Source:
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=AGENDA-qqqs=agenda-qqqid=34805-qqqx=1.asp
03 August 2008 By Stephen Price The Virgin boss’s much trumpeted pledge of €1.9bn to tackle global warming is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
In September 2006, Virgin boss Richard Branson pledged €1.9 billion towards tackling global warming. For the next ten years, he announced, the profits from his aviation and rail businesses would go towards combating the biggest, most complex problem that mankind has ever faced.
The promise earned Branson headlines around the world. Media outlets carried photos of him, Bill Clinton and Al Gore at a Clinton Global Initiative press conference in New York. Adults, Branson solemnly told the assembled media, had a duty to pass a ‘‘pristine’’ planet on to the next generation. Politicians and campaigners were effusive in their praise for his imagination and generosity.
However, a look at the not-very-small print revealed that this amazing gesture would not be a matter of taking the profits from Branson’s polluting industries and using them to protect vast tracts of the Amazon.
In fact, the money would go to a new division of the Virgin conglomerate, called Virgin Fuel. Branson was simply gearing himself up to make more money. But as always, the PR spin was that he’d be doing the rest of us a favour in the process.
Branson has built an empire on this perception. His first two business ventures - both failed - were growing Christmas trees and selling budgerigars, so he obviously understood from an early stage that nature is there to be exploited.
His reputation as a rebel underdog took off when he was arrested in 1971 for selling records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock. Because he also sold ‘‘cut-outs’’ (remaindered LPs at discounted prices), the perception took root that he was being persecuted by the authorities for challenging a rip-off establishment. In fact, he was doing nothing of the sort - he paid the taxes and fines owing from the case.
Branson’s anti-establishment persona was cemented in 1977 when Virgin Records signed the Sex Pistols; the band had already been dropped by two labels, EMI and A&M. He was also on board the boat the band played on when they sailed down the Thames during Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee celebrations. In a blaze of publicity, it was pulled in by police and a few punters were arrested.
When British Airways engaged in a ‘‘dirty tricks’’ campaign against Virgin Atlantic in the early1990s,thiswas grist to Branson’s mill. Whether it’s flights, records, mobile phones, cola, radio, television, hotels, trains or holidays, sticking the word ‘‘Virgin’’ in front of something supposedly makes it cheaper yet cooler, with the bearded, grinning boss fronting many of his own ad campaigns. Because if a hippy says it’s all right, then it must be. Mustn’t it?
Since Virgin Fuel was set up in 2006, the tide has very much turned against bio-fuels with the realisation that far too much agricultural land could be eaten up by fuel crops. Palm oil, one of the major biofuels, is contributing to global warming as virgin (no pun intended) rainforests in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia are decimated to make way for palm plantations.
Still, in February of this year Branson was on the tarmac toying with a coconut for the inevitable photocall when one of his 747s flew - empty- from London to Amsterdam on a 20 per cent bio-fuel mixture. Two years on from his ‘‘profits’’ gesture, slightly wiser green campaigners dismissed the flight as a stunt.
But onwards and upwards. While Branson has done little to save the planet and a hell of a lot to pollute it, he can arrange for you to look down upon it. This week he unveiled an aircraft for flying tourists into space. Virgin Galactic (yes, space can be branded too) has built a four-engine, twin-fuselage jet that will carrya spaceship with six passengers up to 50,000 feet to release it for sub-orbital flight.
The actual space ship is not yet complete, but apparently2 50 punters have already paid $200,000 up front for the experience, among them Ireland’s own leading car salesman, Bill Cullen. The plane is called White Knight II, lest we forget what a favour Branson is doing for us.
Hippies are often credited with being the first to bring green issues to the fore, but the 1960s also legitimised the ascent of personal selfishness over social responsibility. Of course, Branson is no more of a hippy than I am, just a good businessman.
Spraying huge amounts of jet fuel into the atmosphere, purely to allow rich people to look down on an overheating planet, is about as stupid and hypocritical as it gets. Still, I’m sure that the earth from space is a beautiful sight – enjoy it while it lasts.
Earthly Remains
Radioactivity is back in the news this week with revelations of leaks at nuclear power plants in France, and the entirely unconnected problem of radon in Irish houses. Thirty cubic metres of liquid containing non-enriched uranium was accidentally poured into the ground at the Tricastin station, just north of Avignon.
A ban on using local water for any purpose was put in place. In an article entitled ‘‘It feels like a sci-fi film – accidents tarnish nuclear dream’’, the Guardian newspaper revealed that local plants and swimming pools tested negative for radioactivity.
In a separate incident this week, 97 staff were evacuated from the plant during maintenance work, some of whom showed low traces of radioactivity – one fortieth of the permitted limit. As someone who regularly extols the virtues of the French nuclear industry, I feel duty-bound to acknowledge the blips, too.
* Meanwhile, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) this week stated that people here are subject to higher doses of radiation than previously thought, but neither France, Chernobyl nor even Sellafield are to blame.
Radon is a naturally-occuring gas which can become trapped under buildings, and is the second-biggest cause of lung cancer in Ireland after smoking, causing an estimated 200 cases a year.
Soils containing granite and shale – which Ireland has aplenty – can be sources of radon. The west and south-east are particularly vulnerable and the RPII recommends that radon testing be a compulsory part of the sales process of any home or business premises.
* The oil industry proceeds on its perfectly safe way; a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) into the extraction of oil from shale and tar sands in Canada and the US concludes that it easily has the potential to release 980 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, push the earth’s temperature past its two degrees tipping point, and cause mass extinction of many species, including us.
This method of extraction is eight times dirtier than drilling, before you count the oil that’s then burned. Shell and BP intend to invest CAD$125 billion into such practices by 2015. Worth every cent, eh lads?
* Well done to teenagers from schools in the Liberties in Dublin, who this week received environmental awards at the Digital Hub, for creating an imaginary ‘eco-civilisation’ in the middle of the Irish Sea. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, though.
