marklynas.orgVirgin boss hints at greener flying 17 November 05
Richard Branson has always annoyed me. As the archetypal hippy capitalist, his ‘woolly jumper and beard’ image has long given a softer mask to what is in reality a ruthless and damaging business operation. Promoting flying through all the various Virgin air networks, Branson can take a small but significant responsibility also for destroying the stability of the world’s climate. And as if to emphasise this, his recent announcement that he was seeking to build a new Virgin oil refinery – to try and make fuel cheaper – seemed to seal his reputation as an environmental bete noire. (Oh, and the UK’s Virgin train network is terrible: two out of three journeys I’ve made by Virgin trains have been an hour or more late.) So what’s this latest Branson statement about going green? According to Reuters, the Virgin boss is planning to use something called ‘cellulosic ethanol’ to power his fleet in decades to come, apparently utilising crop waste in order to synthesise the fuel. So is this just a PR stunt, or could it really be the start of something? In theory, biofuels can be close to carbon neutral. But anyone who knows anything about the energy density of hydrocarbons also knows that ethanol simply doesn’t have the punch to put a big jet aircraft into the sky. I’ll be keeping a (sceptical) open mind for the time being.
Comments
Lynn Vincentnathan
November 18th, 2005 at 09:37 PM
is a air fee based on a passenger’s GHG emissions for that flight, that would be set aside to invest in GHG lowering projects. It would have to be created by national or international governments & assessed on everyone flying. At least a token amount so as to make people aware of the issue. We shouldn’t let industries set policies; most are going to act in their short-term economic interests. There are forest/paper companies that are destroying their forests (their capital) for short-term profit, without even thinking about what they’ll use after the forests are destroyed. It’s all set up for next quarter’s profits, not even for long-term business viability. So how can we even imagine they might do something out of concern for social benefit. Many businesses have been like naughty children getting into harms way (and harming others), and governments are like lax and negligent parents.
Douglas Coker
November 21st, 2005 at 09:14 AM
Just had a quick look at some sites Google pointed me at. There is a lot of talk re ethanol and ethanol derived from cellulose. The debate centres around cost, CO2 benefits, energy security, land use, timescale etc. I see no mention of the application extending beyond cars and other wheeled vehicles to aircraft. So it may join the “menu of options” but not for aircraft.
Should Branson not be exploring airships? These would fit with the slow food, slow towns theme.
Douglas Coker