Ailie Macquarie
So, you’re scrolling through the news and you see:
“Elon Musk launches $100M XPRIZE to suck CO₂ out of the sky.”
Wait… what? Why? And how are people even planning to do that? Is this the beginning of real-life sci-fi? (Spoiler: yes.)
Let’s break it down for you.
🚨 Here’s the Deal: We Have Too Much CO₂ in the Air
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is like the drunk guest at a party who won’t leave and keeps making everything worse. It’s responsible for over two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s the main driver of climate change.
The result? Melting ice caps. Wild weather. Rising sea levels. More wildfires. More memes about how we’re doomed.
The only way to stop the chaos? Remove billions of tonnes of CO₂ from the air—every single year.
💸 Enter the XPRIZE Carbon Removal—The Biggest Climate Prize Ever
Launched on Earth Day 2021, the XPRIZE Carbon Removal is a $100 million competition funded by the Musk Foundation.
Yes. That Elon Musk.
SpaceX. Tesla. Memelord. Now… climate prize daddy.
The goal? Find scalable, sustainable, and affordable ways to pull carbon out of the air or oceans and lock it away—permanently.
🧠 What Do Teams Have to Do? (Spoiler: A Lot)
To win, teams need to:
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Remove at least 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ as a demo
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Model their tech to scale to 1 million tonnes (aka “megatonne level”)
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Chart a path to removing a gigatonne (a billion tonnes) annually by 2050
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Keep costs under $100/tonne
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Prove it’s durable, energy-efficient, and not secretly ruining the environment in the process
Basically:
“Save the world. But make it scalable, affordable, and verifiable. And don’t screw anything else up while you do it.”
— XPRIZE, probably
🌊☁️🌱🪨 So, How Are People Planning to Do This?
It’s not just giant vacuums sucking air like it’s the final boss of Dyson.
Teams are using everything:
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🌬️ Direct Air Capture: High-tech fans + chemistry to trap CO₂
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🌊 Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement: Making oceans absorb more carbon
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🌱 Biomass-based Storage: Turning plants into permanent carbon storage
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🪨 Enhanced Rock Weathering: Using crushed rocks to lock CO₂ in the ground (yes, really)
It’s like a science fair—but the prize is saving humanity and a literal hundred million dollars.
🎓 Students Got Involved Too—and Cashed In
Before the main event, the competition awarded $5 million to student teams doing amazing work in biochar, algae, soil science, and measurement tech.
So if you ever thought your science project in high school was big… these students were out here casually fixing the carbon cycle.
🏆 And the Race Begins…
More than 1,300 teams from 88 countries entered the competition.
Each one with a wild idea. Each one trying to do the impossible: scale carbon removal to the gigatonne level.
It’s part Hunger Games, part TED Talk, part Marvel origin story.
And the best part? This isn’t just theory. Teams are building real systems and removing real CO₂.
🧪 Why This Actually Matters
By 2050, we’ll need to remove 6–10 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year just to stay under the 1.5°C temperature rise limit.
Let that sink in:
We don’t just need to emit less.
We need to actively clean up the atmosphere—like a global Roomba.
The XPRIZE Carbon Removal is basically the catalyst we needed to make that happen.
🚀 Final Thoughts: This Is Big. Like, World-Saving Big.
Climate change is a massive problem. But it turns out, people with ideas, science degrees, and the promise of $100 million can do amazing things.
Whether it’s crushed basalt, ocean chemistry, biochar, or literal air scrubbers, the carbon removal movement is officially launched.
The only question now is: who’s going to win?
Stay tuned. Science just got serious. And kinda sexy.
🌱 Follow Amazement for more unbelievable-but-true stories from the world of climate, science, and the strange future we’re building together.
