Project Phoenix

Project Phoenix came out of ID’s 1988 Systems Design Workshop and its investigation of the climate crisis, specifically the greenhouse effect. With Chuck Owen as their teacher, the team developed a system of interlocking solutions divided into two proposals: Fire Reversed and Fire Replaced. Fire Reversed aims to replenish and reinforce Earth’s photosynthesizing process, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through two macro-design categories: regreening deserts and barren land through domes under which selected plant ecosystems can thrive, and a simulated floating environment built in the relatively barren mid-ocean areas. Fire Replaced explores ways of replacing carbon-based fuels to produce heat, light, and energy to prevent further exacerbation of the global warming problem. It envisions a system of space-based solar power – satellites built with raw materials harvested from the lunar surface and assembled in a factory orbiting the moon. Honored as Environmental Category Grand Winner in Popular Science magazine’s “100 Greatest Achievements in Science and Technology.”