Could laughable eco-hypocrites get any more ridiculous?
It’s probably heretical of me to cast aspersions at the Great, the Good and the Green as they heroically enter their second week of anti-fossil fuel frottage at Glasgow’s Cop26. But I can’t help thinking that when it comes to fooling all of the people all of the time, there ain’t no fraud like an eco-fraud.
For a start, I hope the global elite haven’t left their 400 jets idling on the tarmac. Although even if those resource-guzzling Gulfstreams are spewing out CO2, any environmental impact would surely be eclipsed by the sheer volume of hot air being generated by the climatechange consiglieri? Frankly, if extreme weather incidents don’t get them, these high net worth eco-warriors are in real and present danger of succumbing to severe complications arising from their competitive Messiah Complexes.
As they dine, drink and make dire predictions about the impending apocalypse, their hypocritical message is clear – do as we say, not as we do. Take the Green leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Phelim Mac Cafferty, who insisted on taking a plane to Cop26 where he made a speech on cutting carbon emissions and then appeared at Greta Thunberg’s protest march, calling for world leaders to stop temperatures rising. Seriously?
After Mr Green was caught red-handed by his local newspaper, he described his decision to fly as “a major failure of my judgment which goes against my political group’s pledges and principles, and I unreservedly apologise”. Apparently he wasn’t convinced the train network would be reliable. And his presence was obviously crucial. I wearily suspect that a free pass to pollute is these days considered to be a politician’s perk, but as egregious errors go, Mac Cafferty’s tone-deaf arrogance is right up there with bolshie Insulate Britain activists whose own homes aren’t actually heat-proofed.
Listening to billionaires, royalty, celebrities and corporate lobbyists haranguing us about the need to reduce and re-use is a little hard to stomach when scientists are urging governments to “constrain luxury carbon consumption”.
Back in 2019, a slew of luvvies, including Jude Law and Benedict Cumberbatch, wrote an open letter answering charges of eco-hypocrisy: “We live high-carbon lives and the industries that we are part of have huge carbon footprints. Like you – and everyone else – we are stuck in this fossil fuel economy and without systemic change, our lifestyles will keep on causing climate and ecological harm.”
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the self-serving sanctimony. It’s not my fault guv’nor, it’s the lack of “systemic” change. If that all sounds very convenient, then that’s because it is.
The eco warriors, whether they’re hobnobbing in Glasgow or gluing themselves to the M25, have convinced themselves that the problem is so great their own behaviour is by the by. The upshot is a movement where the only rule for membership is spouting the right well-meaning guff, while your actions – and your hypocrisy – barely matter at all.
This sophistry might suit our Cop26 overlords, but if they want us underlings to recognise the error of our ways and fall into line, then they need to show us some deeds as well as words.