This Changes Everything

by Naomi Klein

  28. Personal interview with Jigar Shah, September 9, 2013.

  29. Chibber, “How Green Is Richard Branson?”

  30. Branson took part in Solazyme’s Series D round of financing, during which the company raised about $50 million from at least 10 investors. The round was led by Morgan Stanley and Braemar Energy Ventures, which says it typically invests “between $1 million and $10 million in a single round of financing,” and up to $25 million total. Even if the majority of the Series D funding had come from Branson (an unlikely scenario), the value of his publicized investments would remain millions short of $300 million: “Solazyme Announces Series D Financing Round of More Than $50 Million,” Solazyme Inc., press release, August 9, 2010; “Solazyme Adds Sir Richard Branson as Strategic Investor,” Solazyme Inc., press release, September 8, 2010; “About Braemar Energy Ventures,” Braemar Energy Ventures, http://www.braemarenergy.com. “TWO OR THREE HUNDRED MILLION”: “Richard Branson on Climate Change” (video), The Economist, September 23, 2010; “HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS”: John Vidal, “Richard Branson Pledges to Turn Caribbean Green,” Observer, February 8, 2014; Lovell interview, September 3, 2013.

  31. Branson email communication, May 6, 2014; Irene Klotz, “Profile: Sir Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Galactic,” SpaceNews, November 11, 2013; Vidal, “Richard Branson Pledges to Turn Caribbean Green.”

  32. Chibber, “How Green Is Richard Branson?”; Branson email communication, May 6, 2014.

  33. Branson, Screw It, Let’s Do It, xi; Dan Reed, “Virgin America Takes Off,” USA Today, August 8, 2007; personal email communication with Madhu Unnikrishnan, manager of media relations, Virgin America, September 6, 2013; Victoria Stilwell, “Virgin America Cuts Airbus Order, Delays Jets to Survive,” Bloomberg, November 16, 2012; Grant Robertson, “Virgin America Sets Course for Canada,” Globe and Mail, March 19, 2010.

  34. “Virgin America Orders 60 New Planes, Celebrates ‘Growing Planes’ with Sweet 60 Fare Sale,” Virgin America, press release, January 17, 2010.

  35. NUMBER OF PEOPLE: “Annual Report 2012,” Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd., p. 2, http://www.virginaustralia.com; “STIFF COMPETITION”: “Richard Branson Beats off Stiff Competition for Scottish Airport Links,” Courier, April 9, 2013; NO FARES: Alastair Dalton, “Virgin’s ‘Zero Fares’ on Scots Routes in BA Battle,” Scotsman, March 18, 2013; “Taxi Fares,” Transport for London, http://www.tfl.gov.uk; FOOTNOTE: Mark Pilling, “Size Does Matter for Virgin Boss Branson,” Flight Daily News, July 23, 2002; Peter Pae, “New Airline Begins Service Between Los Angeles and Australia,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2009; Lucy Woods, “5 Virgin Aviation Stunts by Sir Richard Branson,” Travel Magazine, May 7, 2013.

  36. Fleet expansions for Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America were confirmed by media representatives at both airlines. Virgin Australia’s fleet expansion was estimated using information in the airline’s 2007 annual report, as well as its half-year report for 2014, and includes chartered aircraft and other services. Additional airlines in which Virgin was temporarily invested, such as Brussels Airlines, Air Asia X, and Virgin Nigeria (now Air Nigeria) were not included: “Annual Report 2007,” Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd., p. 3; “2014 Half Year Results” (presentation), Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd., February 28, 2014, p. 11. Emissions growth was estimated by comparing the combined total emissions of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia in 2007 to the combined total emissions of the three major Virgin airlines in 2012 (Virgin America began its operations in mid-2007). Virgin Australia’s emissions were reported for the 2006–7 and 2011–12 fiscal years: “Supply Chain 2013,” Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., Carbon Disclosure Project, p. 8, https://www.cdp.net; “Annual Report 2007,” Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd., p. 5; “Annual Report 2012,” Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd., p. 29; 2008 and 2012 emissions information submitted to the Climate Registry, Virgin America Inc., p. 2, https://www.crisreport.org. For Virgin Australia in 2012–2013, see: “Annual Report 2013,” Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd., p. 32. DIP: “Sustainability Report: Winter 2011/12,” Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., p. 4, http://www.virgin-atlantic.com.

