...lord knows we are surrounded by them, but the Sunday Times (UK, of course - the New York Times would rather fold than report the truth about climate-change) has a good list of the top celebrity offenders, and what makes their two-faced hypocrisy so glaring:
Tom Cruise — who has campaigned for the LA-based environmental group Earth Communications Office — also has an air fleet and a licence to pilot his five planes, including a top-of-the-line customised Gulfstream jet he bought for his wife, Katie Holmes.
Harrison Ford, who is vice-chairman on the board of Conservation International, voices public-service messages for an environmental federation called EarthShare, and once shaved his chest hair to illustrate the effects of deforestation, is another hobby pilot. He once owned a Gulfstream but now makes do with a smaller Cessna Citation Sovereign eight-seater jet, four propeller planes and a helicopter.
U2’s latest world tour features three stages and a giant claw that ensures as many spectators as possible get a decent view. Alas, transporting the whole shebang around the world is estimated by carbonfootprint.com to produce the carbon equivalent of the annual emissions of 6,500 British homes — or a rocket trip to Mars and back.
Perhaps more egregious, because she is a much more in-your-face global-warming campaigner, is Dame Trudie Styler, film financier and wife of Sting. Not only do she and her husband run seven homes and travel between them in private jets and a fleet of cars, but in 2007 an employment tribunal revealed Styler was furious when her pregnant chef refused to travel 100 miles to prepare some soup and salad.
[Al Gore's] huge Nashville mansion consumed over 20 times the electricity of an average American home. Indeed, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, it burnt twice as much power in the month of August 2006 than most American homes do in an entire year. Another inconvenient truth revealed that the former senator spent $500 a month just to heat the indoor swimming pool in his lavish domestic establishment. The 100ft houseboat he bought in 2008, on the other hand, was said to be powered by biodiesel.
Gore gave the usual response of the green celebrity caught not practising what they preach. He said he made up for his consumption of electricity and production of carbon dioxide by buying carbon offsets — some from his own offset company.
SUVs and four-wheel-drive cars are another eco-sin green celebs find hard to resist. Those who have harangued the public against driving these wicked vehicles — but who turn out to have recently owned at least one themselves — include Barbra Streisand, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz.
..there's more at the link. But it really seems to me as if these guys are asking us - sometimes begging us, sometimes demanding of us -to give up on all the fruits of 2oth century technology so they alone can continue to use them. Because they are celebrities, after all, and so much more important to society than we are.
Kind of like health care - rationing is necessary so that all might get covered, but the political elite will continue to get top-notch, no-waiting care because...they are the political elite, after all, and are so much more important to society than we are.
Notice how much shriller celebrities - both political and entertainment - have become about "saving the planet"? Maybe it's because no one is listening any more; maybe it is because they are worried what might happen if we wake up to the scam that is being put over on us...
UPDATE: And while not a celebrity as we speak of the folks above, this guy may be the worst hypocrite of them all - thanks to Mark Steyn for exposing this sack of sh*t:
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explains:
Hotel guests should have their electricity monitored; hefty aviation taxes should be introduced to deter people from flying; and iced water in restaurants should be curtailed, the world’s leading climate scientist has told the Observer.
Rajendra Pachauri? Hey, if you're manning the VIP lounge at Heathrow, that name may ring a bell:
Dr Rajendra Pachauri flew at least 443,243 miles on IPCC business in this 19 month period. This business included honorary degree ceremonies, a book launch and a Brookings Institute dinner, the latter involving a flight of 3500 miles.
And in any case it's okay to devastate the planet on IPCC business — plus the occasional cricket match:
So strong is his love for cricket that his colleagues recall the time the Nobel winner took a break during a seminar in New York and flew in to Delhi over the weekend to attend a practice session for a match before flying back. Again, he flew in for a day, just to play that match.
Un-freakin'-believable....
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