Greenest Celebrities - How Helpful Are Green Celebrities Really?
The lovely Gayla sent me a link to an interesting Gaiam article about green celebrities. The article covers many green celebs including Ed Begley, Jr. - my fave. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film with this guy, but his show on HGTV is so cool. Or was? I think they may have ended it, much to my dismay. Ed really makes green accessible and fun. Plus he walks the talk in a major way, especially with his small house. He’s seemingly using only the space he actually needs.
That said, I’m under impressed with most green celebrities. For example, you often hear of the good green celebs are doing, but what about when those same people have two and three huge homes? Does it offset their green good deeds? I can’t imagine needing that much space. Even if that space is green, you’re still creating such a large footprint, by building large.
Another example is gas use - TMZ had a killer article a while back that highlighted the bad and good among celebrity gas users. Sadly there was more bad.
The bad - Jennifer Lopez
“On the ground: J-Lo tools around in her 60 miles-per-gallon Prius.
In the air: LA /New York, 2,475 miles in a private jet.
Gas guzzled: 2,750 gallons of jet fuel.
Prius penance: She’d have to drive 45,000 miles, and that’s a lot longer for Jenny than just going down the block. It’s actually more like twice around the earth.”
The good - Leo DiCaprio
“On the ground: Leo drives a Toyota Prius
In the air: Leo flies just like us folk — commercial, unless he positively must fly private because of scheduling.
Prius penance: None.”
See the rest of the bad at TMZ.
Still, one thing to consider is that like everyone, celebrities are human, they don’t have to be perfect. Small steps are a-ok. On the other hand, their extra big leaps across the planet, do create a need (I think) for them to act more responsibly. But, I’d say that about big time business folk, or a McMansion owner, or a travel writer too. If you make an big impact on the earth with your lifestyle, then it’s important to give back. And I mean give back in a real sort of way. Don’t build a “green house” that’s solar heated but takes up miles of land. Don’t give money to help social causes in third world countries and then wear a diamond wedding ring.
I guess I’m saying we all should try our best to live in a non-contradictory manner. We all make mistakes with green living, it’s just that some of those mistakes create a bigger impact. What do you think?
Learn more about green celebrities:
If you really want all the juicy gossip on green celebs - well, you’re not really in the right place.
I don’t know about co-blogger Peggy, but I’m not the biggest celebrity gusher. I’m usually only interested in famous people who are architects. So unless you’re an architect or you happened to be on a show that starts with “X” and ends with “Files” I’m just not interested.
Where you can find all the latest green celebrity gossip is ecorazzi. They post pretty cool stuff and note when celebs do good and when they act, well, green questionable. Plus their site is oh, so mod pretty.
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POSTED IN: Celebrity News
3 opinions for Greenest Celebrities - How Helpful Are Green Celebrities Really?
Peggy
Feb 21, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I’m not a celebrity gusher either.
But, I do think you have to consider that car choices of celebs do influence some people. So, Leo may be helping more than you think.
Jennifer
Feb 21, 2008 at 5:12 pm
No, Leo is one of the good green celebs. Flying commercial is a good thing. Private jets are gas hogs. Hmmm, guess we won’t be doing much celeb stuff around here.
Peggy
Feb 21, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I don’t know. That link is cool.
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