  37. Mazyar Zeinali, “U.S. Domestic Airline Fuel Efficiency Ranking 2010,” International Council on Clean Transportation, September 2013, http://theicct.org.

  38. “Virgin and Brawn Agree Sponsorship to Confirm Branson’s Entry to Formula One,” Guardian, March 28, 2009; Daisy Carrington, “What Does a $250,000 Ticket to Space with Virgin Galactic Actually Buy You?” CNN, August 16, 2013; Peter Elkind, “Space-Travel Startups Take Off,” Fortune, January 16, 2013; FOOTNOTE: Salvatore Babones, “Virgin Galactic’s Space Tourism Venture for the 1% Will Warm the Globe for the Rest of Us,” Truthout, August 14, 2012.

  39. Chibber, “How Green Is Richard Branson?”

  40. Richard Wachman, “Virgin Brands: What Does Richard Branson Really Own?” Observer, January 7, 2012; David Runciman, “The Stuntman,” London Review of Books, March 20, 2014; Heather Burke, “Bill Gates Tops Forbes List of Billionaires for the 12th Year,” Bloomberg, March 9, 2006; “The World’s Billionaires: #308 Richard Branson,” Forbes, as of July 2014; Vidal, “Richard Branson Pledges to Turn Caribbean Green.”

  41. Chibber, “How Green is Richard Branson?”

  42. James Kanter, “Cash Prize for Environmental Help Goes Unawarded,” New York Times, November 21, 2010; Paul Smalera, “Richard Branson Has Deep-Sea Ambitions, Launches Virgin Oceanic,” Fortune, April 5, 2011.

  43. Kanter, “Cash Prize for Environmental Help Goes Unawarded.”

  44. Branson email communication, May 6 2014; Helen Craig, “Virgin Earth Challenge Announces Leading Organisations,” Virgin Unite, November 2011.

  45. Ibid.; “$25 Million Prize Awarded to Green Technology” (video), SWTVChannel, YouTube, November 3, 2011; “The Finalists,” Virgin Earth Challenge, http://www.virginearth.com; “Biochar: A Critical Review of Science and Policy,” Biofuelwatch, November 2011.

  46. Craig, “Virgin Earth Challenge Announces Leading Organisations”; “Virgin Coming to Global Clean Energy Congress in Calgary,” Calgary Economic Development, press release, September 9, 2011.

  47. Knight’s job as the independent Sustainable Development Advisor for the Virgin Group ended in 2012, though he is still linked to the Earth Prize: “Management Team,” The Virgin Earth Challenge, http://www.virginearth.com. OTHER CLIENTS: “My Corporate Expertise,” Dr. Alan Knight, http://www.dralanknight.com; “PRIVATE ACCESS”: Alan Knight, “Oil Sands Revisited,” Dr. Alan Knight, November 10, 2011, http://www.dralanknight.com; OSLI: “Contact,” Oil Sands Leadership Initiative, http://www.osli.ca.

  48. Knight, “Oil Sands Revisited”; personal interview with Alan Knight, December 12, 2011.

  49. Rebecca Penty, “Calgary Firm a Finalist in Virgin’s $25M Green Technology Challenge,” Calgary Herald, September 28, 2011; Alan Knight, “Alberta Oil Sands Producers ‘Distracted from Ambition and Creativity,’ ” Financial Post, November 1, 2011.

