team, and the rocket manufacters and asked for a copy of their environmental impact assessment, they did not even acknowledge my email, and as a member of various environmental bodies, and at a high level within an organisation involved with environmental management I am well aware of the need for transparency and the right to receive this information. Lack of transparency and avoidence of high priority emails suggests they are willing to turn a blind eye to their own present practices that is unethical and morally wrong.