You are right about the old man. He seems to give investors a confidence which is rarely seen. Some might think it undeserved, and some might presume it a fleeting moment in history. I happen to be one of the latter. His charisma was surely able to generate lots of funding for an untested strategy. He capitalized well on the "chicken little" global warming crowd.
The evidence on Global Climate Change now seems to indicate that the sky is not falling. It might be hard for some of the enthusiasts to swallow, but UN climate data shows that temperatures have stabilized despite the ambitious warnings of the proponents. If I remember the story, chicken little became a laughing stock. Gore became a billionaire, so the modern adaptation has a brighter side.
My own models for study were based on a "Greenhouse Effect" which makes plants grow at phenomenal rates, and feeds millions. I have been working on it for over forty years, off and on, and developed a pilot system which functioned well within the guidelines and goals I had established for carbon sequestration, food production, and recycled water usage.
I did contact many in the aquaculture feild to market the technology, but IMHO, they fail to grasp the implementation, and I ran up against a brick wall for the finance end. I recently decided to send a few teaser emails to OOIL, but they have not responded.
The technology to stop Global Warming is at hand, and when the chickens come home to roost, they will find it within my patent documentation.
Additional note: Had Riggs charisma not propped the price, I might have been an owner. I like to buy cheap.