Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Back in April this year, WUWT reported on an unusual green attack on blatant celebrity eco-hypocrisy. Now this new green terror has gone mainstream, with rising groundswell of criticism, of celebrities whose vocal support for green causes is contradicted by their openly high carbon lifestyles.
According to the Daily Mail;
Green campaigner Madonna uses her private jet for 120 mile journey from Birmingham to London
Driving would have taken almost three hours but a private jet took just over one.
So it was a no-brainer for Madonna, who chartered her own airline for a trip home from a Birmingham concert to London last Wednesday, according to new reports in The Sun newspaper.
The decision enraged environmental activists, as well as her loyal followers who accused the 57-year-old Unapologetic singer of being a ‘hypocrite’ for increasing her carbon footprint when she herself campaigns to help the climate crisis.
The jet seats just 12 people and would have reportedly contributed 2.907tons of carbon emissions compared to 0.081 for a road vehicle at a cost of £20 petrol.
‘On her way to a global warming summit was she?‘ Asked on MailOnline commenter. ‘Like the rest of these celebs preaching hipocracy (sic).’
‘Like the obnoxious hypocrite, Bono, “do as I say not as I do”,’ another said, while one former fan added: ‘She has never given her own hypocrisy a thought….Mad-donna….’
…
In a bid to get influential stars to practise what they preach, climate change activists are trying to show that there are always alternatives to private jet travel.
Friends Of The Earth’s David Powell told The Sun newspaper: ‘We want celebrities to turn their back on private planes and choose more sustainable forms of travel.‘
What is the solution to this dilemma? It is difficult to imagine superstars like Madonna, Bono and jet setting UN climate envoy Leonardo DiCaprio giving up the perks of their celebrity. Yet at the same time, how much CO2 do individuals, however profligate, actually release into the environment? And to be fair, the carbon footprints of even the most famous private individuals are dwarfed by the likes of President Obama, when he flies Air Force One to deliver climate speeches.
The solution might be more effort to appease outraged green sensibilities. Celebrities could surely mitigate any harm their individual lifestyle is causing, by donating more of their wealth to green causes, and by giving more of their time to raising the profile of green campaigns.
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Well Green’s Fundamentalists never listened and learnt when their teachers taught them of Photosyntesis, Archimedes priciple so it’s understandable that CO2 believers forgot to check volcano activity
Some flying quotes …
June 24, 1986, NYT:
✈ EARTH’S CLIMATIC CRISIS EXAMINED BY ‘NOVA’
“In an interesting analogy, we learn from the writer-producer Richard Broad, of Boston’s public-television station WGBH, that a single trans-Atlantic flight consumes all the energy that an acre of forest produces in 100 years.”
https://climatefraudsters.wordpress.com/2015/12/24/✈-flying-climate-fraud-quotes-✈/
Thanks for that link; welcome to the wacky world of carbon accounting:
What percentage of the world’s population has ever set foot in a bathroom with flush toilets?
By the accounting above, if we assume that 75% the 40,000 attendees made trans-atlantic flights or equivalent, the COP21 conference consumed all the energy that 150-170 acres of forest produce in 100 years. But since they hold these things every year, it is more accurate to say each conference consumes up 15,000 – 17,000 acres of annual forest energy. Surely that’s a trifle expensive for a 34-page agreement?
I really think that 5 percent figure bullshit. There are 3 billion flights a year. Sure most are repeat passengers, but all the same it doesn’t feel right.
Fascinating. Now I wonder how many acre-yearss of forest energy are required for a single episode of one of Mr. Broad’s productions for WGBH?
They have calculated that Madonna’s car trip would have used 32 litres of gasoline, round trip. Is that possible for an entourage of press rep, secretary, publicist, security team and hangers-on? Surely they would have taken two or three vehicles. Is that still excessive? Are the people we make famous and pester allowed to evade us?
It is interesting that the radical green calls for shaming the stars are made through media and internet that is powered by fossil fuels. If everyone was listening to them and following their message, the attacks would have never made it out of Britain save by canoe and Town Crier.
Are the people we make famous and pester allowed to evade us?
There’s the thing. Not only are they allowed to, they must. The crowds they draw would make life untenable not only for themselves, but for anyone around them were they to live a “normal” lifestyle.
Celebrities hypocritically supporting CAGW theory richly deserve attacks by anyone, not because their actions will make the Climate deteriorate, but because they are ignorant hypocrites. The more the Celebrities get away with their hypocrisy the bolder and more ambitious they become in their support for the Great Folly. A few bad reviews in the Press and Media and they might pull their horns in.
All the “greenies” including Al Gore, POTUS, John Kerry, etc. should be made to ride bicycles…
(The list is just too long).
