Mr. Efficient
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson has written a piece on airline efficiency (among other things) for My Turn Online, Newsweek Enterprise, hosted by MSNBC.com. While the first paragraph kind of left me scratching my head - Lovelock's Gaia theory forms the basis of our current understanding of global warming???? I know Lovelock has become interested in global warming in recent years, and in fact has said we're past "the point of no return," but the Gaia theory isn't really about global warming...I need to get back on point - the rest of the Branson article contains some pretty interesting stuff.
I've said before that some people are going to get rich offering "solutions" to global warming. Branson's already rich, which gives him the capital to invest to get even richer. Some of his airline efficiency ideas are so simple it seems almost unbelievable they aren't already in use. If it uses less fuel to have a plane sit on the ground waiting for a gate than it does to have it circle in the air, why would that not be the first choice? Airlines are so cash-strapped, you would think that saving fuel would be highly interesting to them.
Comments (2)
Lovelock's Gaia theory is not about global warming. But nobody said it was in the article you reffered to. Bransons said in his article: "Lovelock's ideas are the basis of our current understanding of global warming ". And in fact they are.
Posted by bartolo | December 11, 2006 3:28 PM
I would disagree on Lovelock's ideas being the basis of our global warming understanding. I will admit the only piece of Lovelock's work I've read is a commentary in the Independent Online. I have, however, read a couple of reviews of Lovelock's new book, The Revenge of Gaia, including one at RealClimate.org, which seem to show respect for Lovelock, but not necessarily support for his ideas. I would say the basis of our current understanding of global warming flows much more from the climate modellers at NASA GISS and the Hadley Centre in the UK than from Lovelock.
Posted by Laura Hannon | December 12, 2006 8:08 AM