It wasn't all that long ago that everyone to the political right of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) - so, almost everyone - was chuckling over the daffy old Bolshevik from Vermont and his anointed heir apparent, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), jet setting around the country on a luxurious private airplane lecturing all and sundry about the "oligarchy," and probably taking a few jabs at the fossil-fuel industry as well. Hypocrisy just doesn't seem a strong enough word for these two.
Of course, there are a lot of words that aren't strong enough for these two and the Swalwell they spread around, but for now, let's just focus on the private jet.
Here's the thing: When it comes to using a private carbon-spewing jet to bop around the world spreading climate panic, the Bern and AOC have plenty of company. A recent opinion piece at The Blaze by Vijay Jayaraj, a research associate at the CO2 Coalition, has some interesting numbers to show us.
Politicians, celebrities, and billionaires who lecture ordinary people about their carbon footprints live by another set of rules. They travel by private jet, dine in excess, and retreat to mansions powered by the very energy sources they want banned. It’s a spectacle of hypocrisy so pervasive, the media barely blinks.
Even scientists who scold the public about emissions fly thousands of miles to United Nations climate conferences — racking up the same greenhouse gases they claim will destroy the planet. This is two-tiered climate morality: Those with power indulge, while everyone else is told to sacrifice. Preaching austerity from a private jet has become the “let them eat cake” of our age.
This is nothing new; we've known about it for a while now.
Read More: Feel the Bern of Senator Sander's Private Jet's Massive Carbon Dioxide Output
But as I mentioned, Mr. Jayaraj has brought numbers.
According to data from Yard, celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Leonardo DiCaprio emitted between 3,000 and 4,400 tons of carbon dioxide in 2022 from private jet travel alone — hundreds or even thousands of times the annual emissions of an average citizen.
For perspective: Bangladesh emits about 0.71 tons of carbon dioxide per person annually. Ghana emits 0.74, Ethiopia 0.13, and Kenya 0.4. A single year of indulgence by an American climate icon outweighs the lifetime footprint of entire villages in the developing world.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who condemns “climate deniers” as morally deficient, has a carbon footprint equivalent to nearly 280 average Americans or more than 2,200 Indians. DiCaprio built his global brand on climate activism — then took a private jet from Europe to New York to collect an environmental award.
If the hypocrisy of celebrities is glaring, the behavior of politicians is worse.
Records show that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign spent over $221,000 on private jets in just one quarter — even as the Vermont socialist voted for laws that punish fossil fuel use and floated the idea of criminal charges for energy executives.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Fighting Oligarchy tour, meant to challenge wealth and privilege, relied on carbon-intensive travel of its own. The Bronx Democrat later scaled back her private jet use after criticism — by switching to first-class flights instead.
Private jet cost? I'm guessing $30 or $40 million, at least; let's call it a quarter-million to lease for the summer. Cost of jet fuel to spend the summer flitting around the country? Let's call it another $5 million. Being exposed as a raging hypocrite by your own behavior? Priceless.
This is why people are starting to tune out the climate scolds.
As I noted earlier in October:
...the crowds at the usual climate change protests are shrinking, even in - perhaps especially in - Europe. Where a few short years ago Greta "Doom Pixie" Thunberg could turn out tens of thousands at a climate-panic rally, she has moved on to shuttling supplies to Hamas, and the climate crowds have shrunk dramatically.
Read More: Reason Is Winning: Climate-Scold Protest Numbers Are Crashing
The crowds are thinning out, and the support for the climate scolds, yes, is diminishing. This is in large part because, try as you might, you cannot hide facts away forever. People have tried electric vehicles, and the governments have tried subsidizing low-density energy sources like solar and wind. The problem is, they just don't work - not on any scale. In niche applications, sure, but not on a scale big enough to power the grid. The advent of AI and the massive data centers that it demands will only make traditional sources, including nuclear power, more in demand, not less.
Those are facts, and as such, are good to toss in the faces of the scolds. But their own hypocrisy, that may be an even bigger metaphorical cudgel with which to beat the worst hypocrites, people like Leonardo DiCaprio, with his private jet and mega-yacht. People like Steven Spielberg and John Kerry, both fans of private jets, and we should note that Spielberg actually was brazen enough to fly in a carbon-spewing jet from Europe to New York to pick up an environmental award.
Now that's crass.
Mr. Jayaraj concludes:
Eventually, voters will see through this 21st-century version of aristocratic corruption. The public may not wield guillotines, but the electoral version will do just fine. Off with their subsidies!
That's good enough. We're not barbarians; the left are the only ones parading around with guillotines. But cutting off the flow of taxpayer dollars to the "green energy" boondoggles they support is more than good enough. In the meantime, we can point and laugh at the hypocrites and take every single opportunity to point out their intellectual dishonesty. You can rest assured that I will go on doing precisely that.
