Celebrity Eco-Hypocrites

Sure, some earnest stars probably mean well, but celebrities just may be the biggest eco-hypocrites on the planet. What greenie doesn’t admire Al Gore, Edward Norton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sheryl Crow and even Brad Pitt for what they are doing to raise awareness about climate change, putting solar panels on schools, galvanizing people into eco-action, reducing toilet paper use and building affordable green housing for the people of New Orleans.

These celebs are heroes/heroines, but the reality is that they have lifestyles much larger than the average person and have carbon footprints that are probably a hundred times greater than an average citizens.

If you think of their vacations, travel for movie promotion, large homes, vacation homes, heated driveways, swimming pools, fleets of cars and limousines, fancy clothing, personal chefs and trainers, trips to the spa, hairstylists, etc., it takes an obscene quantity of resources to support the lifestyle of just one eco-celebrity. It would be impossible for every person on the planet to live like celebs do as there are simply not enough resources, but these celebs mean well, so we cut them some slack.

Then there are the celebrity eco-hypocrites that don’t have the slightest clue about going green and instead have jumped on the green bandwagon to garner more media attention and headlines for themselves.

Take Jennifer Aniston with her proclamations that she showers and brushes her teeth to save water while simultaneously shucking bottled water to the masses. It was recently revealed that she flew her hairdresser to Europe to accompany her on a press tour and it cost more than $50,000 to do her hair for one week. How can anyone call this high-maintenance overconsuming ‘friend’ green?

Or what about Oprah who went vegan for a month? It is irrefutable that she alleviated animal suffering and reduced her carbon footprint by eliminating animal products from her diet, but a one month eco-diet does not make anybody green. America’s beloved Oprah, aside from having a huge personal living carbon footprint, has been 'over-consuming' for years and probably has a carbon and food footprint that is many times the size of the normal North American.

Ellen DeGeneres also recently adopted a vegan lifestyle. Good for her, but on a grand scale she is making miniscule efforts to green her lifestyle and zero efforts to green her personal life and/or hit television show.

Madonna is another celebrity that recently came under fire for how carbon intensive her concert footprints are and most recently she was named PETA’s worst dressed celebrity for wearing fur. Is this the same woman who performed so beautifully at Live Earth and is building schools in Malawi?

Eco-celebrities, movie stars and television personalities, with their enormous influence and carbon intense lifestyles, could put some serious climate change efforts where their big mouths are – why not green their production studios, films, ad campaigns or talkshows?

The recent announcement that the Fox Network television show 24 went carbon neutral is a good indication that celebrities and other Hollywood types that are serious about going green, will make it a reality.  

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