  50. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, proved reserves of crude oil were 26.5 billion barrels in 2012. Estimates for additional, economically recoverable reserves that could be extracted using current and “next-generation” CO2-EOR technologies have been added to the 2012 baseline: “Crude Oil Proved Reserves,” International Energy Statistics, U.S. Energy Information Administration; Vello A. Kuuskraa, Tyler Van Leeuwen, and Matt Wallace, “Improving Domestic Energy Security and Lowering CO2 Emissions with ‘Next Generation’ CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2-EOR),” National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, DOE/NETL-2011/1504, June 20, 2011, p. 4. “SINGLE LARGEST DETERRENT”: Marc Gunther, “Rethinking Carbon Dioxide: From a Pollutant to an Asset,” Yale Environment 360, February 23, 2012.

  51. Marc Gunther, “Nations Stalled on Climate Action Could ‘Suck It Up,’ ” Bloomberg, June 18, 2012; Marc Gunther, “The Business of Cooling the Planet,” Fortune, October 7, 2011.

  52. Penty, “Calgary Firm a Finalist in Virgin’s $25M Green Technology Challenge”
; Robert M. Dilmore, “An Assessment of Gate-to-Gate Environmental Life Cycle Performance of Water-Alternating-Gas CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery in the Permian Basin,” Executive Summary, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, DOE/NETL-2010/1433, September 30, 2010, p. 1; Paulina Jaramillo, W. Michael Griffin, and Sean T. McCoy, “Life Cycle Inventory of CO2 in an Enhanced Oil Recovery System,” Environmental Science & Technology 43 (2009): 8027–8032.

  53. Marc Gunther, “Direct Air Carbon Capture: Oil’s Answer to Fracking?” GreenBiz.com, March 12, 2012.

  54. “NRDC Calls on Major Airlines to Steer Clear of Highly Polluting New Fuel Types,” Natural Resources Defense Council, press release, January 10, 2008; Liz Barratt-Brown, “NRDC Asks Airlines to Oppose Dirty Fuels and Cut Global Warming Pollution,” Natural Resources Defense Council, January 10, 2008; Letter from Peter Lehner, Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, to Gerard J. Arpey, Chief Executive Officer of American Airlines, January 9, 2008, http://docs.nrdc.org.

  55. Alan Knight, “Alberta Oil Sands Producers ‘Distracted from Ambition and Creativity,’ ” Financial Post, November 1, 2011; FOOTNOTE: Brendan May, “Shell Refuses to Save the Arctic, but Its Customers Still Could,” Business Green, July 24, 2013.

  56. Julie Doyle, “Climate Action and Environmental Activism: The Role of Environmental NGOs and Grassroots Movements in the Global Politics of Climate Change,” in Tammy Boyce and Justin Lewis, eds., Climate Change and the Media, (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), 103–116; Mark Engler, “The Climate Justice Movement Breaks Through,” Yes!, December 1, 2009; “Heathrow North-west Third Runway Option Short-Listed by Airports Commission,” Heathrow Airport, press release, December 17, 2013.

  57. James Sturcke, “Climate Change Bill to Balance Environmental and Energy Concerns, Guardian, November 15, 2006. George Monbiot, “Preparing for Take-off,” Guardian, December 19, 2006; Dan Milmo, “Brown Hikes Air Passenger Duty,” Guardian, December 6, 2006; “Euro MPs Push for Air Fuel Taxes,” BBC News, July 4, 2006.

  58. Jean Chemnick, “Climate: Branson Calls Carbon Tax ‘Completely Fair’ but Dodges Question on E.U. Airline Levy,” E&E News, April 26, 2012; Gwyn Topham, “Virgin Atlantic Planning Heathrow to Moscow Flights,” Guardian, July 2012; Richard Branson, “Don’t Run Heathrow into the Ground,” Times (London), June 30, 2008; FOOTNOTE: Roland Gribben, “Sir Richard Branson’s 5bn Heathrow Offer Rejected,” Telegraph, March 12, 2012.

