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Earth Day Poseurs
As we fete all things green, The Daily Beast looks at six environmentally friendly faces who have some explaining to do to Mother Nature. (Simon, Barbra, Madonna—she’s listening.)
Those who live in solar houses shouldn't throw stones, and yet an increasing number of celebrities are jumping on the green bandwagon before taking a look into their own public records. They're not exactly hypocrites, and most of the time Barbra Streisand and Al Gore (especially Al Gore) direct the public's attention to unsexy topics like climate change. But beneath their megawatt smiles and shouts of "Go green or else!" some disturbing personal trends have emerged. Like, say, a $22,000 water bill.
Prince Charles, Royal Fraud?
To be fair, the Prince of Wales appears, on the outset, to be a champion of the environment—he is even joining forces with Elizabeth Hurley to launch a healthy, undoubtedly sexy, organic food line. However, during his recent environmental tour to South America, he traveled 16,400 miles by private jet, causing an uproar among carbon-emissions number crunchers (he used 322 tons, if you’re counting). Perhaps a green how-to book will make amends? It was recently announced that the heir to the throne is penning an adult and children’s book called Harmony to be released by HarperCollins in 2010. The Kumbayah-esque title will explore climate change and direct readers to “restore the lost balance between Man and Nature.”
Leaving (Daily) on a Jet Plane
One good reason for Simon Cowell to dump his high-paying gig on American Idol: No more weekly U.K. to L.A. flights. While Cowell’s carbon emissions are through the roof partly because of his sweet rides—a gas-guzzling Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari, and Rolls Royce Phantom fill his garage—an even more egregious blunder is his transcontinental judging trek, which requires him to pull double duty on AI and Britain’s Got Talent. (Susan Boyle and American Idol’s winner-in-training Adam Lambert certainly aren’t going to critique themselves.) Tonight Fox is launching a “Green It. Mean It.” campaign for Earth Day, so watch for Simon’s trademark grin to be especially sheepish before he hops back on his plane.
Not So Funny Figures
Yentl done good. Sort of. Barbra Streisand donated $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation three years ago with a special plea to the former president to focus on climate change. She should have started by taking a look in one of her backyards. Here are some laughable numbers: Watering the lawn at her Malibu mansion costs a reported $22,000 a year, and she keeps a vast 12,000-square-foot backyard barn air conditioned (to keep the rafters from overheating?).
Madonna’s Plastic Overdose
The pop star is wrapped up in other worries right now (come to think of it, how many private flights to Malawi has she made recently?) but her splashy spread on the cover of Vanity Fair’s eco-friendly issue remains a sore spot for the green brigade. After it was revealed she spends $120,000 a year on bottled water—a special Kabbalah-blessed variety at $5 a pop—many were outraged at her extravagant use of the plastic landfill enemy. Guy’s ex tried to make up for her faults by performing at the Live Earth concert series; however, the show generated over 1,000 tons of garbage and many still nitpick her wasteful fleet of cars, including two Hummers.
Private Jet Fever
Pulp Fiction star John Travolta doesn’t apologize for loving his airplanes—but does he really need five private jets? The personal runway outside his Florida home may be convenient for him and his Gulfstream and Boeing 707s, but now, in environmentalist circles, he has fewer fans than his mega-flop Battlefield Earth. It’s calculated Travolta puts out 800 tons of carbon emissions every year, or 100 times the norm per person. He said recently, “Everyone can do their bit” to help fight global warming.
Al’s Inconvenient Power Use
The godfather of all things green had a slightly hilarious PR nightmare a few years ago when it was revealed his 10,000-square foot carbon-neutral mansion used nearly 221,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. He tried to make amends, but a year later the Tennessee Center for Policy Research called him out—energy use at his home actually increased 10 percent and became the equivalent to 232 homes once the greening was done. He defended himself from critics by installing solar panels, a geothermal system for heating, cooling and hot water, and by using energy derived from solar, wind, and methane gas. Maybe the one-time VP deserves a pass.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Sarah Drops the Act
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Palin's Gold Mine
Duff McDonald is a contributing editor at New York magazine and a former contributing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio. His book, Last Man Standing, about Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was published by Simon & Schuster in October.
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WOW!! Al Gore - 10,000 sq foot house, equivalent to 242 homes in electric consumption - does anyone one in, near, close to, connected to government or banks or large corporations in the U.S have a regular conscience , you know one that's not tainted by kick backs, bonus's, sneaky laws, pigs ears, pork barrels, oil stains, airbags or any other ethically challenged bagagge? Reading that makes me want to kick Al Gore in the hypocritical balls!
