From Apocalypse Never (Michael Shellenberger, 2020) pp222-3
In 2019, some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people started responding to demands that we act on climate change.
At the end of July, Google brought together celebrities with climate activists in Italy to discuss what they could do to support the cause. Leonardo DiCaprio, Stella McCartney, Katy Perry, Harry Styles, Orlando Bloom, Bradley Cooper, Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, and Diane von Furstenberg reportedly brainstormed ways they could leverage their fame to change behavior. Some were already taking action for the climate. Perry had made videos for UNICEF, while DiCaprio had narrated a documentary. Prince Harry, who described the climate emergency to the assembled guests, bare-footed, had recently written on Instagram, “With nearly 7.7 billion people inhabiting this Earth, every choice, every footprint, every action makes a difference.”
The gathering in Sicily took place at the Verdura, a five-star resort larger than the entire nation of Monaco, and home to six tennis courts, three golf courses, four pools, and a football field. While the resort is world-class, many of the participants chose to stay instead on superyachts floating off the coast, from which they were ferried to the event on the island in Maseratis. By the first night of the event, forty private jets had landed at the resort, with another seventy or so expected to arrive before the weekend was over.
“I’ve never seen such a pampered bunch,” someone present told the Sun, a British tabloid. “Everything is laid out for them. It’s so extravagant.” “They just don’t seem to be aware that they’re the ones burning huge amounts of fossil fuels. They turn up with unnecessary entourages in helicopters or fast cars and then preach about saving the world.”
Two weeks later, just as the controversy was starting to die down, media reported that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and their new baby had taken two additional trips on private planes, first to Ibiza, Spain, and then, a few weeks later, to the town of Nice on the French Riviera.* While an economy class ticket from London to Nice costs £232 (U.S. $306), a private jet flight costs £20,000 (U.S. $29,000).
“Frankly it’s hypocritical. Harry can’t be preaching about the catastrophic effects of climate change while jetting around the world on a private plane,” said one of the prince’s former bodyguards.
BBC calculated that the flights to Ibiza and Nice had produced six times more emissions than the average Briton does each year and more than one hundred times more than the average resident of the African nation of Lesotho, where Prince Harry had lived during his gap year.’
Friends of Harry and Meghan rushed to the couple’s defense. “I’m calling on the press to cease these relentless and untrue assassinations,” Elton John said. “Imagine being attacked,” said Ellen DeGeneres, “when all you’re trying to do is make the world a better place.”
But the problem wasn’t that the celebrities were flaunting their high-energy lifestyles. The problem was that they were moralizing for low-energy lives. “Stop lecturing us on how we live our lives,” said one Briton, “and live by example.”
Al Gore wouldn’t have been similarly embarrassed by Associated Press for living in a twenty-room home that used twelve times more energy than the average home in Nashville, Tennessee, had he not claimed, “We are going to have to change the way we live our lives” to solve climate change.”
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