  59. “Branson Criticises Carbon Tax, Backs Biofuels,” PM, ABC (Australia), July 6, 2011; Rowena Mason, “Sir Richard Branson Warns Green Taxes Threaten to Kill Aviation,” Telegraph, December 16, 2009; FOOTNOTE: “Behind Branson,” The Economist, February 19, 1998; Juliette Garside, “Richard Branson Denies Being a Tax Exile,” Guardian, October 13, 2013; Branson, Screw It, Let’s Do It, 113-116.

  60. Matthew Lynn, “Branson’s Gesture May Not Save Aviation Industry,” Bloomberg, September 26, 2006.

  61. “Virgin America Selling Carbon Offsets to Passengers,” Environmental Leader, December 5, 2008; John Arlidge, “I’m in a Dirty Old Business but I Try,” Sunday Times (London), August 9, 2009.

  62. Knight, “Alberta Oil Sands Producers ‘Distracted from Ambition and Creativity.’ ”

  63. Karl West, “Virgin Gravy Trains Rolls On,” Sunday Times (London), January 16, 2011; Phillip Inman, “Privatised Rail Will Remain Gravy Train,” Guardian, July 4, 2011; Richard Branson, “It’s Nonsense to Suggest Virgin’s Success Has Depended on State Help,” Guardian, November 23, 2011.

  64. Gwyn Topham, “Privatised Rail Has Meant ‘Higher Fares, Older Trains and Bigger Taxpayers’ Bill,’ ” Guardian, June 6, 2013; Adam Whitnall, “Virgin Trains Set for £3.5m Refurbishment—to Remove Smell from Corridors,” Independent (London), October 6, 2013; Will Dahlgreen, “Nationalise Energy and Rail Companies, Say Public,” YouGov, November 4, 2013.

  65. Penty, “Calgary Firm a Finalist in Virgin’s $25M Green Technology Challenge”; Gunther, “The Business of Cooling the Planet.”

  CHAPTER 8: DIMMING THE SUN

  1. Newt Gingrich, “Stop the Green Pig: Defeat the Boxer-Warner-Lieberman Green Pork Bill Capping American Jobs and Trading America’s Future,” Human Events, June 3, 2008.

  2. William James, The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (New York: Longmans Green, 1907), 54.

  3. “Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance and Uncertainty,” Royal Society, September 2009, p. 62; “Solar Radiation Management: the Governance of Research,” Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, convened by the Environmental Defense Fund, the Royal Society, and TWAS, 2011, p. 11.

  4. Environmental Defense Fund, “Geoengineering: A ‘Cure’ Worse Than the Disease?” Solutions 41 (Spring 2010): 10–11.

  5. EXPERIMENTS: Patrick Martin et al., “Iron Fertilization Enhanced Net Community Production but not Downward Particle Flux During the Southern Ocean Iron Fertilization Experiment LOHAFEX,” Global Biogeochemical Cycles (2013): 871–881; “The Haida Salmon Restoration Project: The Story So Far,” Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, September 2012; PEER-REVIEWED PAPERS: GeoLibrary, Oxford Geoengineering Programme, http://www.geoengineer ing.ox.ac.uk; SHIPS AND PLANES: John Latham et al., “Marine Cloud Brightening,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 370 (2012): 4247–4255; HOSES: David Rotman, “A Cheap and Easy Plan to Stop Global Warming,” MIT Technology Review, February 8, 2013; Daniel Cressey, “Cancelled Project Spurs Debate over Geoengineering Patents,” Nature 485 (2012): 429.

  6. P. J. Crutzen, “Albedo Enhancement by Stratospheric Sulfur Injections: A Contribution to Resolve a Policy Dilemma?” Climatic Change 77 (2006): 212; Oliver Morton, “Is This What It Takes to Save the World?” Nature 447 (2007): 132.

