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Archive for the 'Environmentalists' Category

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17
Jun

Al Gore’s House Still Isn’t Green

By Simon Scowl 35 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Environmentalists and U.S. Left-wing Politicos

Hot on the heels of Al Gore’s not-at-all-stunning endorsement of Barack Obama — gee, McCain must be bummed! — now the increasingly planet-shaped planet-saver is dealing with an unwanted visit from some old friends:

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research…

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month…

After the Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposed Gore’s massive home energy use [in Feb. 2007], the former Vice President scurried to make his home more energy-efficient. Despite adding solar panels, installing a geothermal system, replacing existing light bulbs with more efficient models, and overhauling the home’s windows and ductwork, Gore now consumes more electricity than before the “green” overhaul.

Ouch! Al probably doesn’t find this news very… convenient.

I seem to remember that the other part of Gore’s defense last year was that he was buying carbon offsets to make up for his Earth-hating wastefulness. Of course, soon after that we learned that he was buying those offsets from his own company. Hey, he’s just recycling his own cash, right?

16
Jun

Note to Honda’s “Zero-Emissions” Team: You’re Doing It Wrong

By The Oversneer 9 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Businesses and Environmentalists

hondafcxclarity.jpg

Honda held a big shindig today in Japan to announce the rollout of its new FCX Clarity automobile, which will run on Hydrogen and electricity, and emit nothing but water vapor.

Hooray for Earth!

Among the first customers are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon.

“It’s so smooth,” said Harris, who played villainness Marie Warner on the hit TV show “24″ and was flown over by Honda for the ceremony. “It’s like a future machine, but it’s not” … Spallino, who currently drives Honda’s older FCX and was also flown in for the ceremony, said he will use the Clarity to drive to and from work and for destinations within the Los Angeles area.

Again I say: Hooray for … Whaaaaa?

They wouldn’t really fly celebrities 10,900 miles (round-trip) in fuel-belching jet airplanes so that they can brag about saving a few hundred carbon credits over the life of one of these glorified golf carts, would they?

Bonus points: Remember the last time hydrogen was going to be the next big global revolution in travel? I’m just saying …

16
Jun

Google Gurus Go Green? Guess Again

By Simon Scowl 6 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Businesses and Environmentalists

A few months back we told you about Google co-founder Larry Page jetting off to Richard Branson’s private Carribean island to attend a conference of mega-rich guys getting hammered and ogling hot chicks in bikinis trying to figure out how to stop Global Warming. Seems like Step 1 would be: Don’t jet off to private islands.

But the Google guys must be doing something right, because no less of a Green authority than Forbes Magazine declared them to be among “The World’s Greenest Billionaires.” Check this compost out:

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page turned their Mountain View, Calif., headquarters into one of the world’s most eco-friendly.

The 500,000-square-foot facility is heated by 9,212 solar panels; all the furniture in one building is made from recycled material, including old blue jeans as wall insulation. Employees can dine (for free) at Cafe 150, which uses ingredients only from farms within 150 miles of the kitchen. Brin and Page both drive hybrid Toyota Priuses and have made personal investments in Tesla, an electric car maker. And Brin reportedly has a solar-paneled rucksack to power his phone and MP3 player.

Which is very handy when you want to listen to some tunes after spewing tons and tons of carbon into the air to get to Branson’s island! Plenty of sun down there.

Well, now the sincerity of Page’s fellow search-engine sultan is under scrutiny as well. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the carbon-conscious coder wants to play Buck Rogers:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose brainchild helps millions of people navigate cyberspace every day, plans to blast off into actual space within a few years.

Space Adventures Ltd., a Virginia company that has already sent five super-wealthy folks on joyrides to the international space station, said Wednesday that Brin has invested $5 million as a down payment on a space flight aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket headed to the station.

One problem. As the Heritage Foundation’s Nick Loris notes, Brin’s little rocketship ride will be the carbon equivalent of driving an Escalade for over 50 years. That’s a whole lotta planet-killin’! Is the whim of a billionaire really worth wrecking the planet for our children and grandchildren? Apparently Sergey Brin thinks so.

