LONDON (AP) – British tycoon Richard Branson dangled a $25 million prize before the world’s top scientists Friday seeking to spur research into devising ways to suck greenhouse gases out of the air.
Former Vice President Al Gore lent his support to the challenge, which came a week after a landmark report by the world’s leading climate scientists and government officials warned that global warming will continue, creating a far different planet in 100 years.
“Man created the problem, therefore man should solve the problem,” Branson said.
He compared the quest to a competition Britain’s Parliament launched in 1714 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately. Six decades passed before English clockmaker John Harrison received his prize from King George III for discovering an accurate method.
Scientists in Scandinavia have started to safely divert carbon dioxide emissions underground before they reach the atmosphere, but no one has captured them after they are released.
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