ABC Jets Anchor to San Francisco to Report on Carbon Footprint

"World News" anchor Charles Gibson promoted the costly green lifestyle, but ignored the hypocrisy of his cross-country flight to report on May 9.

Gibson traveled from New York, to San Francisco for the "Going Green" segment, which featured one man who has "no idea how much" carbon he emits; and another who drives a hybrid, uses solar panels and buys "squiggly" light bulbs.

The ABC anchor supported the choices of Peter Boyd (the one with the solar panels), but left out cost information about those lifestyle choices, and his own jet-setting behavior.

In fact, the solar energy situation in California is "a mess," according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Many homeowners quickly decided that it might not be worth going solar under the new requirements. The costs would be burdensome for those who couldn’t afford or lacked the roof space to buy systems that would supply all of their energy needs,” the Times reported on May 8.

The "World News" report also left out the up-front costs of solar panels, hybrid cars and energy-efficient lighting. The Times estimated solar panels cost $10,000 or more, even with California and federal rebates and credits.

But ABC's hypocrisy was most evident in the roughly 0.5 tons of CO2 it must have taken for Gibson to fly each way across the country. That estimate, from ClimateCrisis.org, is roughly 13 percent of the average person's yearly emissions.

Gibson will be anchoring live from Seattle tonight, as the "Going Green" series continues. Similarly, "Good Morning America" flew reporters to several continents for "Planet Earth 2007" on April 20.