The other evening, Newsnight had a story about the future of space exploration which included an interview with Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man on the moon and by all accounts is a climate change sceptic, although he certainly wasn’t asked about this.
Earlier in the programme, the focused had been on suggestions that instead of leaving everything to NASA, the private sector should play a bigger role. The idea is that technology being developed for space tourism could also be used for other purposes.
There was an interview with a man called Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic who plan to operate the first scheduled passenger trips into space. They have recently signed a contract with NASA to put a climate research satellite into orbit and are also considering the possibility of feeding back solar power from space and developing server farms in an environment were air conditioning would definitely not be needed. Having established that Virgin intend to diversifying out of passenger transport, which they obviously understand, into the realms of fantasy technology, he then said this:
What people must realise is that space is crucial to the survival of mankind on the planet. Without being in space we wouldn’t even know, to any extent, about the climate change issue.
Mr Whitehorn is clearly not a fool, and he is obviously aware that concern about climate change can open up opportunities for Virgin. What is more puzzling is that he is evidently also aware that the much hyped ‘evidence’ of potentially catastrophic climate change over the last century has actually been so inconspicuous that, if it were not for the space programme, we probably wouldn’t even have noticed.
I’m sure we all wish Virgin Glactica every success, whatever planet they live on.
The expression ‘Space Cadet’ springs to mind.
Virgin Galactic is a tremendously expensive and polluting atmospheric rollercoaster ride. It will last just as long as the first accident, after which it will be uninsurable.
I wrote about Branson’s rollercoaster on my blog where I was astonished to find that Branson had been wily enough to allow NASA to take upper atmosphere measurements in order to measure climate change, in return of course, that NASA endorses VG as helpful to the environment.
I am unfortunate enough to have had dealings in the past with Will Whitehorn. He’s part of the Branson spin machine – anywhere there’s the possibility of grant money, he’s in there like a ferret up a drainpipe. He would argue black was white if Richard asked him to.
Robin Horbury
People like Will Whitehorn seem to be getting over confident to the extent that they no longer really think about what they are saying about climat echange. This is likely to be increasingly dangerous as the public feel the bite of measures intended to reduce Co2 and become more critical of what they are told.