Richard Branson, billionaire and irrepressible self-promoter, has offered a US$25 million to any scientist who can come up with a way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

An excerpt from the AP story on CTV.ca:

"Man created the problem, therefore man should solve the problem," Branson said. "Could it be possible to find someone on Earth who could devise a way of removing the lethal amount of CO2 from the Earth's atmosphere?"

Branson compared it to a competition launched in 1675 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately. It was 60 years before English clock maker John Harrison discovered an accurate method and received his prize from King George III.

"The Earth cannot wait 60 years. We need everybody capable of discovering an answer to put their minds to it today," Branson said.

He said many remain skeptical about the reality of climate change.

"The plot is often that no one believes the threat until it is almost too late and then the superhero steps in to save the day," he said. "Well, today we have a threat, we still have to convince many people that the threat is indeed urgent and real. We have no superhero, we have only our ingenuity to fall back on."