Say, I wonder if it would help if they insulated the rocket with old blue jeans…

12
Jun

Justin Timberlake Buys a Golf Course

By Holly Won't 13 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Environmentalists and Musicians

justin_timberlake_golf.jpgDumb.

Self-styled environmentalist Justin Timberlake has purchased a golf course in Memphis to “save” it from developers:

He confesses he only “got into” the sport six years ago, when he was 20 — but the childhood trip to the Memphis, Tennessee, course inspired him to rescue it from being turned into apartments.

Timberlake tells talk show host Jay Leno, “My dad taught me to hit a golf ball on this course, when I was 12 years old. They were going to auction it off and turn it into a development, so we swooped in and got it.”

The singer is currently battling his mother’s plans to name the course after the famous family, adding, “My mom wants it to be called ‘Timberlake Trails’ or something like that.”

Just leaving behind his various not-so-green habits, does he realize that operating a golf course requires a lot of gasoline? As far as I know there aren’t any solar-powered lawnmowers to keep the grass so evenly trimmed, although there’s a million-dollar idea right there.

11
Jun

Quick Planet Green Followup

By Simon Scowl 10 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Businesses, Environmentalists and Movie Stars

So we know that the Planet Green network is relying on celebrities like infamous carbon-hog Leo DiCaprio to spread their message of saving the planet through sanctimony. But did you know who Planet Green’s “exclusive automobile sponsor” is?

And of course, you know what GM manufactures:

Save the Earth, buy a Hummer.

(Hat tip: PR Watch)

10
Jun

Planet Green? Why Not Call It The Pomposity Channel?

By Simon Scowl 18 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Environmentalists and Movie Stars

This Sunday on Discovery’s brand-new channel Planet Green, Leonardo DiCaprio is debuting a 13-part series about Greensburg, Kansas. Greensburg was completely destroyed by a tornado last year and is rebuilding itself, in the words of the New York Times, as “the nation’s first Platinum city, the highest certification green design can attain.” Here’s Leo, telling us what’s what:

“We are in the Environmental Age whether we like it or not,” Mr. DiCaprio wrote in an e-mail message. “Unfortunately, our government has failed to respond to this monumental issue in the way they should. Until we become less reliant on foreign oil and put aggressive environmental policies into action, it will be towns like Greensburg, Kan., taking matters into their own hands on a grass-roots level. I am excited that my production company gets to be a part of a moment in American history where one town has decided to set the example for the green building movement.”

Now, it’s nice that he’s doing something to help a struggling community to rebuild. And if it just so happens to fit in with his little pet cause, good for him. (”Oh my God, it’s actually called Greensburg? That’s perfect!”) But his Olympian arrogance is a bit tough to take. Just as a reminder, here’s another glimpse at how Leo is reducing his own dependence on foreign oil:

What, he powers that estate with good intentions? Not to mention his insistence on flying around on private jets, and all the other planet-destroying luxuries he can afford. As Counterpunch (hardly a bunch of right-wingers) put it: “Using Leonardo DiCaprio to tell people to ‘recycle, reduce and re-use’ is kind of like asking a crackhead to promote cocaine abstinence.”

I’ll start listening to Leo’s blather about saving the planet when he shrinks his carbon footprint to no more than 10 times my own.

09
Jun

Their Carbon Footprint Wears a Size Eleventy Shoe

By Holly Won't 10 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Businesses, Environmentalists and Fashionistas

f21_recycle_tee.jpgFashionista.com makes an excellent point about something that is becoming more and more pervasive in fashion: the commodification of the “green” movement.

Lame-o teenybopper heaven Urban Outfitters is one of the worst offenders of this trend, but today I’ve got the budget-conscious retailer Forever 21 in my crosshairs.

The store’s most egregious wrong is a recent line of environmentally-themed graphic tees.

Not only are some of these shirts made in Asia in plants that process literally tons of synthetic materials (take this “Going Green” bag, made from 100% pure polypropylene), but the clothes then have to be shipped thousands of miles to be distributed to American stores.

