Radar exposes eco-hypocrites
Major props to Radar’s Jeff Bercovici for his writeup on so-called greenies like Laurie David and Leo DiCaprio, who tool around in private planes while exhorting the rest of us to bike to work and use solar power to heat our homes. As Bercovici states:
It’s always galling to be exhorted to curb your consumption by people who are living the poshest lifestyle imaginable. But the problem here goes beyond aesthetics. Eco-hypocrites undercut the very message they’re trying to peddle. How desperate could the planet’s plight be if the people who present themselves as most concerned about it consider flying first-class commercial an unacceptable sacrifice? Why should anyone bother to carpool when Streisand requires her own convoy? Or forgo A/C for a fan when [John] Edwards is chilling in the largest house in his county? The implication of the hypocrites’ behavior is that we must take all measures to fight global warming short of those that would reduce our quality of life. But a reduction in quality of life—or at least a redefinition of it—is exactly what Americans are going to have to accept to make a meaningful dent in greenhouse gas levels.
Bercovici’s full article is well worth reading, as is his dead-tree-only profile of Laurie David. (Yes, I have a personal bias in favor of Radar, but I’d buy this issue even if I didn’t.) I’ve mistrusted her ever since I first heard her waffle when asked why she flies around in private jets. And, no, I’m not going to let the hypocrites stop me from making my own efforts to go green. But I hope this serves as a wake-up call for celebs who want to have it both ways. As Kermit said, it’s not easy being green. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
