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“DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT MY FLYING”
It’s almost as if environmental activists don’t actually believe all this end-of-the-world crap:
They are the green jetsetters — environmental campaigners who are leading the fight to restrict aviation and cut greenhouse gas emissions, but who also clock up hundreds of thousands of miles flying around the world on business and pleasure.
In the past year the directors and chief executives of groups such as WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Soil Association have crisscrossed the globe, visiting the Falklands, Japan, Africa and Brazil.
Let’s run through the London Times list:
* Bob Napier, chief executive of WWF: “In the past 12 months he has visited Spitsbergen, Borneo, Washington, Geneva, and Beijing on business trips and taken a holiday in the Falklands, generating more than 11 tons of carbon dioxide.”
* Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth: “Flew to Malaysia, South Africa, and Amsterdam on business and took his family on holiday to Slovakia in the past year. This weekend he is on a business trip to Nigeria. His trips are estimated to have generated at least eight tons of CO2.”
* Graham Wynne, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: “Business trips to Indonesia, Washington and Scotland over the past year, clocking up more than five tons of CO2. He also takes occasional holidays to New Zealand.” Great quote from Wynne: “There are a lot of contradictions like these which organisations like ours have to solve.”
* Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association: “Flown this year to Japan, America (twice) and four European destinations, generating about six tons of CO2.” Extra-great quote: “I am deeply concerned about my flying. I am campaigning for a solution but I am still part of the problem.” We’re not here to judge you, Patrick! We at Flyers Anonymous only wish to help!
* John Sauven, Greenpeace campaigns director: “Has flown his family on holiday to Italy and taken a business trip to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil (total emissions, three tons).”
* Sir John Harman, chairman of the Environment Agency: “Business trips to Germany and Vienna and holidays in Croatia and Cyprus suggest total CO2 emissions of more than 11⁄2 tons.”
* Ashok Sinha, director of Stop Climate Chaos: “Flew to India on holiday and to Montreal on a business trip (emissions, 3.3 tons).” Quote: “The real answer is that people must stop flying.”
But not important people, like environmental fear buzzards Napier, Juniper, Wynne, Holden, Sauven, Harman, and Sinha. Celebrated altitude-hater George Monbiot, who opposes flight except when promoting his books, is appalled:
Monbiot, who has not flown for more than a year, said: “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?”
Think I’ll order a batch of Monbiot books and have them delivered via airmail. By the way, one question not asked of these high-flying frauds: are any of them participants in frequent flyer programs?
“There are a lot of contradictions like these which organisations like ours have to solve.”
How about giving up your nonstop junkets, you two-faced twit! Or is it only the peasants who should give up the jet fuel habit?
Environmental fear buzzards, hah! I am so stealing that.
ushie, even the NP&SM; were problematic. What do you think they did with their… um… sewage? Human beings should just vanish off the earth, so it can regain its pristine (red in tooth and claw) status.
Tim,
Good question about the Frequent Flier memberships - be interesting to see how many miles or segments they have.
I suspect that many are at least the first level up in some programs (ironically enough - some plans have “elite” levels, heh heh).
Posted by Major John on 2006 10 09 at 02:01 PM • permalinkNot forgetting that most everything bought via computer gets to you by airfreight.
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2006 10 09 at 02:06 PM • permalinkI’d also bet a small sum of money that at least half of the flights Tim lists are in first class.
Hey, if you’re going to be a hyprocritical elitist, go all the way! Travel in style on someone else’s dime.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 09 at 02:27 PM • permalinkushie
Are the replicas of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria available for use?
Yes. Zapatero has one problem with their completion to set sail though. Regardless of winds, they keep steering left. They are also trying to persuade an Italian, that the world really isn’t flat.
Hey, I’m good with that, because I am, one…well if Sicilians count and no jokes about not being able to count…after all, we know where and how many bodies are, well, dead.
My question IS…What in the fuck is in, or on the Falklands, that makes hypocritical idiots want to fly there?
Am I the only one who misreads ‘Monbiot’ as ‘Moonbat’?
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2006 10 09 at 03:01 PM • permalinkThey will probably say they pay for carbon credits to offset the carbon generated by their air travel (a la Al Gore). Which is utter bollocks.
