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
posted by Courtney Hamilton @ 11:04 AM
5 Comments:
The green movement seems to attract a range puritans who fail to practice what they preach.
If I weren't the lazy, generally apathetic sod I am, I'd probably set up a website for those concerned about climate change to get together on - thus removing the need to jet around the world. Of course it's far more fun to go off to India than it is to come up with eco-friendly means of action.
"The green movement seems to attract a range puritans who fail to practice what they preach".
I know what you mean Matt - I have a major problem with people who constantly use the hi-tech internet, to propagate the idea that the modern world is nothing but rubbish.
It's got so bad now, that ordinary people are now being forced to be environmentally conscious, as if it was a sin not to be - yet their lifestyle remains the same. A bit like Christians who have never been to church.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2442948.html
Courtney, Thanks for flagging this up, very intersting stuff. George Monbiot is speaking at a student debate in Cambridge next week and I've emailed him to see if we can meet up for a chat beforehand. If you don't ask, you don't get, I would love to meet him, so fingers crossed.
Just so you know, Sauven had nothing to do with the Nottingham East Midlands action. Check your facts next time.
Courtney,
Thought you would get a kick out of this: PETA Mistakenly Targets Alaska Church
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