Sting’s Wife Trudie Styler Flies Stylist Across U.S.

Trudie Styler, film producer and wife of the musician Sting, spends much of her life criticizing the oil industry and campaigning on behalf of environmental and human rights causes. But, that didn’t stop the “green celebrity” from flying a hair stylist across America last week to do her hair and make-up for a White House dinner.

From IMDB:

But she has risked criticism after admitting she and an entourage of eight jetted to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner on Saturday by private plane.

The team included her hair stylist Antonio Prieto, who is based in Manhattan.

A rep for Styler tells New York Post gossip column PageSix, “The stylist was added to a previous scheduled flight to DC and flew back commercially.”

And Styler adds: “Yes, I do take planes. My life is to travel and my life is also to speak out about the horrors of an environment that is being abused at the hands of oil companies.”

Styler, co-founder of the Rainforest Foundation, has been called an eco-hypocrite in the past for numerous offenses including ordering her personal chef to travel over 100 miles to make a bowl of pasta. Styler and Sting seem to have adopted the “Do as I say, not as I do” approach to environmental activism.

From an interview with The Daily Mail in 2008:

“Miss Styler tried to shift a little of the blame on to her musician husband, who is 56. ‘When it comes to the carbon footprint, Sting puts his hand up immediately and says ‘I’m a musician and I have a huge carbon-footprint’, she said. She then asked: ‘Are we being hypocritical?’ before seeming to answer the question herself. ‘He has a 750-person crew to bring around the world and it is a difficult challenge. I would like to think that we both work pretty hard for the rights of indigenous people and for the rights of conservation of the Amazon rainforest, but we do need to get around. It’s a difficult one.’”

Styler and Sting have done some admirable work, especially for rainforest conservation – but if they’re so concerned about the environment, they could make some simple changes in their own lives. Yes, they’ll always have a bigger carbon footprint than most other people, but the public would take the green movement a lot more seriously if ‘green celebrities’ practiced what they preached. Flying a hairstylist across the country when there are hundreds in Washington D.C. is not even remotely green.

Link [IMDB] + [The Daily Mail]
Photo credit: Rick Diamond/WireImage.com

Boeing 727 Gets New Life as Costa Rican Airplane Hotel

If only Oceanic flight 815 had a talented carpenter on board, perhaps the survivors of the first plane crash on LOST could have lived it up in a stunning recycled airplane hotel like this one in Costa Rica. A wooden structure was built around the 1965 Boeing 727, making it an incredibly luxurious 2-bedroom suite with exterior decks providing unbelievable views of the Manuel Antonio National Park.

From Inhabitat:

The airplane was transported piece by piece from the San Jose airport to its current resting place on a pedestal 50 feet above the beach. It looks a bit like a model airplane on a stand, and we can only imagine the spectacular views from the balcony and the airplane windows. Five big trucks were needed to get the plane out to the resort, and while the transportation certainly had a negative ecological impact, the finished project is a stunning example of adaptive reuse.

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite also includes a kitchenette, flat-screen tvs, a dining room, and a terrace with an ocean view. We can’t really agree with their choice of furnishings, which are made from teak and shipped across the Pacific from Indonesia, but at least they were hand carved.

It’s a shame that the owners of the Costa Verde Resort didn’t decide to go all the way with the recycling concept and use eco-friendly furnishings, but it is indeed a very cool way to reuse an old airplane. Why not turn it into something useful instead of letting it rot in an airplane graveyard?

Link [Inhabitat]

Tesco Greenwash: Turn Lights into Flights!

A British supermarket seems to have failed to grasp the concept of going green. You see, Tesco has unveiled a new program that rewards shoppers for purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs – wiTesco Greenwash: Turn Lights into Flights!th airline miles.  The ‘Every little helps’ promotion is meant to urge shoppers to cut back on energy at home, and then hop on an airplane and rack up a huge carbon footprint to make up for it.