And you didn't read that he made his mansion green with all the appropriate new technology available? He was probably very thankful that it was brought to his attention so he could act as he did. Now our government is going to start to make it possible for normal everyday people to do the same thing or close to it with their own more modest homes with government tax incentives and such. Things you would never have had in the previous administration. These things have come to pass with the help of Al Gore and his constant preaching about the need for action, action which he himself took.
Oh yeah, he was "thankful." Right.
When you have BIG $$$, you can afford anything...Have you checked the price of solar panels lately
I took an Architectural Drafting course in the 1970s..We had to design a "passive solar home"...no solar panels, wind turbines or fancy gadgets...Instead, we used southern exposure windows for light and heat, Plant dicidious trees on the south for shade in the summer and warmth in the winter, use pellet stoves, proper insulation, heat retaining walls, even painting interior walls for energy efficiency,,,ect....These homes are inexpensive and attractive. So why doesn't talk about "passive solar energy" anymore? Because energy is big money, environmental, political issue.
Reads like whining class name calling. Here's a fresh thought- stop having babies and leave the A List successful, contributing people alone. Really.
I think the piece is not bad. It's so stupid that so many people are all talk and no action. Green electricity is like three or four cents more a kilowatt hour. An efficient refrigerator usually saves money in the long run. Compact florescent light bulbs have gotten cleaner to produce and fit everywhere by now, if your feeling techey LED systems are way cooler.
If efficient cars were sexy almost everyone would drive them (come on people reprogram your turn ons already). For that matter riding a bike now and then would make us all sexier.
Most impact possible; quit buying cheap crap! We need to get more quality oriented in our consumption, this would also save a lot of American jobs in the process.
Also learn to cook people, buying processed foods is a bummer climate wise, more expensive, less healthy... need I go on.
Now get your asses out there and make some changes. If your family questions your sanity, tell them some wierdo made an online post saying it would make you sexy *grinn*
Enough already.
Royals and Scientologists do not fly coach.
Unless you sold your car and transport your tofu and un-processed food to your house in your little red wagon, keep quiet already.
Unplug your refrigerator and computer. If you want to post green dribble, use public transportation to travel to your local library and use their public computers.
I don't care if it is recycled, if you are using purchased toilet tissue, then you all are hypocrites. New phonebooks just came out; get to work.
Sometimes, it ain't easy to be around so much green.
When these ponzers make like an environmental Ghandi, then I can respect and follow.
On the other hand, people like Ed Begley Jr. respectfully go about their business living low key environmental lives FOR YEARS (not sporadic moments) without being braggarts. These are folks worth emulating.
In this country we are the overweight hypocritical buffoons that the world knows we are. Rush is our spokesblob and we can't apologise fast enough to him.
And then we complain about everything that Obama does, or doesn't do.
So I am busy with my garden, eat twice a day, invested 1500 dollars in major stocks last month and made over 30% on it, help my neighbors, recycle into my mulch pile, and watch the nature of things at the birdfeeder knowing I can do little to prevent the feeding of the squirrels if I put food there.
"We hast met the 'nemy and he's covered wit flies."
I don't buy this green business, but I agree with Genn, Daryl Hannah is another celeb who walks the walk. Most of them, like Gore are fakes. I am going to go for a long drive in my Lexus 460L today.
I saw a special about Global Warming with Al Gore flying in a helicopter to see how the earth is affected. Helicopters use fossil fuels. Gore is a hypocrite!
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This green business?
President Obama is flying to Iowa to celebrate Earth Day. Isn't there an event in Washington D.C. Every time he hops on Air Force One, his own Carbon Footprint gets larger.
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Fair is fair -- if you're famous and you're going to be an advocate for earth protection, you should probably be making some modifications to your own lifestyle in order to prove that you're committed and that these practices work.
Still, lot of good it does taking potshots at the people who give large amounts of money to environmental programs. So what happens next? Are we supposed to completely disregard the things that they give money to because they're hypocrites? Should we not give credence to anything they say, even if their words are sensible while their actions are not? Certainly, a positive that could come from mounting criticism is that these people will change their lifestyles to suit their messages and we ourselves may be drawn to change so as not to be Earth Day hypocrites, little or otherwise.
But in the end, I agree with aperturemad, and very much feel that "shooting the messengers" without offering anything further is counterproductive.
Putting Al Gore on your list is absurd.
We all contribute to the destruction of the environment.....what have you done to stop it?
