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# Richard and George
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/19043/
- Published: 2006-09-27T12:09:00.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:16.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**By Josh Gregory** 

Last week, the British entrepreneur [Richard Branson](http://business.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,20589,00.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) pledged a predicted [$3bn](http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1878492,00.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) towards investment in new environmentally-friendly biofuel businesses. However, as I predicted, George Monbiot, the popular [Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/columnists?ref=opendemocracy.net) columnist, has refused to take Mr Branson off his '[greenwash](http://www.turnuptheheat.org/?page%5Fid=4&ref=opendemocracy.net)' list. In fact, he has launched a fresh offensive, quite rightly pointing out that in order to create the money for investment, Mr Branson have to use profits arising from expansion of his air and rail interests. He will ‘[destroy the planet in order to save it](http://www.turnuptheheat.org/?page%5Fid=15&ref=opendemocracy.net)’. But what else could we expect? Mr Monbiot is a committed environmentalist, and I suspect that he belongs to that part of the political spectrum which assumes that all actions arising from the desire to make money must necessarily be tainted with evil. Today, however, Mr Branson has made [fresh proposals](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5383908.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net) to tackle airline pollution, which arguably go some way towards answering Mr Monbiot’s objections. It will be interesting to see whether Mr Monbiot tones down his rhetoric.