Richard Branson pledges $3bn to fight global warming

Sir Richard Branson has pledged all profits from his travel businesses (Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains) for the next decade towards fighting global warming, the figure expected to be donated is thought to be in the region of $3bn, at a news conference in New York Sir Richard stated "We are very pleased today to be making a commitment to invest 100% of all future proceeds to the Virgin Group from our transportation interest, both our trains and airline businesses, into tackling global warming,"



Isn't it ironic that an individual (albeit a rich one) has made a large contribution in the fight against global warming, whilst our governments continue to sit on their hands and do nothing. Yet again it is the individuals who are taking the lead in this fight and giving away their own money whilst their political master continue to rake in large political donations from some of the biggest polluters going.

I saw this on the BBC today, thought to myself, what is he up to now. Well it is about time he gave money back to help the enviroment, his planes that take off from airports across the world effect the enviroment as much as anything else.

Thinkin someone is feeling rather guilty over this hmmmmms.

Hey we in america are expected to spend 5 billion on halloween this year, maybe we can donate all of it to global warming !!!

He yeah!!!!!!!!! God finally someone in this country trying to do something about it!

He may be feeling a little guilty, but when did you hear of British Airways or any other big Haulier doing anything like this? This is why he is so well liked

I`d like to know where and what the $3bn is going to be spent on?

Other than that to the guy,all profits over the next ten years from his companies is extremely generous from anyones point of view.

I may even fly virgin again because i vowed never to again after having to pay $6 for a ham and cheese sandwich and $2.50 for headsets

I believe he has stated that at least some of the money will be spent on developing new bio type fuels that will produce much lower emisions than those currently in use?

I`d love it if they looked into the bio fuel that was on our news the other day,i searched for about an hour looking for it yesterday but could`nt find the story.

A guy here in Australia grows trees over one hectare that produces 12.000 litres of bio fuel a year,which each tree produces 40litres a year,so around about an average driver would need about a tree a week or 52 approx tree`s to run their diesel.

Environmentally with all the trees being raped,if these were replaced it would have to be a bonus for the environment and farmers who could produce their own fuel or sell the product.

If we wait for our gov't leaders to do anything to save humanity, we'd all be dead for sure. Every successful social and political movement is started by like minded individuals getting together and ignoring the govt. Spend $50-100 dollars by compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Get a water heater timer so that you don't heat water unneccesarily. Be a real "conservative" and conserve energy. It might sound tired and too much like a cliche but the truth often is. Every dollar you don't spend on energy is one less that the global corporate hegemony can rip off from you. Since you didn't spend it, your dollar wasn't taxed and didn't get used on the fake war on terrorism or go to some rich Saudi prince to give to a terrorist to blow himself up.

Call me a bit cynical, but "investing" in alternative fuels may not be such a charitable gesture, even though it has good consequences. Many investors see the alternative energy field (biofuels, fuel cells, clean fuels etc) as one of the most lucrative over the coming years. If successful, Branson could make a LOT of money.

Of course I may be reading it wrong.. but I suspect he isn't just "giving away" profits. Other shareholders (including singapore airlines, who own 49% of virgin atlantic for example) would have something to say about that!

But how cam we fight the global warming, if it's the problem of the Universe?

(as some members would like us to belive)



As long as there are Oil and Car Corporations, which do NOT want to stop the global warming, I do not thinkt here is going to be a big revolution in this direction. Yes 3 billions of dollars is a lot of money, but the problem is, that some people do not want this change, since that means they will loose a whole lot of money.

And we have been raping this planet for so long, that it might be too late already...

Originally posted by nowthenlookhere
Call me a bit cynical, but "investing" in alternative fuels may not be such a charitable gesture, even though it has good consequences. Many investors see the alternative energy field (biofuels, fuel cells, clean fuels etc) as one of the most lucrative over the coming years. If successful, Branson could make a LOT of money.

Of course I may be reading it wrong.. but I suspect he isn't just "giving away" profits. Other shareholders (including singapore airlines, who own 49% of virgin atlantic for example) would have something to say about that!

Sure they'd have something to say, it's not as if Branson has to actually listen though, as they only own 49%, he owns 51% (and that is just company shares, getting into Class based shares could make the voting rights 99% in bransons favor while the rest of the 49% only get 1% of the votes(those are madeup stats for comparisons sake, I don't even know wether Virgin has that kind of share setup))

As long as he has majority holdings in Virgin Corp, then he can do nearly anything he wants with his company.

Man, I wish I had a line to talk to Branson about this as I would advise him to try the System approach(ie Tackling all problems at once) and for inspiration I would send him this link.

Gaviotas: A village to reinvent the world

Well when you have as much money as Branson you can afford to waste $3 billion of it. I don't believe in the Global Warming theory. I do believe that there is a naturally occurring cycle of increased and decreased temperatures that has been going on for millions of years. We just happen to be at the start of a warming cycle, or is it the peak of a warming cycle? This entire Global Warming issue is what you get when science is politicized. The viewpoint has already been established, anything supporting this viewpoint is good, no matter how bad or inaccurate it is, and anything disagreeing with this viewpoint is automatically evil, no matter how accurate it might be.

Everybodies entitled to their own opinion, and yes the earth does have a history of going through cycles of extreme heat/cold, but the difference is in the speed at which the change is occuring at this moment in time.

Originally posted by solidshot
Everybodies entitled to their own opinion, and yes the earth does have a history of going through cycles of extreme heat/cold, but the difference is in the speed at which the change is occuring at this moment in time.

Considering that weather changes have been accuratly recorded for about the last 150 years, how can we be sure what the trend actually is? We have no accurate baseline for anything.

Originally posted by JIMC5499
Well when you have as much money as Branson you can afford to waste $3 billion of it. I don't believe in the Global Warming theory. I do believe that there is a naturally occurring cycle of increased and decreased temperatures that has been going on for millions of years. We just happen to be at the start of a warming cycle, or is it the peak of a warming cycle? This entire Global Warming issue is what you get when science is politicized. The viewpoint has already been established, anything supporting this viewpoint is good, no matter how bad or inaccurate it is, and anything disagreeing with this viewpoint is automatically evil, no matter how accurate it might be.

You are right, there are cycles on this planet and we are messing them up royally.

We screw around with the Nitrogen Cycle by pumping Gasous Acids into the atmosphere. When it comes down as Acid Percipitation, the lower pH value of the Water and Soil(caused by the Percipitation) drops, the harder it becomes for Nitrogen Fixing bacteria to do their job. (Acid Precipitation has also been implicated in sterile Hermaphrotie Aquatic Species increasing in numbers where the pH has decreased dramatically due to our actions)

We mess up the Carbon cycle by burning stuff and cutting down trees(as well as increasing the Acid Precipitation above the Ocean which has the effect of slowing down the reproductive cycles of Carbon Fixing bacteria as well as O2 producing microbes).

This is basic Ecology 101. Not once did I hear any political punditry in that course.

[edit on 22-9-2006 by sardion2000]

This is a very generous gesture towards mankind; or is it?

What is with the billionaires giving away their money lately? First it's Bill Gates, then Buffet, now this. Do they know something that we don't? Is money going to soon become worthless?

No, really, very generous.

Originally posted by gps777

A guy here in Australia grows trees over one hectare that produces 12.000 litres of bio fuel a year,which each tree produces 40litres a year,so around about an average driver would need about a tree a week or 52 approx tree`s to run their diesel.

Environmentally with all the trees being raped,if these were replaced it would have to be a bonus for the environment and farmers who could produce their own fuel or sell the product.

Why use trees when you can use hemp? Doesn't seem very practical. How big can a tree get in a year?