A blogger, environmentalist and author at The Guardian claims Tuesday going “green” means being an “unbearable” hypocrite.
Madeleine Somerville, author of the laboriously titled book “All You Need Is Less: A Guilt Free Guide To Eco-Friendly Green Living And Stress Free Simplicity,” wrote an editorial for The Guardian explaining to her readers the burden of being an environmentalist in a world of consumerists.
She notes she has a hard time squaring her reliance on cars, laptops and smart phones with her environmentalist tendencies.
The tension of having to operate in a modern society and adhere to environmentalist causes, Somerville writes, is a commonly shared burden among all green activists.
“Some own cars; some still eat meat,” Somerville added. “The more famous in our midst regularly fly great distances to speak about the horrific impact of carbon emissions,” she notes, perhaps referencing Hollywood actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Harrison Ford, both of whom champion conservationist causes while enjoying private jet rides.
DiCaprio’s private jet excursions are well-documented, especially after hacked Sony documents show the actor using private jets last year back and forth from New York to Los Angeles six times in six weeks.
Ford told Forbes in a 2013 interview he became involved in environmentalist causes more than two decade ago. “I suffered an unconscionable excess of resources and was looking for some way to redeem myself morally,” Ford said.
Yet the Indiana Jones actor never lets his activism get in the way of his private jet trips around the world, such as in 2014 when he fueled up his Cessna Citation Jet and flew to London for a weekend trip.
Somerville, for her part, goes on to add the hypocrisy of people like DiCaprio and herself creates fodder for critics of so-called man-made global warming.
It can be intimidating being an environmentalist defending your hypocrisy.
“Suddenly you’re expected to have all the answers,” she writes, posing a slew of questions green groups are presented: “Why bother recycling when you still drive?” “How can you wear leather when you don’t eat meat?” “Aren’t those annual flights erasing the impact of anything else you do?”
Somerville answers the criticisms by suggesting oftentimes the necessities of life must take center stage over activism.
She presents her private life as an example.
Somerville continues: “My reluctant decision to continue owning a car came about as a result of a handful of carefully considered factors: the limited public transportation options in my city, six months of Canadian winter, car shares which can’t accommodate a car seat for my daughter, and a custody agreement which requires me to drive her to see her dad three hours away, twice a month.”
Somerville says she feels bad about her hypocrisy, but she’s doing her best to offset her reliance on gas-powered vehicles and other electrical appliances.
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This article originally appeared in The Daily Caller
“I suffered an unconscionable excess of resources and was looking for some way to redeem myself morally,” That, in a nutshell, is what all liberalism is about – guilt. And so, because the environmentalist wackos feel guilty, they try to make everyone else feel guilty. Just as socialism strives for “equality” by making everyone equally miserable, environmentalists try to “save the planet” (which doesn’t need saving) by forcing everyone to live as though it were 1515 instead of 2015. Everyone except themselves, of course.
it has all turned into another false religion in this case secular, where gov or experts are the gods, we do have real enviromental problems but these are ignored for the more profittable global warming myth. but I get her point our infrastruture and business/governmental policy has been a hinderance for those who want to implement more enviormentally friendly lifestyles I imagine where all could choose how to get around heat their homes (thank God for push button heat)cool them and grow abundant foods cheaply etc. but our need for jobs that pay in cash (fiat currency, fake money, counterfiet money, printed out of thin air money) instead of gold or silver which they are not allowed to do (since most stores are licensed by the government) forces people to live on top of each other which is about as unfriendly to enviorment as one can get. new york city? shangai? hong kong, chicago, you get my point. we were never designed to live in a bee hive society.
Shame and ostracism are legitimate tools to change norms. Your comment is a bit naive and short sighted. The only ones I hear even say “save the planet”” are people such as yourself who try to make fun of environmentalists, simply because they have more nuance in their arguments than that simple strawman synopsis. Even in the worst case scenario where lifestyles were “regressed” or made more eco friendly, it would be more late 1800s than 1515, hyperbole does not make a valid argument. There is also your point about equality which I’ll forgive you for, most people don’t understand that when the left says they want equality, what they really want is for things to be more equitable. Equality is impossible simply because everyone is different in capacity and are born with different talents. It’s comments like yours that make me think critics DO feel guilty, but that’s not the only thing liberalism is about. To define it as such would be dismissing a wide swath of academia as pure fluff, highly unlikely it is as such.
Liberalism honestly wishes to change society to their new ideals, how the changes are brought about matters little even deception will be OK..Marxists want total collapse so it might be rebuilt their new way.
Marxist will use and abuse you as you will eventually discover once you stop going their way.