If you want to plant some trees, then plant some trees. Don’t pay others to do it, simply to allow you to act the way you harshly criticize others from doing.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 10 09 at 03:08 PM • permalinkNotice how everyone, even those who disagree with this nonsense, has adopted the language they use? “Carbon footstep” has now entered the vocabulary without a moment given over to what it actually names in reality (other than the idiots who coined the term). How did something that is required for continued life on earth, by any species—vegetable or animal—you care to name, become so demonized? We are all made of carbon. Life is carbon based.
I won’t even go into the fact that there is no such thing as a “greenhouse gas” when one is speaking of the earth’s dynamic system, a part of which is the continual exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The earth is not encased in a bubble, and the atmosphere does not act like a greenhouse. It is only these power-lusters who seem to live in a bubble.
This is why people keep running into contradictions. Nature itself contains no contradictions; it is only the sophists who introduce them. Someone needs to take Occam’s Razor to the debate. Of course, this would mean that there will be nothing left to discuss, and no way for these particular blood-suckers to parasite off of the rest of us.
#10,
Tree planting as ‘carbon offset’ is a confidence trick and a racket.
The only permanent solution to the problems they have with their consciences and credibility is to put the fossil carbon they burn back where it came from and that takes millennia.
It could be argued that releasing fossil carbon will restore the Earth to a sort of Garden of Eden. Who Knows?#13 ... why not make it a teleconference and then they wouldn’t have to travel at all!
Yes, but what about the sheep?
Posted by wronwright on 2006 10 09 at 04:43 PM • permalinkDon’t forget Philip Adams. Doesn’t he still jet about the place? And didn’t he endores Gores movie last wekend?
Posted by niobium2000 on 2006 10 09 at 07:43 PM • permalinkYes, but they’re morally carbon neutral because they’re doing their best to keep the rest of us proles from flying…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 10 09 at 08:04 PM • permalinkBob Napier of WWF went to the Falklands for a holiday?
It would have to be one of the most greenhouse unfriendly places to which you may want to travel. You have to go via Chile, as there is no direct flights from the nearest country (Argentina, but at the moment I just can’t remember the reason why)and direct flights from the UK are mostly military.As for the prospects of the Falklands as a hoiday destination, its very expensive to get there, food is astronomical (about $35/kg for capsicums, for example), and it is not exactly picturesque.
The islands have no trees, and are mostly flat grassland. There is a cold wind in summer, followed by a bitterly cold wind in Autumn, are brass monkey killing gale in winter, ameliorated by a bitterly cold gale in spring.
The main source of employment is the military base, and there are about eighty odd landed gentry running those beasts that residents fondly imagine pass for sheep.No goats that I know of, though.
After talking to yet another bureaucrat from the Department of Environment about his latest trip to Venice/Paris/Vienna for an environmental conference, I was thinking it would be an interesting exercise to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by these globe trotting environmental bureaucrats. Unfortunately their annual report doesn’t detail their travel expenses. It’s a pity, because I was willing to bet that abolishing the Department would lead to a higher reduction in greenhouse emissions when compared with all their other abatement programs.
Speaking of government action on greenhouse that will essentially do nothing but increase power bills:
Green power push to lift bills
BIG companies in Victoria will pay almost $21,000 a year more for their power under the Bracks Government’s plan to generate 10 per cent of the state’s energy from renewable sources such as wind.
...
The report found that although the scheme would cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 27million tonnes, this represents just 1 per cent of the total CO2 emissions from electricity generation between next year and 2030. “This reduction comes at a cost of around $71/tonne CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalent), which may be considered high compared to some other abatement measures,” it says.I’m tempted to go out and buy one of these just to rub their noses in it:
Man shells out £14k on army tank for supermarket run
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 10 09 at 10:42 PM • permalinkI didn’t see anything in the article about private charter flights. Is it possible any of these professional busybodies have their own planes, or if their organizations have planes provided to them?
In their defense, if they’re using commercial airlines, they’re only making use of flights that would have happened anyway even without their patronage.
Though that defense isn’t exactly airtight.
Now, now, I’m sure they all take great pains to insure their carbon neutrality.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 10 09 at 11:51 PM • permalinkWhat hypocritical bastards!!!
Jetting around the world and then “buying” carbon credits or planting trees is nothing but bullshit.
It would be like a peadophile fiddling with a kid and then donating money to an orphanage to make himself feel better.
The damage is still done, but they buy their environmental forgiveness.
I just hope this green religion goes through a reformation quicksmart.
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Well, I bet they don’t want The Little People using big old cruise ships to get to and fro. I bet those boats use lots of oil or something.
Hmm. Are the replicas of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria available for use?