The activities of Richard Branson, Al Gore and Bono and other rich people probably contribute 100x more to global warming than the average world citizen.

Branson runs an airline, for chrissake!   And Al Gore has a 3 houses, one with 8 bathrooms.

And U-2?  They're a rock group!   If you took all the energy that U-2 has used in it's life time -- electricity for concerts, broadcasting, clothing, hair gel, etc, etc, it would probably equal the yearly energy bill for my whole home town of Kent, WA.

I am a Canadian Aircraft Maintenance Engineer
M1 M2 with Boeing 727 & 757 endosements.

Perhaps you might like to have a serious discussion regarding my proposed solution!

Human Excrement + Nuclear Waste = Hydrogen

Yours Sincerely

Dennis Baker

"I pray that fuel prices stay high. For an airline owner, it's a disastrous statement to make, of course -- high fuel prices have cost the Virgin Group about a billion dollars a year in increased costs."

I would think that such a statement would go a long way towards garnering a positive public image. Note that he said costs, not profits. Whenever possible, costs are passed along to the consumer. High fuel prices are a level playing field. His competitors also pay the same high prices. So, as long as consumers are willing to accept the higher costs of travel, higher fuel prices don't really hurt his business. Pretty savvy thing to say, really.

"It's brilliant for farmers."

True that. To date, farmers are the biggest welfare group in America. I can think of better places for my government to spend my tax dollars. For example, there are tens of millions of people in this country without health insurance.

"...it means the governments don't have to subsidize agriculture anymore."

Not only has our government heavily subsidized agriculture for the last quarter century, but it continues to do so by introducing more subsidies almost annually, most recently, a dollar a gallon for biodiesel (including mandatory usage quotas). Profitability is practically guaranteed by those tax dollars, which is the game plan used by the major food processors, ADM etc.

"... can become self-sufficient in fuel."

Nobody, with the above exception, claims we can get anywhere near self-sufficient using ethanol regardless of how it is made.

"...won't have billions and billions of dollars going outside the economy."

I have to wonder how the investors in Virgin Atlantic would like it if we decided they couldn't take any of our money outside of our economy?

"And it saves the world from almost certain environmental destruction."

That is a bit of a stretch... reminds me of the ads that touted the power of cheese. 70% of our CO2 comes from power plants. Replacing a small percentage of our gasoline supply with ethanol isn't going to save this world.

"I believe by the time it gets to 10 percent [a hypothetical point where corn ethanol will seriously impact food] we will have developed a way of making cellulosic possible"

You might want to put together some kind of game plan should cellulosic still not be economically viable by time corn ethanol starts to seriously affect food supplies. Maybe it will read something like "sell stock."

Calculation method to obtain the water
consumption in forestal species.

Prieto's equation for the real
evapotranspiration.

Antonio Manuel Estévez Prieto
January 26, 2007

Introduction

I've developed a calculation method to obtain, with precision, the water consumption of any forestal species, and with it elaborate a simple mathematical formula, valid to anyone of the aforementioned species.

Comparing the numerical constant obtained from applying the formula to a given species of tree, measured in liters of water per day of consumption,with pluviometric data measured in the nearest meteorological station one can determine the compatibility of a certain species with the geographical niche in which it is planned to be implanted. This measurement is independent of possible local humidity sources or of what is called horizontal rain.

The knowledge of the supportability threshold, in terms of a hydric deficit,is a growing urgency in the present time. Such a knowledge would allow an optimal selection of species to replant a certain area, and would help avoiding mistakes applying the main technique we have to stop the climatic change, the desertification and desertization: forestal repopulation, which also conveys sole fixation by means of the rooting of the radicular system.

Aim

Disentangling wasteful plants from others that can manage water consumption in a more efficient way in order to apply to repopulation, forraging, gardening or research always the most convenient species, so to cope with the growing scarceness of water resources, be it for antropogenic or natural causes.

With a simple mathematical formula and the ratio that from it results,along with the maintenance of isolated species, it is possible to assign a specific category to each plant, to denote the economy in the consumption of resources that the species can develop, with optimal results on growing quality and fructification.

Prieto's equation:

E =A/M/P·3.5t·1/H·(V + 1)·S

Where:

E represents the evapotranspiration.
A measures the water supply.
M is the foliar surface.
P symbolizes time.
T stands for temperature.
H is the relative humidity.
V accounts for the wind speed.
S denotes the tipe of soil.

Epilogue

Thanks Mr. Branson, thanks for you good feelings.

I,m not intresting in the money, only in the earth and the nature conservation, but thank you very much Sir.

And remember: Only the forestry repoblation can stop at CO2 and climatic change.

Antonio Manuel Estévez Prieto
Energy, Conservation Nature and Envyroment Technic of Ourense (Galicia - Spain) Provintial Diputation