A neo-Jacobin

Saturday, July 07, 2007

The Earth dies screaming, so pass the Courvoisier

The Live Earth concerts is proof that the politics of environmentalism are rooted in middle-class hypocrisy.

I have yet to see many, or any seasoned environmental campaigners fully endorse the Live Earth 'extravaganza', indeed, even openDemocracy's very own green guru Oliver Tickell concedes that the 'whole cult of celebrity can be stomach-turning'. Well, if you ask me that is putting it mildly to say the least. We all know that celebrities like Madonna are opportunistic when it comes to worth while causes, one day they are for something, the next day they drop it and move on to yet another global event or cause. Tickell also points out the glaring contradictions of A-list celebrities like Madonna telling the little people how they should live their 'carbon-neutral' lives - yeah right, Madonna.

John Buckley of the CarbonFootprint.com told the Daily Mail how 'Madonna's Confessions tour produced 440 tonnes of CO2 in four months of last year. And that was just the flights between the countries, not taking into account the truckloads of equipment needed, the power to stage such a show and the transport of all the thousands of fans getting to the gigs'. The truth is, the real message of the Live Earth concerts is it's absolutely acceptable to be a millionaire pop-star, just so long as they get on a stage once and a while and tell the population how they should reduce their carbon footprint - breath-taking hypocrisy becomes socially acceptable.

The shear hypocrisy, and all of the glaring contradictions are neatly summed up by Live Earth's highly irritating little book entitled Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook. The author of the book is the multi-millionaire David de Rothschild from the same hyper-rich Rothschild banking dynasty. The book is packed full of unbearable ideas that pussyfoot around the problem of climate change - like for example, we are told to grow our own tomatoes, and if your cold at home, wear a jumper instead of turning the heating on. The book is, to all intents and purposes, a green version of our very own Holy Bible - the only difference is the Live Earth Global Survival Handbook is produced by a guilt-ridden, plummy-mouthed aristocrat who thinks he can tell the little people how they ought to live.

Labels: Environmental hypocrisy

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Green campaign against flying is led by hypocrites

The heavyweight environmentalist George Monbiot, has started a new website that claims to expose those who call themselves 'green', but are nothing of the sort. In the website, Monbiot argues that environmentalists 'all want people to live by codes rather stricter than those we apply to ourselves'. Of course, when it comes to flying, environmentalists are the biggest hypocrites of them all - including Monbiot.

For example, many of the leaders of environmentalist organisations are targeting the aviation industry as a major cause for concern, and a danger to the environment - yet, these leaders have been flying all over the globe to preach their anti-aviation sermons to a worldwide audience. If Monbiot wants to 'out' some dodgy 'greens' he can start with himself - ok, he's already done that. How about Ashok Sinha, the director of Stop the Climate Chaos, who flew to India for his holiday, and Montreal on a business trip?

Or, how about New Labour's environment minister, David Miliband, who's in Kenya for climate change talks? Ok, how about the chairman of the Environment Agency, Sir John Harman, who jets off to such places as Germany and Vienna for business, and likes to go to Cyprus and Croatia for holiday? Ok then, how about the organiser of a runway blockade at Midlands’s airport, John Sauven, who happens to be the campaign director of Greenpeace? Sauven likes to take his family to Italy for their holidays, and recently went on a 'business' trip to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil - very nice.

The director of Friends of the Earth, Tony Juniper, is also known to have jetted off to places like South Africa, Malaysia and Holland. He took his family to Slovakia last year, and is currently on a business trip in Nigeria at the moment. Or what about the Green party MEP Caroline Lucus? Lucas warned Briton's last year (all the way from Hong-Kong) about how a typical Christmas dinner may have travelled 30,000 miles to end up on our plates. She was also away in India last month on a business trip.

I'll leave the last words to Monbiot, who once said that 'If even the leaders of the green movement are not prepared to live without flying for pleasure then how can we expect that of other people?'

Read on:

A green snag they emitted to mention... By Johnathan Leake. The Sunday Times. 2006

Picture: A Plane Stupid activist at Leeds Bradford Airport. UK Indymedia.

Labels: Environmental hypocrisy