Guest essay by Eric Worrall
USA Today thinks celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and climate scientists attending conferences should set an example, by reducing their personal carbon footprints.
To fight climate change, start with Leonardo DiCaprio’s private jet lifestyle
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnist Published 2:31 p.m. ET June 4, 2017
Even though Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, there’s plenty Congress can do.
So last week President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement — to the extent that one can pull out of an agreement that’s not actually legally binding, anyway. This left some people upset.
But if climate change is really such a crisis, and if sacrifice on our part is needed to stop it, then why aren’t we seeing more sacrifice from people who think it’s a problem?
That’s what one person asked on Twitter: “What if climate scientists decided, as a group, to make their conferences all virtual? No more air travel. What a statement!” And what if academics in general — most of whom think climate change is a big deal — started doing the same thing to make an even bigger statement?
It would be big. And what if politicians and celebrities stopped jetting around the world — often on wasteful private jets instead of flying commercial with the hoi polloi — as a statement of the importance of fighting climate change?
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These proposals are just the beginning, and I’m sure that enterprising members of Congress and various state legislatures can come up with more. But the important thing is to set a good example: Treat climate change like the crisis you say it is, and maybe more people will believe that it really is a crisis.
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I share the author’s concern. A few months ago I started a petition urging the world’s governments to ensure every climate scientist has access to video conferencing technology, so they can avoid the moral trauma of having to travel by air to attend climate conferences.
Please support my petition if you have not done so already.
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Personally I vow to live my life has ‘green ‘ as St Gore and DiCaprio , although this does means having to fly a lot more , buy a much bigger house and some beach front property , and a garage full of high end cars. I consider such a sacrifice to be acceptable in the interest of ‘saving the planet ‘ , after all will someone think of the children .
You didn’t mention “World Peace”
“although this does means having to fly a lot more”
Hopefully it also means reading over your comments before clicking the button.
“These proposals are just the beginning, and I’m sure that enterprising members of Congress and various state legislatures can come up with more. ”
I really despise the notion that only authoritarian measures can accomplish their goals. There is a built in assumption I guess that even the people who believe this nonsense will not take it upon themselves to change their consumption patterns.
We need to scream this from the rafters: If you believe CO2 is a problem them stop using fossil fuels yourself! And kindly leave me alone. These people all failed to learn to learn the one lesson from kindergarten: Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.
Yes………the carbon pigs or the carbon bourgeoisie.
Climate change is not a threat; it’s a four-course dinner for the Concerned™
Hey guys, you do know that Leo is a professional actor, do you? He is hired to play a role. It’s all fake! He is no more a real concerned environmentalist than William Shatner is a real cop or commander of the Enterprise.
Grow up!
Grow up? That’s your response to gross hypocrisy?
On reading the whole USA Today article, at the end I was left wondering was the author serious in his proposals or should there have been a /Sarc tag at the end?
Further irony – the ad that just popped up was for flying by private jet (flex jet) Ha ! Too funny!
Celebrities are celebrities because they figure out how to stay in the limelight and that’s how you get the good roles, acting ability a minor issue, good looks help. One of the tools, to have a good agent. So when your agent says, “you better support a cause”, you support a cause.
I saw a program on recycled garbage into FASHION clothing.. as I recall all the people promoting it FLEW in their jets to NYC..to show a few models wearing paper dresses..I think Gore went to to give an award to the CRAFTY green-conscious designer who put 17 cents of used paper into a very ugly dress…. I SWEAR this is true!! wish I could remember the year..must be excess CO2 in my brain.
So called hypocrisy…
The trouble with this tactic, like pointing out private jets and multiple mansions is that you are buying into the unproven theory that these things create CO2 and create global warming or climate change.
So what if they create extra CO2. It should be pointed out that it doesn’t matter. CO2 is a good thing as far as I can see. I agree with Dr. Patrick Moore.
We should make sure real pollution is controlled, but extra CO2 is beneficial.