Professor Clemens teaches Environmental Economics at a business school, but he has thrown off his academic shackles, to write a enviro-controversial book.

Press Release

Belgium, 8 December 2007

New book: Thank You For Not Breathing

( don't go to BALI, the solution is right here in your sofa )

Flemish lecturer at Brussels business school UBI publishes a controversial book, proposing how to drastically improve global air quality, stop human-made emissions and stop climate change dead.

A quite simple but novel combination of existing technologies would allow us to produce energy while extracting carbon from the atmosphere. Yes, extracting, i.e. consume more greenhouse gases than emitted.

This proposal goes far beyond energy efficiency, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or going carbon neutral. While extracting carbon, we could actually REPAIR the damage we have caused to the earth's natural carbon cycles.

By extracting carbon from the air, we can actually bring back atmospheric carbon concentrations to pre-industrial levels, i.e. before we humans and our industries started disturbing natural carbon cycles by emitting large and increasing amounts of greenhouse gases.

Natural atmospheric carbon concentrations were 280ppm in the year 1750, they're above 430ppm today, or 53% more.
To successfully restore the atmosphere back to its natural level, we will need political will, and a 20-year long investment of the astronomical sum: €102,4B/year. This sum represents 1/4th of what the Stern Review estimated, to merely limit the damages from climate change...

The proposed combination of existing technologies consists of:
- biofuels,
- cogeneration, and
- carbon capturing and sequestration,
or: BIO-CHP-CCS.

But next to the back-to-natural-atmosphere proposal, there are also a few controversial insights on
- the fun side of climate change,
- accounting systems to track personal carbon emissions, your own private Kyoto Protocol,
- solution-blocking beautiful people versus earth-destroying SUV drivers, which one are you?
- the fuel versus food debate is irrelevant, it's fuel versus meat,
and more.

This book is a result of the launch of The Virgin Earth Challenge, last year, promising $25M for anyone who demonstrates a device capable of reducing atmospheric carbon concentrations.
No, no chance of winning the jackpot, this proposal is not so much a device as a political introduction. :-(

Steve Clemens works for a Belgian environmental non-profit organization, and in this regard he teaches Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Environmental Economics and Renewable Energy Entrepreneurship at Brussels business school UBI.
www.ubi.edu

As of Monday 10 December, this book is for sale at:

Waterstone's Brussels
Adolphe Maxlaan 71-75 Boulevard Adolphe Max
Brussels,
1000 Belgium
+32 2 219 2708

and

Eurocomment Bookshop
Stévinstraat - Rue Stévin 186
1000 Brussels
+32 2 733 72 33

Online purchase via: www.eurocomment.eu,

and soon:
www.thankyoufornotbreathing.com ,
www.amazon.com