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A-listers flock to Google summit in private jets, mega yachts to talk climate change: https://t.co/24UwSo2f0h

— JWF (@JammieWF) July 31, 2019

Well, Maeve Campbell of Euronews gives it shot, which is more about defending this behavior

IS TRAVELLING TO GOOGLE’S CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE BY PRIVATE JET HYPOCRITICAL?

Film stars, celebrities, politicians and even royalty graced the Sicilian coast with their presence this week, for the 7th annual ‘Google Camp’. The enigmatic conference is known for its exclusivity, with billionaire CEOs jet-setting in to take part in the proceedings, with the hope of working together to effect some sort of change on a global scale. Each year, the theme is different, with previous editions centring around issues like feminism and the role of sports in modern culture. But this year, all eyes were on mother nature, with the theme of climate change at the forefront of the event. (snip)

Given the eco theme of the conference this year, it surely begs the question, shouldn’t a different approach have been applied to travelling to and from the resort, given the pressing environmental issues at hand? In reality, 114 private jets flew into the Italian Verdura Resort, according to the Italian press, and many of the elite guest list arrived in multi million pound yachts. With stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Barack Obama and Prince Harry in attendance, they were hardly going to be hitch-hiking, but even so, the luxurious vehicles seemed not in-keeping with the subject of the conference this year.

Of course, it’s not just the jets, but the megayachts and fossil fueled vehicles, plus the extravagance. Anyhow, on one hand, she says it is hypocritical

Inevitably, celebrities like Katy Perry, Harry Styles, Bradley Cooper and eco fashion designer Stella McCartney, all arrived at the retreat in style. American Businessman Barry Diller, creator of Fox Broadcasting, rocked up on his $200 million yacht Eos, including both sails and two 2,300-horsepower diesel engines. The list goes on…billionaire Dreamworks founder David Geffen is thought to have hosted Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom on his $400 million yacht, Rising Sun.

Therefore, you could certainly argue that this is an immense hypocrisy. According to our calculations, a flight from New York to Palermo, Sicily, generates around 4.24 metric tons of CO2, or the equivalent of 540,652 smart phones being charged at one time. And it’s not as if the plane is carrying hundreds of people, like any other would, these celebs arrive in private jets. All that CO2, for just a few people crossing the Atlantic – it’s not exactly eco-friendly?

But, see

While the facts remain, following the influx of private vehicles to Google’s Italian retreat, there is an argument to be made that both the coverage generated and the environmental awareness resulting from it, makes it all worth it. To centre such an important event around climate change in this day and age is a positive step in the right direction, given the amount of influential figures in attendance, all with staggering platforms to effect change all around the world.

To have them all in one place, working together to achieve a common goal that could really make a difference along the road to becoming carbon neutral before 2050 – perhaps the positives outweigh the negatives? And even if you disagree, at least the very fact they all arrived in such sheer extravagance has brought all the more attention to the event and the eco themes surrounding it!

See, the optics of having all these big shot celebrities, none of whom are climate scientists (and almost none, if any, are scientists of any disciple – remember when the Cult of Climastrology said we should only listen to climate scientists?), is more important than any danged old climahypocrisy. People who won’t see their lives get harmed in the least by Hotcoldwetdry policies have no problem pushing this on Other People.

Let’s hope they are offsetting their flights by sequestering the amount of CO2 produced, as this is one easy step we can all take to travel with a guilty-free conscience. From planting trees to contributing to clean energy research schemes, there’s lots we can all do to neutralise our flight emissions when we go on holiday.

Most of us will not be flying on private jets or hanging on mega-yachts, heading to fancy-pants conferences. The Cult always has an excuse.