Celebrities often claim to be concerned about the environment, usually without changing their lavish lifestyles or pollution.
During a telethon fundraiser on Sept. 12, for Harvey and Irma relief, celebrities like Beyonce linked manmade climate change to the hurricanes. But the very stars participating in the telethon burn massive amounts of carbon dioxide by their extravagant lifestyles, just as Daily Mail reported on Sept. 13.
“The effects of climate change are playing out around the world every day,” Beyonce claimed in a pre-recorded message. But if Beyonce and other celebrities were so concerned about a supposed connection between the devastation and climate change, why have they continued to ignore their own carbon gluttony?
“The A-list celebrities who starred in the telethon for those affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have clocked up hundreds of thousands of air miles which have fuelled rising temperatures and helped create devastating storms,” Daily Mail foreign reporter Gareth Davies wrote.
Climate change activists often claim carbon emissions from driving and flying are a significant cause of man-made warming.
Davies found that, in just the past year, Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Justin Bieber and Beyonce produced at least 52.11 tons of carbon dioxide with their air travel alone.
Bieber’s jet-setting had the highest carbon footprint, an egregious 22 tons. In comparison, the average American’s total carbon footprint is 20 tons.
According to Davies, if “driving, pollution from their concerts or films and the electric in their homes are considered,” the total was “likely to be astronomic.”
Although DiCaprio is a self-proclaimed environmentalist, he continued to live an incompatible lifestyle of massive carbon emissions. For the 2017 Oscars, DiCaprio and a fellow actor flew an someone 15,000 miles round trip to tidy their eyebrows.
The actor also asked if “are we too late” to stop climate change and blasted the supposed “corporate greed of the coal, oil and gas industries” in January 2016. All while owning multiple mansions, vacationing on yachts and flying thousands of miles in private jets.
Even Forbes noted, “DiCaprio himself is one of those "big polluters," which diminishes his moral authority to lecture others on reducing their own carbon emissions” in March 2016. Forbes also challenged DiCaprio’s claim that he only produces 11 tons of carbon annually.
Clooney criticized global warming skeptics as “stupid” and “ridiculous” in 2013. Despite his rhetoric on climate change however, the actor and his wife Amal owned eight homes as of March 2016, according to the Daily Mail.
Other celebrities like Julia Roberts are also eco-hypocrites. In 2011, she co-wrote a USA Today op-ed demanding cleaner cooking stoves in third world countries to combat climate change. Yet she has owned five homes and a private jet all at the same time.
More than 45 celebrities took part in the fundraiser, which brought in more than $44 million. All of the celebrities most likely live far more lavish, carbon-burning lives than average Americans.
