Is Al Gore seen as a hypocrite? (The Independent, London)

These shallow 'green' recruits are no friends of the Earth

Column by Janet Street-Porter
The Independent on Sunday, 1 April 2007

The most over-used words in the English language? Environment, global warming and carbon emissions. For years Friends of the Earth soldiered on, trying to convince us of the damage we were inflicting on the planet with our wasteful use of energy, our wholesale plundering and desecration of the earth's natural resources. They were preaching to the converted, a small band of intelligent, concerned citizens. Few people in power took any notice. I remember attending fringe meetings about the environment at Labour Party conferences 10 years ago and the only MP who ever bothered to turn up was Michael Meacher. Then, belatedly, politicians woke up and realised that the magic word green was (just like that other buzz word, organic) a passport to social acceptance. Now saying that you are committed to reducing carbon emissions is like joining a trendy club. It just stinks. Everyone wants to be environmentally bloody friendly. From Leonardo DiCaprio to Al Gore to Dave Cameron. They wear their green credentials like a badge of honour, the must-have insignia of the 21st century.

(snip)

Al Gore has undergone a total transformation, from rich, overweight presidential failure to Man of the Moment, winning Academy Awards and Emmys for his documentary about global warming. Of course he still lives in a huge mansion large enough to house the population of an African village, but I am sure it is full of low-energy light bulbs and triple insulation, so that's OK.

On his visit to England last month, Mr Gore held a seminar to which key opinion-formers were invited. One of those deemed suitable to spread the global-warming message of doom was none other than Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager and well-known environmentalist.

Shall I run that by you again? The man whose team revel in gas-guzzling top-of-the-range cars; the man who pays his footballers so much that many African nations could install water purification plants for every village with just one player's annual salary; the man whose club charges so much for horrible nylon shirts made in the third world, where labour is so very cheap.

Latest recruit to this world of dodgy environmentalists is John Travolta, who arrived at his film premiere in London this week on a Harley-Davidson telling fans that it was important to find other methods of fuel!

This is the man who owns five private jets, telling us he uses them as something called a business tool. John Travolta has only decided to care about the environment because it's the cause of the moment, just as Aids was 15 years ago. He's just spent two months flying around the world and has his own private runway. How confused is that?

(snip)

She has appeared on reality television programme So You Think You Can Teach, which saw Street-Porter trying to work as a teacher in a primary school.<2> More recently, Street-Porter took part in the series four of reality television series I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! on ITV in the UK. Finishing fourth, she was the last female to be voted off the show, with comedian Joe Pasquale eventually being crowned King of the Jungle.

In 2006, Street-Porter regularly appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word where she was the series' field correspondent. During the show, Street-Porter would have to find some alternative and more unusual food (such as crocodile) and tempt diners in Ramsay's restaurant to try the food. In 2007, Street-Porter is due to appear in a new television series airing on ITV2. She will be one tough- talking editor to take on different celebrity journalists. The celebrity journalists will have to produce a weekly mini-magazine which will come free each week inside Closer.<3>

Street-Porter regularly interviews celebrities, newsmakers, artists, architects, businessmen, broadcasters and politicians for Bloomberg TV. The shows are broadcast in over thirty countries and shown six times every Saturday and six times every Sunday.<2>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Street-Porter#Television