Ooh, let’s all give Forever 21 a fat round of applause — they made exactly three tees from organic cotton. The air feels cleaner already.

05
Jun

Hey, Al Gore Needs to Put Food on the Table Too

By Simon Scowl 7 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Environmentalists, The Washed Up and U.S. Left-wing Politicos

As everyone knows, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING. What you might not know is that in the process, you can do something for an unfortunate soul who could really use your help. Namely, Al Gore!

Al is the chairman of Generation Investment Management, a company that… er… I’ll let them tell it:

Generation has built a global research platform to integrate sustainability research into fundamental equity analysis. We focus on the economic, environmental, social, and governance risks and opportunities that can materially affect a company’s ability to sustain profitability and deliver returns. Our research plays an important role in forming our views on the quality of the business, the quality of management, and valuation.

Exactly! And as part of all that, uh, stuff, GIM has just bought a $13 million stake in Camco International Ltd. And what do they do? They sell carbon offsets. You know, the things we’re all supposed to buy to make up for, say, flying all over the world in private jets and owning mansions that use 20 times more energy than the national average. Carbon offsets = Healed planet. Yay!

Now, some people want you to believe that Al Gore is “spreading global warming hysteria to benefit his own wallet.” Nothing could be further from the truth. He is selflessly devoted to saving our dying planet. He’s saving us from ourselves! And hey, if a few dollars happen to fall into his pocket here and there, is that so wrong? What have you got against an average joe just trying to make a living? Shame on you. I’ll bet you haven’t bought a single carbon offset today, have you? Tsk, tsk.

(Hat tip to all the Deceiver readers who sent this in)

03
Jun

Brad’s New Pit

By Simon Scowl 8 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Environmentalists and Movie Stars

Brad Pitt likes to talk about how he originally wanted to be an architect, which would have robbed us of such film classics as… Anyway, before he became 24/7 tabloid fodder, he wanted to design buildings for a living. And now he’s getting his chance!

Brad Pitt, the star of “Fight Club” and “Ocean’s 11″ who professes a passion for architecture, will be a design consultant for an 800-room hotel and resort Zabeel Properties plans to build in Dubai, the developer said.

Zabeel, based in Dubai, hired architecture firm Graft LLC to design an America-themed hotel in the United Arab Emirates city, the closely held developer said today in a statement… “Acting is my career, architecture is my passion,” Pitt said in the statement. As “my first major construction project,” the Dubai hotel will feature “environmentally friendly architecture, but also embrace my career in entertainment.”

What, Meet Joe Black posters above all the recycling bins?

It’s kind of funny that the hotel will be “environmentally friendly,” considering Dubai itself is the least environmentally friendly place on earth. Per capita, Dubai has the biggest ecological footprint in the world according to the World Wildlife Fund. (The United States is in second place, and everybody knows how much we hate the planet.) They keep littering the place with artificial islands that destroy coral reefs, they’ve got one of the busiest airports in the world, and they’re fond of building things like indoor ski slopes where you can cavort in the snow while it’s hot enough outside to roast a chicken. They’re rich enough to do any damn thing they please, no matter how decadent or how much it hurts the environment.

But hey… Brad Pitt!

(Hat tip to Deceiver reader Sophie Hall)

23
May

George Clooney’s Own Girlfriend Thinks He’s a Hypocrite

By Holly Won't 19 Comments Digg! Digg this
Categories: Activists, Environmentalists and Movie Stars

clooney_sarah_larson.jpgSarah Larson, the Vegas cocktail waitress who’s been dating George Clooney for the past year, was interviewed in the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

In it, she talks about how they met, what their relationship is like, and how he’s a hypocrite (albeit a handsome one!) for driving a Prius to get to his Gulfstream V.

One thing that attracted her to Clooney was his work in Darfur: “It’s incredible what he’s doing over there, his passion to try to use his status to make a difference.” And though he has a hybrid, Clooney still flies private, which Larson considers “a walking contradiction.” But she says, “People get comfortable. [It's] baby steps.”

Comfortable is just a polite word for complacent, methinks.

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