From The Guardian, via Eden Bee

Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy is now offering air miles when you buy a low energy lightbulb. What next? Free packet of 20 Benson & Hedges with every Nicorette patch? A dozen king-size Mars bars with each box of Ryvita? Talk about counter-productive. It’s like being lost in the desert, miles from anywhere and eating your own legs to sustain yourself during your search for help.

Granted, the promotion actually allows shoppers to earn airline miles for all purchases – it’s just that some schmuck in the advertising department needed to find a word that rhymes with ‘flights’. LIGHTS! Genius!

But, as The Guardian’s Ed Gillespie points out, the real problem is that ads like this help feed into the notion that you can make a few small changes and still go about your very non-green daily routine – and call yourself ‘green’. It’s like taking a reusable bag to Wal-Mart and filling it with plastic crap from China. Not exactly helping things, is it?

Link [The Guardian] via [Eden Bee]

Who’s Who in Green: Joss Garman

At 14 years old, Joss Garman read an article that detailed how the destruction of just a handful of a certain species of beetle could damage an entire ecosystem. That was enough to spur the young nature lover to seek ways that he could contribute to saving the environment, and when he sought out his local chapter of Greenpeace in Wales to begin volunteering only to discover that there wasn’t one, he set one up.

Since then, Garman has built a reputation as an environmental activist and co-founder of ‘Plane Stupid’, the climate change campaign group that recently stole the headlines when it protested the construction of a new runway at Heathrow Airport in London. He’s been arrested more than 20 times, honored by The Guardian as one of “50 People Who Could Save the Planet” and was nominated by George Monbiot and Philip Pullman as one of the activists of the future.

Garman has campaigned against power stations, worked toward awareness about genetically modified crops and protested the war in Iraq. As a teenager volunteering for Greenpeace, Garman met Richard George, who co-founded Plane Stupid with him in 2005.

Plane Stupid’s main goal is to highlight the issue of short haul flights, which they believe is the single fastest growing threat to the climate. Nearly half the journeys taken in Europe are less than 500km, and Garman says if those flights were eliminated there wouldn’t be a need to continue building new runways which encroach upon green space.

Plane Stupid’s tactics have been criticized for their boldness and perceived insensitivity to travelers. They gate crashed an aviation industry conference and released balloons with rape alarms attached to them, and have staged sit-ins at runways that have disrupted travel for thousands of people.

Garman has been a visible figure in Great Britain as Plane Stupid works to turn the tide of public opinion against a third runway at Heathrow, appearing on television and writing columns in major newspapers. He appears in this GreenpeaceUK video against the Heathrow expansion, below.

In a January 14th, 2009 commentary in The Guardian, Garman called for pro-runway unions to rethink their position.

Should Britain be building a sustainable economy with a green fiscal package centred on creating millions of green-collar jobs? Or do we plough on with the industries of the past irrespective of their impact on disadvantaged people all around the world? For example, do union leaders not think that the £10bn of tax breaks offered to the airline industry each year could not be better spent in other areas? Do they not think that Brown’s £11bn VAT cut, which has made no difference on expenditure whatsoever, could be better spent creating an army of green workers or insulating homes and thus reducing the bills of Britain’s fuel poor?

Garman has also recently turned his focus to coal, aiding in the defense of the six Greenpeace activists who went on trial for defacing the chimney at the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in 2007. The British government is set to begin making decisions about coal fire stations, and Garman is working with Greenpeace to broaden the opposition to coal that already exists in the community.

At just 24, Garman is proving that he has the chops to become one of the most passionate and prominent environmental activists of our time. He’s already got a decade-long record of activism behind him and the years to come will undoubtedly bring many more victories for Garman and his causes.

Joss Garman’s Green Score: 48,678

Link [The Guardian] + [New Statesman]
Photo credit: Times Online

And the Winner of Cartoon Caption #4 Is…

Before the holidays we asked our faithful Earthfirst readers to write their own caption to the following cartoon created exclusively for us by Jerry King:

“Welcome to the Capitol Hill Hilton sir, we have the congressional-bailout suite reserved for you.”

