Greenwash Of The Week: Flying The Private Jet To Copenhagen. - A blog by The Good Human

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Dec 2, 2009 2:50 PM ET

Greenwash Of The Week: Flying The Private Jet To Copenhagen

OK, so the title of the article I am going to link to doesn’t actually have a lot to do with “taking the private jet to Copenhagen” but it sure is catchy…and somewhat true. Instead, the article does a great job of pointing out the greenwashing and greenpocrisy of well-known “green” celebrities. A few fantastic tidbits from this Greenwash of the Week article include:

- John Travolta notoriously encouraged the British public to do its bit to fight global warming — after flying into London on one of his five, yes, five private jets (one of which is a Boeing 707).

- Oprah Winfrey, who preaches eco-virtue from her TV pulpit, travelled in a 13-seat Gulfstream IV private jet for years.

- Perhaps more egregious, because she is a much more in-your-face global-warming campaigner, is Dame Trudie Styler, film financier and wife of Sting. Not only do she and her husband run seven homes and travel between them in private jets and a fleet of cars, but in 2007 an employment tribunal revealed Styler was furious when her pregnant chef refused to travel 100 miles to prepare some soup and salad.

- Tom Cruise — who has campaigned for the LA-based environmental group Earth Communications Office — also has an air fleet and a licence to pilot his five planes.

- U2’s latest world tour … produces the carbon equivalent of the annual emissions of 6,500 British homes — or a rocket trip to Mars and back.

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