Actually what would be really good is instead of looking at carbon capture you could use that invention brain to find solutions to reduce our emissions.
Carbon neutral or negative alternatives to energy production, concrete production, travel (flight), meat and many others would be incredible.
The best emissions are the ones never emitted in the first place.
Eliminating emissions would be carbon neutral. The competition wants carbon negative solutions for sequestering carbon in the atmosphere or oceans. Sure there are some carbon negative things like the replacement for concrete that reacts with CO2, but the negative impact is not extensible beyond a specific point without better mining/refining tech.
Yeah, but I'm not interested since the real solutions are generally off limits. The $100M is what I really want (or even $1M would be nice). In fact what i really want is to be employed to enter competitions like this and Gates' toilet competition. I'm just too dumb.
The real issue is consumption. This drives CO2, various pollution, factory farming, deforestation, decline of natural species (eg fish stocks), etc. Some Indian states recently announced efforts to basically cap the number of children at 2. Although China has expanded it's policy from 1 to 2 and is now suggesting that 3 may be ok.
Carbon neutral or negative alternatives to energy production, concrete production, travel (flight), meat and many others would be incredible.
The best emissions are the ones never emitted in the first place.