This Machine Has Removed 1 Million Lbs Of Trash From The Water. Why Aren't They Everywhere?

Humans worldwide produce between 35 and 40 billion metric tons of carbon air emissions each year, a big chunk of which comes from fossil fuel-burning power plants. Efforts to reduce emissions only go so far and getting rid of smokestacks is nearly impossible, but there is an alternative on the horizon. Let's transform some of that pollution into valuable, revenue-generating products.

That's the challenge put forth by the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition dedicated to accelerating the development and economic viability of technologies that can convert CO2 emissions into usable things, like biofuels, building materials, or fertilizers.

Ben Reilly wrote:I was interviewing an environmental activist decades ago, and he phrased the problem so succinctly: "We keep taking things out of the ground and putting them into the air and into the water." Isn't that it in a nutshell?

What I find encouraging is the effort to find a market-driven reason to take stuff out of the air, at least. Maybe we'll start taking stuff out of the water if we can find an economic reason to.

Humans worldwide produce between 35 and 40 billion metric tons of carbon air emissions each year, a big chunk of which comes from fossil fuel-burning power plants. Efforts to reduce emissions only go so far and getting rid of smokestacks is nearly impossible, but there is an alternative on the horizon. Let's transform some of that pollution into valuable, revenue-generating products.

That's the challenge put forth by the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition dedicated to accelerating the development and economic viability of technologies that can convert CO2 emissions into usable things, like biofuels, building materials, or fertilizers.

http://www.nbcnews.com/mach/innovation/carbon-xprize-turns-airborne-trash-treasure-n708016