Branson on Biofuels: Grist chats with everyone's favourite billionaire

Sounds too good be true eh?
See what George Monbiot says about Branson.

Hi Lisa

Usually I really like George Monbiot. But is it just me, or is this article hypocritical AND overly cynical?

For ...

Hi Lisa

Usually I really like George Monbiot. But is it just me, or is this article hypocritical AND overly cynical?

For starters, George says that climate change needs action NOW. Then he goes on to complain about

(a) the fact that Richard Branson's current possible solutions are failures - I mean, it does take time to research these options and others. We're not going to have a silver bullet that addresses both the problems and the reluctance of developing countries to drop living standards overnight. Not ideal, but just how it is.

(b) the fact that what Branson should do is invest in non-airline transport - again even if he did, this is not going to be an immediate solution

(c) that we should all stop flying - hardly going to happen overnight and without enough time develop alternatives.

His deconstruction of the current available solutions seems very pessimistic to me - I'm sure people were saying the same about how impossible it was to develop a hybrid engine, a computer smaller than a room or a mobile phone.

I just think this attitude is destructive. If Richard Branson publicly says he's going to do this (and fails to submit a press release signed in triplicate to Monbiot) then the track record says he probably will. Even if he doesn't achieve what he wants to, it's irrelevant, because Monbiot is criticising his intentions in the first place.

Let's just suppose for a minute that Branson can invest enough to invent a sustainable, non-polluting fuel source in say 10 years. What the hell is wrong with that? It's surely better than Branson doing nothing like everyone else, and it's sure as hell a more realistic solution than "everyone stop flying now".

I agree with Monbiot's proposal (although I haven't read his book yet) that more drastic changes are needed and ideally, we WOULD all stop flying now. But I just don't think that is going to happen without a massive cultural shift - which again, is not going to happen overnight.

In any case, I just don't think attacking people like Richard Branson - who quite possibly really do intend to make a positive change - achieves anything at all.

Am I missing something obvious???

(Of course, if Branson flakes out on us, I may well be running to catch up to the Monbiot bandwagon ;-) )

End of rant.

It does seem a little cynical - I'm actually surprised that he's demanding that Greenpeace should be questioned on why its not running a campaign agai...

It does seem a little cynical - I'm actually surprised that he's demanding that Greenpeace should be questioned on why its not running a campaign against Virgin.
While I'm completely tuned into Monbiot's breakdown of the fuel technologies etc., I'd be inclined to give Branson the benefit of the doubt for now.

George Monbiot GOOD!
Richard Branson BAD!
You - kill - Richard Branson
...Obey my dog!
Relax don't do it! :-D

Branson is a clever businessman. Full stop.
Biofuels, carbon emissions trading, carbon capture and storage, compensation payments, the lot, all v...

Branson is a clever businessman. Full stop.
Biofuels, carbon emissions trading, carbon capture and storage, compensation payments, the lot, all vain trials to continue our ecologically non-sustainable lifestyles. We have overshot the planet's carrying capacity by far and the only thing that can save us is to reduce consumption and speeds dramatically, re-localise our economies i.e. work and consume locally. One cannot save the world by yet-to-be-invented technologies, nor with optimism.
Helmut