A Frigid Chicago and a Virgin's Solution to Global Warming

Nothing is more aggravating than a condescending network news anchor scoffing at the latest global warming news story as a piped-in bimbo 'meteorologist' stands on location, waist deep in snow, with a bloody silly grin on her face. That just bugs the hell out of me.

I live in Chicago, where this February has had the coldest opening in 112 years! The first eight days have averaged only 4.4° Fahrenheit - which is 20° below the 137-year 'average' February temperatures for this Midwest city. So I don't need some glib TV hack with a teleprompter and warm TV studio lights guffawing over 'yet another doomsday' news story.

Luckily today's crack-of-doom news item is about an amazing multi-billionaire who's as admired for his business acumen as his eccentricities. Virgin's Sir Richard Branson, the highly successful multiple entrepreneur of activities ranging from airlines to trains, record companies to hotels, mobile communications to space travel, today announced "a $25 million price for the first person to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming."

In a Reuters story released this morning - Branson and a plethora of climate change experts - including Al Gore and esteemed climate-change scientists - effectively challenged inventors, industry and academics alike to devise a solution to the 'established scientific fact' that the world is experiencing rapid climate change.

The report suggests, "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."