Richard Branson
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If you want planes to use less fuel, just ask the pilot nicely
Turns out pilots like being gently prodded into saving the planet.
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Finally, these celebrities get naked for fish
The British campaign Fishlove is pretty much what it sounds like: assorted naked celebrities expressing their love for the ocean's creatures, to raise awareness of overfishing.
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Gold, silver, bronze, & green
What do the Vancouver Olympics have to do with Sir Richard Branson’s “Carbon War Room” and solar power? We hear from venture capitalist Jack Hidary on this Planet Forward webisode. Hidary and Branson aren’t just enjoying the sporting events at the Vancouver Olympics. They’ve started a “Carbon War Room” which is looking for market-driven solutions […]
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Why Branson and SuperFreakonomics are wrong, in pictures
This week, as reported by Andy Revkin, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson said something heroically, world-historically stupid: “If we could come up with a geoengineering answer to this problem, then Copenhagen wouldn’t be necessary. We could carry on flying our planes and driving our cars.” Sir Richard was talking about removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. […]
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Alcohol refinery may enhance tourist industry
Tourists, bird watchers, and native cattle herders in Kenya's Tana River delta may soon have a spanking-new alcohol refinery in the middle of their wetland. Granted, the wetland will be slightly less wet because a third of its water will be diverted to cropland. Always one to look for a silver lining, I would hope that this refinery will include an air-conditioned bar where tourists and herders alike can gather for happy hour after a long, hot day of wildlife viewing and cattle herding.
Paul Matiku, Executive Director of Nature Kenya (and might I add, a real pessimist) claims:
Large areas would become ecological deserts. The Delta is a wildlife refuge with cattle herders depending on it for centuries as well. There is no commitment to mitigation for the damage that will be done and no evidence that local incomes will be in any way improved.
*Cough*loser*cough*! Excuse me.
Here, Richard Branson, after publicly admitting that his investments in corn ethanol were a mistake, goes on to say:
"But, ah, there are countries in the world like Africa [actually a continent], um, like Mozambique, where they have got sugarcane plantations lying wasted, doing nothing ..."
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Billionaire Branson regrets mindless biofuel support
Time was when biofuels, including corn-based ethanol, had no stauncher supporter than Richard Branson, the U.K. airline and entertainment magnate. Now, according to the BBC, he "regrets his investments in biofuels on economic and environmental grounds." In the above video, the billionaire deplores the lameness of corn ethanol. For the record, I think he’s being […]
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She’s not into it
A couple weeks ago, Daily Grist noted Richard Branson’s $25 million prize, offered for some kind of widget that will take CO2 out of the atmosphere. I didn’t have much to say about it — Tom more or less captured my feelings in his comment. Somebody with Branson’s money and profile shouldn’t be promoting magical […]
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Can greed get us out?
Billionaire Richard Branson will announce today in London a prize of $25 million to the inventor of a device that effectively reduces greenhouse gas concentrations. Although the participants are under a media embargo, American climatologist James Hansen -- who will serve as a judge of the potential inventions, along with English scientist James Lovelock and Australian author Tim Flannery -- did discuss the topic of geoengineering a solution to global warming this week in front of a large crowd at U.C. Santa Barbara, as part of a lecture he gave on the dangers of human-caused climate change.
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