Sunday, February 11, 2007
PRIZE CLUTCHED
Richard Branson’s $25 million prize (not a bribe!) for a global warming solution is all mine:
The winner will have to come up with a way of removing one billion metric tons of carbon gases a year from the atmosphere for 10 years—with $5 million of the prize being paid at the start and the remaining $20 million at the end.
Easy. Simply ban automatic cars, as I advised in 2005. Because automatic cars use around 5% more fuel than manual cars, that simple law would save 5,650,000,000 barrels of oil per year in the US alone (and be minimally disruptive in developing nations, where a greater proportion of vehicles are non-automatic). If each barrel contains 175 kilograms of carbon, we’re looking at an annual carbon reduction (US only) in the region of 988,750,000 metric tons.
(I think; could be more, could be less. I’m no math guy when in earth-lookerer-afterer mode. Anyone with numbers skillz is invited to submit more accurate figures.)
Of course, this plan will face some resistance from the likes of Daniel Craig, but his kind must not be allowed to kill the planet. Nor should John Kerry’s shiftless preferences sway our mission.
PayPal is to the left, Richard. Cheers.