Compare that to what Al Gore has done.
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It's true everyone needs to measure their own footprint, but the truth of the matter is going green is expensive. Buying the new car (which may have put more of a strain on the environment to produce than your old SUV), refitting the house, changing to more expensive green household goods,and buying organic don't come cheap. In theory, I'd love to do it all. In practice, in this economy, not a chance.
Good article. This whole crowd is more about the, "do as I say not as I do philosophy". It's ok for Gore to jet around the world and light his house up like a freakin xmas tree, but we're suppose to live in the dark and walk to work. Phony.
It is so easy to point out how bad everyone else is.Quit
complaining about OTHERS.Do something which accepts
responsibility for yourSELF.That's the only person you can
"control".
Look, it's like standing in a circular firing squad to accuse one another of contributing to the planet's environmental problems--we all do! That said, its time these spokes people made some true sacrifices--down sizing their big houses and incessant travel. As for Gore--I give him a pass. He's probably done more for raising awareness of climate change than anyone else.
All talk, no walk. Typical blowhards, do as I say not as I do.
Obama is a hypocrite as well, he should do the event in D.C., and stop flying in special kobe beef from Japan and special pizza from St. Louis, etc. Obama never seems to want to stay in the White House and do the actual work of being President. He's a disaster.
After years of purchasing "swirly" lightbulbs thinking they are good for the environment, I have recently learned that they are apparently hazardous to humans and the earth as they contain MERCURY! If you break one it's apparently a haz mat situation and requires special "clean up" and can costs thousands to properly clean up a mercury spill. Also, mercury exposure is very, very dangerous to children and pregant women in particular. Also, mercury has no place in landfills that are currently filling up with these swirly bulbs. So, I will never purchase "swirly" bulbs again for the above reasons. I hope you won't as well. There are many other ways we can save energy and help the earth. We have been misled on "swirly" bulbs. Help the earth, don't hurt it. Thank you!
Tale of Two Houses
House #1
A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.
________________________________
House #2
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.
The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.
~~~~~
HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of the 'environmentalist' Al Gore.
HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence of former President of the United States, George W. Bush.
You can verify at http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
What pathetic drivel the so-called "green" movement and all the climate extremists have become given to. They are a religion pure and simple. Even while exposing these posers' titanic hypocrisy and ineffectual ramblings, the author here can't help but posit that "they're not exactly hypocrites" and (speaking of Al The Exploiter Gore) "maybe [he] deserves a pass." No, they are hypocrites - that is "exactly" what they are. And they do not deserve a pass. But this site, like the overwhelming majority of other idiot media outlets will continue to give them one on this subject.
The next generation will look back in a very short time and rightfully ridicule this dogmatic obeisance to the extreme greens.
Got to love self-righteous hypocritical
politicians and "celebrities" living in their preachy
out-of-touch bubbles.
When they get caught in the act of hypocrisy,
they tend to jump to the shameless
moral equivalency, pass-the-buck excuse,
sounding like a 13 year grounded for cutting school,
after he tells his parents in that whiny little voice?
Everyone does it. We're all hypocrites. Wah! Wah!
Do as I say, not as I do. Wah! Wah!
Then they all have a good laugh amongst
themselves, only the "little" people need apply.
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Wish there were more SINCERE celebrity
environmentalists like Ed Begley Jr.
He's not a pretender like too many celebrities and politicians.
Ed Begley Jr. walks the walk, an environmental hero. No doubt.
Puh-leeze! Saint Al Gore should not be criticized just because he has 25,000 sq. ft. of house, loves private jets and wants to sell us all carbon offsets for (his own) profit. He is above reproach!
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Me too.
This is very old news.
Al Gore, yes he wares his name well.
I took an Architectural Drafting class in the 1970s..We had to design a "Passive" Solar Home.. No solar panels, wind turbines or fancy gadgets. Little things like south exposure for light and heat, proper insulation, pellet stoves, planting dicidious trees on the south--shade in summer, heat in winter...ect.. These homes are inexpensive and attractive. So when did we give up and "passive solar energy"?
What is your point of highlighting the hypocracy of these rich and famous environmentalists? Who cares what they do. We still have climate change which the vast majority of intelligent scientists agree is being caused by man. Yes it will lead to quicker melting of the polar caps, more draught, more poverty, more hunger and more wars, so whatever we can do ourselves to turn that around would be a gesture in the right direction irregardless what Babs and Madonna do with their own lives.
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earth day is an interesting event wherein an empty road free from cars..
Thank you.
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