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$100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

xprize.org

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Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#431

Post by detritus »

tito wrote: post #356
detritus wrote: post #256

Soil. It's soil. Soil, in prodigious quantities. We need to be making it. Using human waste - food and faecal from our cities; Using whatever plant fixes the most CO2 in a useful form that we can turn into charcoal (quick trees? bamboo grass? something genetically modified?), releasing heat energy, and then fixing carbon in a useful matrix, for soil regeneration a la Terra Preta. I sort of made this post elsewhere he…

Sounds great, anything I can do to help you get to work on soil? Consider checking out AirMiners, may have some resources to help you in your quests.

When I posted the above last night, I sat there wondering whether I could Just Transition and somehow get a job in this field (scuse the pun) and had an idle fantasisation about the possibilities, but sadly my skillsets are uselessly-irrelevant in this domain, and I'm a bit too old and poor to make the swing.

Reality's a bitch, sometimes. Often.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#432

Post by admax88q »

Lot's of "just do this" comments in here. If its as easy as you think it is, then winning the grand prize should be pretty easy.

Do the math, grab an investor and go get $100M.

"Just plant trees." Okay do the math on how many trees you need. Figure out how your going to build a program to get that many trees planted. What incentives, partnership, funding do you need. How will it scale to the amount needed. What will the full lifecycle look like.

"Just improve soil." Okay do the math on that. What's the timeframe for return on investment. What do the logistics look like for producing soil in huge quantities and deploying it where needed. How do we then use that soil to grow plants that sequester carbon.

90% of the comments in here are just the "middle-brow dismissal" of climate change of all things. As if we can "just do X" to solve it and everyone else is an idiot.

It's a hard problem, especially because part of the problem is determining how to actually implement and incentivize the population to do it. You can't just ignore that part, or just throw up your hands "people are stupid so we're fucked." Solving the incentive problem is actually part of the problem. Any solution that ends with "people just need to learn to do/value X" is dead in the water. You can start with "people just need to learn to do/value X" but you need to end with a plan on how you will bring about that change in mentality/incentive.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#433

Post by tito »

m12k wrote: post #414
tito wrote: post #136

For startups going after Elon's prize, AirMiners partnered with XPRIZE and CDL to create the AirMiners Launchpad. Founders should check out https://launchpad.airminers.org/ Applications for Batch #2 close August 31st Also check out AirMiners, the hub for everything carbon removal at https://airminers.org/ And those who are interested in a 5 week group discussion on carbon removal basics check out Boot Up: https://boo…

Is there a job board on the AirMiners website or have you considered making one? My guess is there's a lot of people like myself who'd be very interested in helping out in this field, but have no tech idea of my own, and don't even know how or if my (software development) skills would even be useful. If you're able to attract entrepreneurs with ideas worth exploring, maybe also help them hold up their banners for oth…

That's helpful perspective, thanks!

AirMiners has a #jobs channel on Slack that's one of the most popular. However because it's on Slack means it's limited to people who are part of the AirMiners community. Which would miss folks like you!

I appreciate your perspective that someone with your background might not join AirMiners itself, but may be an excellent candidate for a job at a carbon removal company.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#434

Post by detritus »

ant6n wrote: post #334
detritus wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start making it in Egypt or Tripoli? People in deserts shit too, I think.

Well people have been shitting in the desert for centuries, but there’s no jungle yet, so something appears to be missing.

And people have spent millennia over-extracting plants, leading to erosion and desertification and subsequent changes of local weather patterns (precipitation, humidity, etc).

If they'd known to replenish and make broader use of their defecations and organic waste, they might well have kept their 'jungle'.

Certainly, it appears to have worked for ancient Amazonian tribes who are thought to be responsible for much of the quality land in the Amazon basin, much of which would otherwise be quite shallow and sandy with low nutrients.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#435

Post by tito »

admax88q wrote: post #432

Lot's of "just do this" comments in here. If its as easy as you think it is, then winning the grand prize should be pretty easy. Do the math, grab an investor and go get $100M. "Just plant trees." Okay do the math on how many trees you need. Figure out how your going to build a program to get that many trees planted. What incentives, partnership, funding do you need. How will it scale to the amount needed. What will…

Agree with this. It's a hard problem. Have an idea for something better? Heck yeah, let's figure out how to get you working on it! If folks want help getting started, there's no place better than AirMiners: http://airminers.org

Let's get to work.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#437

Post by tito »

detritus wrote: post #431
tito wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds great, anything I can do to help you get to work on soil? Consider checking out AirMiners, may have some resources to help you in your quests.

When I posted the above last night, I sat there wondering whether I could Just Transition and somehow get a job in this field (scuse the pun) and had an idle fantasisation about the possibilities, but sadly my skillsets are uselessly-irrelevant in this domain, and I'm a bit too old and poor to make the swing. Reality's a bitch, sometimes. Often.

Always good to have awareness. To me there's likely a lot you could contribute anyway. Maybe even just emailing companies and telling them you like what they're doing. There are fewer than 2,000 people working on carbon removal worldwide. "Inspire" is still needed.

Since you're talking about planting chestnuts above, I thought this video of carbon removal entrepreneurs talking about biochar solutions might be of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu3g0z7dl38

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#438

Post by flavius29663 »

Mizza wrote: post #429
flavius29663 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're oversimplifying it. First of all, the ocean is a sink for CO2, it absorbs it and mix it down in the depths, not release it back. Plants don't sequester the carbon, like you said. But on the other hand, the extra CO2 is causing a bigger plant mass growth. So called greening of the deserts (but not just deserts). So basically the living biosphere is growing and absorbing CO2 as it does, because it can. The plant…

The limiting factor for plant growth isn't carbon, it's nitrogen.

While that is true for a lot of circumstances, in others the addition of CO2 helps the plants survive droughts and other conditions easier.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fer...

https://theconversation.com/yes-more-carbon-dioxide-in-the-a...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14950

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#439

Post by justshowpost »

elevaet wrote: post #211
kisamoto wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree and I'm sorry if I gave the impression that trees should not be part of a solution. Trees (and other nature based methods) should definitely not be neglected. I merely wanted to try and raise some awareness to those who question the need for technological removal methods as there is a bit of a toxic "trees will save us" attitude when things like this get mentioned.

This kind of civil discourse is what makes HN such a gem on the internet.

> discourse

Hardly a discourse. Both gents above might have a negligible disagreement but they are sticking firmly to radical green agenda shadow-officially endorsed and promoted by Yahoo Combinator. Also, good for karma income. Just the same for praising comments.

Re: $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal

#440

Post by amanaplanacanal »

oezi wrote: post #19
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying oil incentivizes producing more oil

We will pump the earth empty anyway, right?

Only if we don’t develop cheaper energy sources. If something else is cheaper, nobody is going to bother looking for expensive oil.
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