… and some guy in a plane called “Air Force One”
Every “Air Force One” flight uses a C-141 advance flight to ferry the President’s limousine and uses the “Marine Corps One” helicopter to get the President from the White House to the air base where the plane is waiting. I think there is also a duplicate of Air Force One that goes along just in case there’s a problem with the main plane. It takes three airplanes and a helicopter to get Obama to his next speech/photo-op/golf course.
tadchem,
And that’s just for one trip:
http://americandigest.org/sidelines/CWm4HjuXAAA6OGI.jpg
In the stockmarket, it is time to sell when the busboys start giving tips to buy. Similarly , in the warming cult, when the eco-crit celebrity start to give out orders, it is time to quit the cult.
Jack
Bubbles ? What’s your opinion on the current alternative energy market ?
Eating their own. Radicals have a habit of doing that. Fun to watch.
All humans are prone to scapegoating.
Some more than others.
knutesea,
Logic dictates that I ask you, because of your claim that everyone does scapegoating, to please tell us some of your targets of your scapegoating?
John
**The solution might be more effort to appease outraged green sensibilities. Celebrities could surely mitigate any harm their individual lifestyle is causing, by donating more of their wealth to green causes, and by giving more of their time to raising the profile of green campaigns.**
That’s what they have been doing.
But it’s becoming old news and seems such a plan is profitable to celebrities who customers are young and are dumb.
With the older demographic or people who are largely adults, the green ideology is not practical or popular. So things like children heath issues or people in poorer countries are issues which resonance more with their public.
+1
Well put. I’m making the rounds in visiting mode and see the same as you describe.
“What is the solution to this dilemma?”
Politely advising guilt-trip entrepreneurs like David Powell to foxtrot oscar would be a start.
Nope Dave. Your job is to push irrational insecurities around for personal gain. You’re a shabby little grifter trading in other people’s guilt. How much does that so-called registered charity pay you to do the “neg-a-iv” window dressing again?
The huckster has limitless possibilities in affluent societies that primarily produce income via financial shenanigans.
It’s been 26 years since the James Hansen speech warning of dire consequences if we continue to use fossil fuels. The predictions have failed miserably. The apocalyptic “tipping points” have come and gone. The general public ranks climate change as their lowest concern despite the unrelenting mantra of doom coming from the alarmists. At this point you have to wonder if the current bleating of the alarmists together with the fact that they appear to have begun to eat each other, aren’t finally signaling an end to it all. We can only hope.
The other elephant in the room that the Greens will never mention is population. It used to take two hours to get to London from Birmingham and now it takes three. Why? Because of the UKs ever-increasing population, mainly due immigration.
The Greens seem to forget that the biggest threat the the environment is not CO2, but population levels. Do they think that immigrants do not need houses, cars, trains, food, water, and waste disposal? Then they throw up their arms in horror and ask why are there more floods, droughts, food shortages, despoiling of open spaces and disease? “It must be CO2, they cry….”.
The irony of being ‘rich & famous’ and unable to flaunt it.
What we need are more celebrities to realise that the Green’s campaign is both stupid and pointless. and hugely damaging to the safe and progressive society in which we live. If the Greeny Cult think that a private jet from Birmingham to London will make the slightest impression on the many billions of tonnes of carbon emitted into the atmosphere from the earths daily output then they are living in cloud cuckoo land. Celebs should do their job the way that they wish to do it, and the way the Greenies and everyone else do their jobs, and not listen to these idiots who have already done so much damage to world economies, harming the worlds poor and likely to be the cause, in Britain at least, of major power cuts the moment we have a long spell of cold weather. Greens are a curse on society, and the twisted way in which they see the world should not be listened to by governments, let alone celebrities, who, like all of us are going about their work in the best way for them, all contributing to a better life in the future for all of us. What we now need, are celebrities to have the courage to join the sceptic cause, and help see the Green Cult crushed forever, as it is surely happening at the present time. If they falsely believe that air travel is contributing to a world of gloom and doom, then they should have asked themselves whether it was really helping the worlds output of carbon for 40,000 delegates to fly into Paris recently for such a shambolic conference from which precisely nothing was achieved.
+10
Thank you George Lawson.
What you are saying in effect is we need celebrities with intelligence, humility and courage.
Sadly, what we get are the Kardashians.
Unfortunately, when you have a celebrity with intelligence and humility, they generally do the smart thing and keep their mouths shut so as not to destroy their careers. Courage is a luxury they can’t afford.
Well, when we only contribute a miniscule portion to the total volume of CO2, it’s a little difficult to make much of an impact. But huge emitters are still the only ones that can really cut back. What on earth is the average Joe/Josie supposed to do? Skyrocketing electric prices can have little effect on people who already cut back because of cost – and celebrities don’t care about cost. (This is all rhetorical of course. Even if we were able to reduce CO2 emissions, it won’t make any difference in temps – and the extra CO2 is beneficial. They can’t quantify benefits of cutting emissions, nor damage that would happen if we don’t)
But huge emitters are still the only ones that can really cut back.