  7. Ben Kravitz, Douglas G. MacMartin, and Ken Caldeira, “Geoengineering: Whiter Skies?” Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): 1, 3–5; “Geoengineering: A Whiter Sky,” Carnegie Institution for Science, press release, May 30, 2012.

  8. “Solar Radiation Management,” p. 16.

  9. Roger Revelle et al., “Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide,” in Restoring the Quality of Our Environment, Report of the Environmental Pollution Panel, President’s Science Advisory Committee, The White House, November 1965, Appendix Y4, p. 127.

  10. James Rodger Fleming, Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 165–188.

  11. Crutzen, “Albedo Enhancement by Stratospheric Sulfur Injections,” 216.

  12. “When Patents Attack!” Planet Money, NPR, July 22, 2011.

  13. “The Stratospheric Shield,” Intellectual Ventures, 2009, pp. 3, 15–16; “Solving Global Warming with Nathan Myhrvold” (transcript), Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN, December 20, 2009.

  14. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, SuperFreakonomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 194.

  15. “A Future Tense Event: Geoengineering,” New America Foundation, http://www.newamerica.net.

  16. Eli Kintisch, Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope—or Worst Nightmare—for Averting Climate Catastrophe (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), 8; personal interview with James Fleming, November 5, 2010.

  17. “Inventors,” Intellectual Ventures, http://www.intellectualventures.com.

  18. GATES AND FUND: “Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research,” Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford University, http://dge.stanford.edu; GATES AND CARBON ENGINEERING: “About CE,” Carbon Engineering, http://carbonengineering.com; GATES AND INTELLECTUAL VENTURES: Jason Pontin, “Q&A: Bill Gates,” MIT Technology Review, September/October 2010; PATENTS: U.S. Patent 8,702,982, “Water Alteration Structure and System,” filed January 3, 2008; U.S. Patent 8,685,254, “Water Alteration Structure Applications and Methods,” filed January 3, 2008; U.S. Patent 8,679,331, “Water Alteration Structure Movement Method and System,” filed January 3, 2008; U.S. Patent 8,348,550, “Water Alteration Structure and System Having Heat Transfer Conduit,” filed May 29, 2009
; TERRAPOWER: “Nathan Myhrvold, Ph.D.,” TerraPower, http://terrapower.com; BRANSON: “Stakeholder Partners,” Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, http://www.srmgi.org.

  19. Jon Taylor, “Geo-engineering—Useful Tool for Tackling Climate Change, or Dangerous Distraction?” WWF-UK, September 6, 2012, http://blogs.wwf.org.uk.

  20. Alan Robock, “20 Reasons Why Geoengineering May Be a Bad Idea,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 64 (2008): 14–18; Clive Hamilton, “The Ethical Foundations of Climate Engineering,” in Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives, Legal Issues, and Governance Frameworks, ed. Wil C. G. Burns and Andrew L. Strauss (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 48.

  21. Francis Bacon, Bacon’s New Atlantis, ed. A. T. Flux (London: Macmillan, 1911); John Gascoigne, Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 175.

  22. Personal email communication with Sallie Chisholm, October 28, 2012.

  23. “PRINTING PRESS AND FIRE”: Matthew Herper, “With Vaccines, Bill Gates Changes the World Again,” Forbes, November 2, 2011; RUSS GEORGE: “Background to the Haida Salmon Restoration Project,” Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation, October 19, 2012, p. 2; ONE HUNDRED TONS: “Haida Gwaii Geo-engineering, Pt 2,” As It Happens with Carol Off & Jeff Douglas, CBC Radio, October 16, 2012; “THE CHAMPION”: Mark Hume and Ian Bailey, “Businessman Russ George Defends Experiment Seeding Pacific with Iron Sulphate,” Globe and Mail, October 19, 2012; “PANDORA’S BOX”: Jonathan Gatehouse, “Plan B for Global Warming,” Maclean’s, April 22, 2009; “IRRIGATION”: personal interview with David Keith, October 19, 2010.