Opportunities and Barriers: Political, Economic, and

Physical Dimensions of Mitigation

Mitigation Strategies• Cannabis: an environmentally and economically

viable method for climate change mitigation (U. Strathclyne MES thesis)

• Giant space mirrors, solar cells on the moon• Big brown clouds, iron fertilization of the ocean• Rich people reinvent the role of the patron in

science….

Richard Branson offers carbon sequestration prize

February 9, 2007 - 4:42 PM From the AP:LONDON -- British tycoon Sir Richard Branson on Friday announced a $25 million prize for the scientist who comes up with a way of extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.The Virgin Group chairman was joined by former Vice President Al Gore and other leading environmentalists, as he announced the challenge to find the world's first viable design to capture and remove carbon dioxide from the air.

A landmark report by the world's leading climate scientists and government officials, published in Paris last week, warned global warming will continue for centuries, creating a far different planet in 100 years."Man created the problem, therefore Man should solve the problem," Branson said. "Could it be possible to find someone on Earth who could devise a way of removing the lethal amount of CO2 from the Earth's atmosphere?”

Branson compared it to a competition launched in 1675 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately. It was 60 years before English clock maker John Harrison discovered an accurate method and received his prize from King George III.

Wedge Summary Table

Category Technology Electricity Fuel Heat Sink

Efficient vehicles X

Reduced use of vehicles X

Efficient buildings X X X

Efficiency

Efficient baseload coal plants X

Gas baseload power for coal baseload power

X

Capture CO2 at baseload power plant X

Nuclear power for coal power X

Wind power for coal power X

Decarbonization of power

PV power for coal power X

Capture CO2 at H2 plant X

Capture CO2 at coal-to-synfuels plant X

Wind H2 in fuel-cell car for gasoline in hybrid car

X

Decarbonization of fuel

Biomass fuel for fossil fuel X

Reduced deforestation, plus reforestation, afforestation, and new plantations

X Forests and agricultural soils

Conservation tillage X

Carbon Mitigation Institute