=======================================
it costs money to produce CO2 from fossil fuels. Lots of money. Lots and lots of money. In fact, the amount of money involved it staggering.
So, given the amount of money required to generate CO2, those huge emitters already have a HUGE incentive to cut back. So why haven’t they already cut back?
Why does their competition not simply cut back on expensive CO2, thereby cut costs, and under-bid the huge emitters, driving them out of business and solving the CO2 problem?
Well, I was referring more to the celebrities who spew it at thousands of times higher levels than the rest of us (we common folks are the ones that coal burning companies burn coal for, for the most part), but I agree – the green competition should be able to show that they can reduce CO2 by producing energy cheaper. It just doesn’t seem to work that way, though 🙂
What CO2 problem?
Iron rule of life: if someone doesn’t practice what they preach, they are evil.
History if full of people who love to preach and then do the things they say are evil and it is human nature to do this. And it is horrible, of course. Doesn’t stop them from preening themselves for their virtues of preaching and not practicing.
None of this crop of liars think they are harming the planet when they have gigantic carbon footprints. Not one of them.
If these enviroloons and Madonna-ites are so “enraged” why don’t they organize a boycott? In fact, this could start a movement against all greenie-preaching hypocritical celebrities. Hit them where it hurts. But that would be just the beginning, since the entire anti-carbon “save the-planet” greenie campaign is rife with hypocrisy. It is all based entirely on lies, corruption, and hypocrisy.
Simple. Calculate and publicize the ‘carbon footprints’ of media-driven events such as international conferences and concerts. Tell everybody you can think of. When it becomes widely known that ‘green’ leaders will burn nearly 3 tons of CO2 just to shave a couple hours off a trip, their ‘concern’ for the environment loses all credibility.
The recently released movie ‘Star Wars- The Force Awakens’ is an all-time box office record and has no AGW or Greenie messaging. Wow. Disney . . . fist bump and high five.
Even though it lead actor Harrison Ford is involved in AGW and green organizations.
John
Aldous Snow, Infant Sorrow: Environmental Anthem: ‘We Gotta DO Something’
https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0SO8xc8G3xWBEEACRFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2ZG82ZzUwBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVUlDMl8xBHNlYwNxc3MtcXJ3?fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1&ei=UTF-8&p=aldous+snow+we+gotta+do+something&fr2=12642
So, avoiding a 3 hour drive puts her convenience ahead of the planet and yet she likely says that she is trying to save the planet? More do as I say not as I do hypocrisy?
I couldn’t care less if Madonna wants to fly. It’s her money, her time, her consideration. It doesn’t matter how much ‘carbon’ is in her footprint, it’s not relevant. ‘Carbon’ is not a temperature control knob. Which is more than can be said about the knobs who mount high horses – and raise my temper(ature) with their stupidity.
No one cares about that; the issue is the weapons-grade hypocrisy, plus the fact that they use their celebrity status to help amplify their CAGW ideology.
The last verses of my Algorhyme apply equally to either gender and besides that, to her.
Yet, while (s)he’s pleading that all should be heeding
H(er) carbon reduction ambitions,
(S)He hopes you’re not seeing h(er) own footprint being
Hundreds of poor folks’ emissions.
Let’s hope (s)he’s thought out, while jetting about,
The messages of h(er) actions.
By far they outweigh any words he might say,
In the minds of the wiser factions.
I feel very Christmasey today so, borrowing from ‘Away in the Manger’ I’ve written an ode (or, odious, depending on one’s aesthetic tastes) to Madonna; one of our legions of elite Greens.
Away in a private jet,
It’s one helluva fast sled
Our lady Madonna
Laid back her swelled head
The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where she fly
Our lady Madonna
If she hadda’ drive she would die
The cattle are lowing
The rich lady wakes
Our lady Madonna
More money she makes
I love Thee, Madonna
Look down from the sky
While I’m driving my beater,
You’ll zip right on by.
Be near me my lady,
But far away you’ll stay
Taking transport with the hoi polloi
Is definitely not your way
Bless all the dear fan clubs
In Thy tender care
Remember, they have to drive
But you can soar through the air
Tom Judd on December 24, 2015 at 10:25 am
– – – – – – – –
Tom Judd,
That’s not bad, not bad at all. : )
John
Don’t forget Emperor Bon Ki Moon an his 10,000s of immune diplomats and staff in Manhattan, NY.
Ever see Mr. Moon ride a bicycle to work?
Ha ha