Sir Richard Branson: Dumber than Al Gore? - Armchair General and HistoryNet >> The Best Forums in History

The Doctor · #1 01 Feb 12, 14:17

Sir Richard Branson is currently on a cruise to Antarctica with Al Gore, NASA's chief junk scientist James Hansen and a host of other world-renowned bureaucrats and celebrities. Their mission is to "to see firsthand how the climate crisis is unfolding." Thus far, their main accomplishment has been to demonstrate that Al Gore is not the dumbest human being on Earth.

This is from Sir Richard's blog...

Quote:

Antarctica log 3 - the world will never have another ice age

If you look at the history of the world we are normally in an ice age. Only 10,000 years ago you could walk from Scotland to North Africa on hundreds of feet of ice. When it melted sea levels rose by hundreds of feet.

The good news is we now know how to heat up the world. We just release an excess of carbon into it. So any time we're heading to an ice age again that is what we can do to stop it.

The bad news is that we're are in danger of releasing so much carbon that we could fry our beautiful earth and our great-grandchildren too.

If we move quickly and get on top of this issue we could regulate the earth's temperature so that we need never go back into another ice age. And have the best of all worlds.

Work to do!

LINK

"Work to do!" is the only sentence that is not factually wrong... And it's not a sentence...

Selous · #2 01 Feb 12, 18:16

Whatever his views on global warming, I like Sir Richard; he flies air balloons and builds planes to go into space. Mankind needs more people to work on hilarious projects such as those. If I were a millionaire, I'd build a solid gold pyramid over Milton Keynes

Jonathanrex1 · #3 01 Feb 12, 18:29

I could never get as angry/flabbergasted at environmentalists as Doc does, but this is just so wrong.

Quote:

Scotland to North Africa on hundreds of feet of ice.

How could anyone think that the ice sheet reached North Africa? That would mean the entirety of Europe would have been covered by ice; which of course brings up the question of how the Neanderthals, let alone any animal, could have lived on such a glacier.

Cult Icon · #4 01 Feb 12, 18:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Selous

Whatever his views on global warming, I like Sir Richard; he flies air balloons and builds planes to go into space. Mankind needs more people to work on hilarious projects such as those. If I were a millionaire, I'd build a solid gold pyramid over Milton Keynes

I've always found his 'adventure capitalist' promotional image to be pretty phony and self-serving.

Mountain Man · #5 01 Feb 12, 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathanrex1

I could never get as angry/flabbergasted at environmentalists as Doc does, but this is just so wrong.

How could anyone think that the ice sheet reached North Africa? That would mean the entirety of Europe would have been covered by ice; which of course brings up the question of how the Neanderthals, let alone any animal, could have lived on such a glacier.

They didn't - they lived on the ice-free land in front of the glaciers.

Mountain Man · #6 01 Feb 12, 18:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Selous

Whatever his views on global warming, I like Sir Richard; he flies air balloons and builds planes to go into space. Mankind needs more people to work on hilarious projects such as those. If I were a millionaire, I'd build a solid gold pyramid over Milton Keynes

Sir Richard is an excellent example of the Golden Rule: he has the gold, so he gets to make the rules.

Jonathanrex1 · #7 01 Feb 12, 18:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mountain Man

They didn't - they lived on the ice-free land in front of the glaciers.

I know, but as Doc's quote shows, many people seem to think that Prehistoric peoples and other animals actually lived on the ice sheets. Ice sheets that apparently covered everything. It just blows my mind.

Selous · #8 01 Feb 12, 18:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cult Icon

I've always found his 'adventure capitalist' promotional image to be pretty phony and self-serving.

It probably is, but I don't have millions to my name, a private island and a fleet of ****ing aircraft so as far as I'm concerned, he's ahead. I think he could build more golden pyramids though, and maybe a steam catapult to fire things into space. \M/

If I had his money and resources, I'd be a James Bond villain.

trebuchet · #9 01 Feb 12, 18:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathanrex1

How could anyone think that the ice sheet reached North Africa? That would mean the entirety of Europe would have been covered by ice; which of course brings up the question of how the Neanderthals, let alone any animal, could have lived on such a glacier.

Yeah, that's a bit of hyperbole from Doc. There was no one ice sheet, but glaciers covered most of Europe down to Spain including all of Switzerland. Glaciers reached all the way down to the Alps and Jura Mountains. Were there glaciers in North Africa too? Probably; northern Africa does have a number mountain ranges such as the Atlas. If Kilimanjaro can have glaciers in modern times certainly there would have been glaciers in North Africa during one or more of the Ice Ages.

Nick the Noodle · #10 01 Feb 12, 18:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Doctor

Sir Richard Branson is currently on a cruise to Antarctica with Al Gore, NASA's chief junk scientist James Hansen and a host of other world-renowned bureaucrats and celebrities. Their mission is to "to see firsthand how the climate crisis is unfolding." Thus far, their main accomplishment has been to demonstrate that Al Gore is not the dumbest human being on Earth.

This is from Sir Richard's blog...

"Work to do!" is the only sentence that is not factually wrong... And it's not a sentence...

They can't be that thick me thinks. Their wallets tell me they must be smart in some areas

.

The Doctor · #11 01 Feb 12, 20:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Selous

Whatever his views on global warming, I like Sir Richard; he flies air balloons and builds planes to go into space. Mankind needs more people to work on hilarious projects such as those. If I were a millionaire, I'd build a solid gold pyramid over Milton Keynes

Sir Richard's views on global warming are irrelevant to his total igmorance of the science.

The Doctor · #12 01 Feb 12, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by trebuchet

Yeah, that's a bit of hyperbole from Doc. There was no one ice sheet, but glaciers covered most of Europe down to Spain including all of Switzerland. Glaciers reached all the way down to the Alps and Jura Mountains. Were there glaciers in North Africa too? Probably; northern Africa does have a number mountain ranges such as the Atlas. If Kilimanjaro can have glaciers in modern times certainly there would have been glaciers in North Africa during one or more of the Ice Ages.

No hyperbole for a change... Branson was 100% wrong about everything he posted. His wrongness was Supergorian.

The Doctor · #13 01 Feb 12, 20:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick the Noodle

They can't be that thick me thinks. Their wallets tell me they must be smart in some areas

.

Sir Richard is brilliant in that area...

Ogukuo72 · #14 01 Feb 12, 20:33

Not stupid. Just got conned into all that GW BS.

And how's a guy who's made tonnes of money going to contribute to humanity (not just society, mind) like a Martin Luther King or Gandhi? He can't! But he can try his best by signing up to 'causes' like these.

It's like Bono and Africa (never mind the Africans don't like him), or Sean Penn and socialism.

The Doctor · #15 01 Feb 12, 20:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathanrex1

I know, but as Doc's quote shows, many people seem to think that Prehistoric peoples and other animals actually lived on the ice sheets. Ice sheets that apparently covered everything. It just blows my mind.

It's at least a 17-hand face palm...