I just met an entrepreneur building a machine that turns air into fuel. It’s not some fancy lab experiment. He’s got a working prototype right now in California.
While climate activists tell us to use less, drive less, and live less, this guy is doing the opposite. He's using technology to create more. A true Rational Optimist.
My recent travels to Texas and California confirmed we've been looking at climate change all wrong. We're told fighting climate change means giving things up. They say we humans are too impactful. We must build less, travel less, grow less.
The entrepreneurs I met aren't talking about sacrifice. They’re creating abundance and prosperity while saving the planet in the process.
Terraform Industries is building one of the most important machines of our time. Imagine turning any patch of land into an oil well. But instead of drilling down, you're pulling fuel from the air above.
I met Terraform founder Casey Handmer at The Roots of Progress conference in San Francisco. Remember the name. Casey is a physics PhD and ex-NASA engineer. I’m convinced he’s going to change the world.
Usually when I hear the word "climate," my guard goes up. What follows is typically a lecture about flying less, giving up red meat, and paying more taxes.
Casey's view is climate change is a problem we can solve with technology… and create billions of dollars in wealth while doing it.
His “Terraformer” machine is roughly the size of two shipping containers and works like a reverse power plant. Sunlight and air go in one end, and cheap natural gas comes out the other.
The Terraformer runs on solar power. It sucks in air, strips out the CO₂, and then processes it to create fuel that we can use for cars, planes, or even power plants. Think of it like a generator that “harvests” fuel from the air. Alchemy, but real!
Then when you burn this synthetic fuel, you only release the same CO₂ that was already in the air. No new carbon added.
“V1” of the Terraformer already pulls carbon from the air at record-low prices. As solar costs keep plummeting (down 99.6% and still falling), this tech gets cheaper by the day.
With another decade of solar innovation, we should be able to turn any sunny spot into a clean fuel factory. No drilling. No pipelines. Just sunlight and air transforming into fuel.
Ever see those white lines trailing behind planes? “Contrails” are actually worse for the planet than the jet fuel burning in the engines. They act like a blanket wrapped around Earth.
Casey’s first goal is to make “clean” jet fuel. Dirty kerosene powers airplanes today. Terraform’s fuel is chemically identical, but cleaner and creates fewer contrails.
Casey’s goals are bold: to replace most fossil fuels by 2035, and power 95% of everything with solar by 2044.
Usually, when someone makes claims this big, I roll my eyes. But after watching Casey talk through problems in real time and seeing how his mind works, I'm convinced it’s possible.
In the 1940s India was on the verge of mass starvation. The population was growing too fast, and farms couldn't keep up. “Experts” warned the only solution was to eat less and have fewer kids.
Then Norman Borlaug created wheat on steroids. His new variety yielded 10 times more grain per acre. A field that once fed 10 families suddenly fed 100. India didn't starve; it became a food exporter!
Likewise, a century ago, waterborne diseases killed thousands in American cities. Children died from drinking tap water.
The answer wasn't to drink less. It was to improve water. We invented chlorination and filtration. Today, clear, safe water flows from every tap instead of murky, deadly liquid.
When faced with problems, humans must not retreat. We must innovate.
We don't have to choose between prosperity and protecting the planet. Technology can give us both and make us wealthier in the process.
“We can't solve water shortages with technology.” A reader named Jim wrote me this recently: “I live in Colorado, watching the Colorado River dry up. Technology won't recharge our glaciers.”
Good news, Jim. Not only can technology solve water shortages. We're already doing it elsewhere.
When visiting Abu Dhabi last month, I learned a single desalination plant pumps out enough fresh water to fill 890 Olympic swimming pools. Every. Single. Day.
Desalinization turns salt water into fresh drinking water. Think of it like a giant Brita filter for the ocean. It catches salt and lets only pure water through.
This technology helped Israel turn itself from a water-starved nation into a water-rich one. Israel was draining its largest freshwater lake just to keep taps running. Then it built five massive desalination plants. Today, that same lake is at its highest level in 30 years!
