Famed British billionaire, Richard Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic Airlines recently started to operate out of Jamaica, has announced that he will earmark an estimated US$3 billion over the next 10 years towards fighting global warming.
At a press conference held yesterday for the Bill Clinton Global Initiative Meeting, in New York, Branson said the Virgin Group's train and airline businesses would be geared at tackling the problem.
"We must not be the generation remembered for irreversibly damaging the environment," Branson said. "We must hand it over to our children in as near pristine condition as we were lent it from our parents," he said.
Global Warming, which is an increase in atmospheric temperature near the earth's surface, has been blamed for an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the environment.
Branson said his Virgin Group, which generated an estimated US$8 billion in sales in 2004, was planning to also invest US$1 billion in alternative fuels over the next four years.
