Modern Hero

According to Time Magazine...
Sir Richard Branson is giving $25 million to the first scientist who comes up with a system for extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Since I was a junior in high school, I've wanted to work for this man. To me, he's a modern day hero. The owner of Virgin Music, Virgin Airlines, and Virgin Mobile, he's a billionaire and a knight. However, he isn't my hero because of fame or honor, he's a modern day hero to me because he's a forward thinking, curious, and adventurous entrepreneur.

What first brought him to my attention was his idea for commercialized space flight. He presented a monetary incentive to progressive, independent space scientists, challenging them to create a private spacecraft for commercial travel. He then created a sub-sector of his giant multi-national to begin the process of creating a commercial travel business into space called Virgin Galactic. I thought that was ingenious. It's a fantastic way to increase aerospace knowledge and make a profit. It was such a successful concept that there's already a waiting list of millionaire's who would like to fly to space when the project becomes an active business.

His latest idea, though contradictory to the aforementioned fossil fuel-burning business, is one that will too benefit the science community. With climate change being the biggest environmental challenge to deal with to date, Sir Richard Branson, has agreed to establish yet another competition. For the sake of the planet, I hope these scientists do find a way to remove those chemicals from the ozone soon.

Oh Sir Branson, what will you do next?