The Middle East used to pray for rain. Saudi Arabia was so water starved, it once considered towing icebergs in from Antarctica. Now desalinization allows it to make its own water on demand.
Desalinization tech can solve America’s water problems too.
The mighty Colorado River has shrunk to a trickle in places. Phoenix is freezing new building permits because they can't guarantee water. California families are often told they can only water their lawns once a week.
Here’s what we should do:
Line the California coast with a dozen desalination plants, each one the size of a Walmart superstore. These plants turn Pacific Ocean water into fresh drinking water. This would give California enough water forever and would mean it no longer has to drain the Colorado River.
Impossible you say? America has achieved greater geoengineering feats before.
Florida, in 1900, was a hellscape. A mosquito-infested swamp that was underwater half the year. The land was worthless. Nobody wanted to live there.
Then we built 2,000 miles of canals and levees to control flooding, installed huge pumping stations to drain the swamps, and added air conditioning to make summers bearable.
That “worthless” swamp is now home to 22 million people. And we transformed Florida with technology that's primitive compared to what we have today.
With modern desalination methods, we could turn Arizona into a tropical paradise. We could build lakefront property in Nevada's empty valleys and transform worthless desert into valuable farmland. The transformation could create trillions in new wealth.
Does this sound crazy? Maybe. But you know what's crazier? Accepting decline. Telling people to use less, dream less, be less.
With modern technology and some ambition, we could transform American deserts into oases. We did it before. We can do it again.
All these ambitious innovations—pulling fuel from the air, making fresh water from oceans, transforming deserts into gardens—require one vital ingredient. They…
Need massive amounts of cheap energy
Take Terraform’s machine, for example. It rips water molecules apart to get hydrogen and runs giant fans to filter air for tiny bits of carbon. Finally, it forces these molecules to combine into “man-made” natural gas. This process consumes huge amounts of energy.
Rational Optimists know energy is the master resource. It’s the foundation of prosperity that makes everything from the phone in your pocket to the cheap and abundant food on your table possible. Energy is a cheat code for Earth. The more we have, the more we can reshape our world.
Casey Handmer said, “People underestimate how important energy wealth is for overall wealth.” He's right. Remember, there’s no such thing as a low-energy, rich country. And there never will be.
Coal and oil transformed a world that looked the same for thousands of years into our modern civilization. The coming energy revolution powered by clean, abundant solar and nuclear can be even bigger.
America’s fracking revolution is proof. This technology turned the US from the world's biggest energy buyer into its biggest producer. It also let America (mostly) ditch dirty coal for much cleaner natural gas.
The result: The US economy has doubled since 2007, while total carbon emissions dropped 17%. We had our cake and ate it too.
Source: Our World in Data
That’s nothing compared to what we can achieve with plummeting solar costs and the rollout of dozens of mini nuclear reactors. Get ready for the fracking revolution on steroids.
While others say “reduce, restrict, retreat,” Rational Optimists say “innovate, build, expand.” We don't solve problems by using less. We solve them by making clean energy so abundant it's billed like your Netflix subscription.
I have two young kids. My third is due on the day this issue arrives in your inbox. The saddest statistic today is that record numbers of young people are losing hope in the future.
My kids, and yours, must know the truth: The world is bursting with opportunities. With human ingenuity and innovation, we can solve almost any problem.
We must inspire our kids to dream big!
That's why I'm asking you to share these stories.
Think of it like the oxygen mask rule on airplanes. Help yourself first (done by being a member of the Rational Optimist Society). Then help others escape the doom spiral.
Our children will ask what we did during this pivotal moment. Let's show them we chose abundance over fear, innovation over restriction, optimism over doom.
Go forth and spread the word, Rational Optimists!
See you next Sunday.
Hey, You don’t have to wait until the end of the week for good news.
Follow us on X and check out our podcast for regular updates.
Writer: Stephen McBride: https://x.com/DisruptionHedge
Editor: Dan Steinhart: https://x.com/dan_steinhart
Rational Optimist Society: https://x.com/RationalOptSoc