Sunday, July 08, 2007
HOTTER THAN HURLEY
Back in March, the Independent was all huffy about Bigfoot-style celebrity carbon outputs:
Liz Hurley’s long-haul wedding has produced a carbon footprint so large that it would take the average British couple more than 10 years to contribute as much to heating up the planet as she and Arun Nayar have done in little over a week. It would take a typical Indian couple a massive 123 years.
A special study, by an Oxford-based footprinting consultancy, suggests the celebrations will release around 200,000kg of carbon into the atmosphere.
The consultancy, Best Foot Forward, reckons this is an underestimate. The couple are not giving full details of the festivities because of a contract with Hello! magazine, but last night environmentalists condemned their “conspicuous carbon consumption”.
Conspicuous? Hardly, when compared to Live Earth’s. The delightful Ms Hurley’s marriage caused only a mere 200 tonnes of carbon to be released. By comparison, Live Earth has puked forth - according to this estimate - some 31,500 tonnes of carbon. Factor in Live Earth’s TV audience and the carbon count apparently soars to 74,500 tonnes, or 372.5 times the carbon emissions condemned by Hurley-haters. Live Earth attendee Jayme Fine gets GoreCo off the hook:
“People leaving their lights on at home when nobody’s there is going to eat up electricity,” he said.
“If we all just remember to shut those off, it’s OK for us to have an event like this.”
UPDATE. Sydney’s Live Earth was a debacle:
Scores were seen leaving within the first two hours of the nine-hour festival, fed up with the lack of basic services, cutting their losses on a $99 ticket. Gate attendants were heard telling the human tide that they should complain to the promoter ...
“This is what happens when you let hippies organise a big event,” another said.
UPDATE II. Aieeeeee! It’s Hologram Al!
UPDATE III. It’s a religion:
As the Live Earth concerts rolled out around the globe, each blessed with Gore’s presence, either live or on giant screens, it became clear that the failed presidential candidate has metamorphosed into a prophet.
And the prophet sayeth:
“We are in a transition time in history when the only way we can get to where we need to be is by starting from where we are.”
Er, OK.