If the crisis is real, why don’t prominent individuals act like it?

Climate activists frequently employ war analogies. Prince Charles has likened the climate threat “to Britain’s battle against Nazi Germany in World War II.” Al Gore has invoked the spirit of Churchill, lamenting that the public refuses to understand that the danger is “as urgent as that from Hitler.” Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron has called for “a mobilisation to tackle climate change, of a scale similar to that of World War II.”

But while prominent people say there’s a climate crisis, their behaviour says something else. Such individuals almost never walk the talk. They urge politicians to take action, to impose carbon taxes on ordinary people (these are intended to curb travel by making it too expensive), yet they themselves don’t hesitate to jump on a jet. Witness Prince Harry who, before and after delivering a speech about the environment recently, nevertheless traveled by private plane.

In the 2016 video at the top of this post, Leonardo DiCaprio compares the fight against climate change to another historical struggle, the one against slavery. He declares himself “absolutely terrified. “He says there’s “a runaway freight train bringing with it an impending disaster for all living things.” He talks about honour and dishonour, and says there should be “no more excuses.”

Yet there’s no indication whatsoever that this man has abandoned his gas-guzzling private jets, his mega yachts, his multiple mansions, or his private island off the coast of Central America’s Belize. I assure you, people don’t arrive on that island by canoe.

Words are cheap. Deeds are what matter.

What does real leadership look like? Let us turn to the iconic video series, Band of Brothers, about US paratroopers during WW2. Here’s how Richard Winters, the commander of Easy Company, talks about leadership on page 287 of his own memoirs:

The Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, has defined leadership in just two words via its motto: “Follow Me!” Never ask your team to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. When I hit the ground [on D-Day] armed only with a trench knife…I grabbed the first trooper I could find, and said, “Follow me!”

[bold added]

Real leaders don’t invent excuses as to why they themselves are exempt. When politicians, members of royal families, and Hollywood celebrities start behaving, en masse, like there’s a climate crisis, that will be an important turning point.

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	Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters Richard Winters
	Band of Brothers HBO Home Video

LINKS:

• James Cameron is the ultimate environmentalist – except when he flies on pollution spewing private jets
• James Cameron labelled climate change ‘hypocrite’
• Leonardo DiCaprio took an outrageous 8000 mile trip in a private jet to pick up an environmental award
• Why Leo DiCaprio is just another climate hypocrite
• A recent Austrian climate conference has been described as “the brainchild of former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.” For the bigger picture, see this 2008 LA Times article, about his use of a private jet during his then daily commute to work: This puts your commute to shame. “The governor’s Gulfstream jet does nearly as much damage to the environment in one hour as a small car does in a year…”
• According to this 2010 news article, Schwarzenegger was personally responsible for persuading the manufacturer of gas-guzzling (and formerly strictly military) Hummer automobiles to sell one first to him, and then to the public at large: “Hummer sales grew rapidly, from about 20,000 in 2002 to more than 71,000 globally in 2006.”