We got a lot of great submissions and after much deliberation, the winner of the eco-friendly, stainless steel Klean Kanteen is Radfahrer with his caption, “Welcome to the Capitol Hill Hilton sir, we have the congressional-bailout suite reserved for you.” Congrats Radfahrer and enjoy your new water bottle!

Be sure to stay tuned for our next contest…

Oil from a Poison Shrub Powers New Zealand Airline Flight

When fuel prices were higher, airlines were going to great lengths to save fuel. They stripped down their planes of all unnecessary weight and even flew slower. Planes do use a staggering amount of fuel, and regardless of the price, all that fossil fuel usage is extremely harmful to the environment.

Some airlines aren’t waiting for fuel prices to go back up to find more ways to save fuel. Air New Zealand has found a new biofuel it can mix with jet fuel to power their planes’ engines – and it comes from a poison shrub that grows wild all over the country.

From Reuters:

An Air New Zealand Boeing 747 flew for two hours on December 30 with one of its four engines powered by a 50-50 mixture of jet fuel and jatropha oil, the airline said in a statement.

Jatropha is a plant that grows up to three meters and produces inedible fruits, which contain the oil. It is grown on arid and marginal land in India, parts of Africa and other countries, and has been touted for mass production for biofuels because it does not compete for resources with food crops.

Air New Zealand, which hopes to use one million barrels of biofuel a year, or about 10 percent of its fuel consumption, by 2013, said the flight was the world’s first commercial aviation test flight powered by jatropha.

Air New Zealand is working toward becoming the world’s most environmentally sustainable airline, and with this innovation, they’re certainly well on their way. Though experts are warning that the use of jatropha oil poses problems because it’s toxic and yields are unreliable, the fuel mixture performed well and it’s certainly the right sort of thinking.

Link [Reuters]

Enter Our Caption Contest #4 & Win a Klean Kanteen

We’ve been really excited to have cartoonist Jerry King join us for our weekly cartoon caption contest. Leave your entry for a funny caption to the cartoon below in the comments section. We’ll pick our favorite and give the winner a brand spanking new Klean Kanteen (a reusable, eco-friendly, bpa-free, stainless steel water bottle). You have until Midnight EST on Friday, December 19th to get yours in for this week. Just leave it in comments. Good luck!

Air Traffic Worldwide: There are an Awful Lot of Planes in the Air

Check out this video simulation of global air traffic over a 24-hour period.  As all of the little yellow dots cross oceans and continents, it looks like a virus traversing the globe.  And it kind of is, really – think of how much pollution is being emitted as these planes travel through the air.

That is one crazy video.  Most of the planes originate from and land in the U.S. and Europe.  Watch how the U.S. goes dark for a while and then becomes completely covered with yellow dots. We certainly move around a lot!

Link [YouTube]

Ultralight Electric Plane Makes Flying Cheaper Than Driving

If you’ve got $21,000 to spare, you can get yourself your very own ElectraFlyer C, a tiny ultralight electric plane that flies for 2 hours per charge and is virtually silent.  This kit plane, made by Electric Aircraft Corporation, could be even more eco-friendly if you charged it via solar or wind power.  The take-home kit consists of a moni motoglider and a battery pack.  The per-flight cost works out to about 60 cents!

From Dance with Shadows Aviation:

A direct drive 5 KWh electric motor carbon fiber lightweight 45 inch propeller gets the little airplane climbing at 500-600 feet per minute. The ElectraFlyer-C has a cruisng speed of 70 mph (112 kmph), a top speed of 144 kmph, and your flight time would be 1.5 to 2 hours. That is with the top end battery pack, of course. With others, your flight time would be a lesser. yes, you can carry that 110 W charger when flying cross-country. The ElectraFlyer weighs around 250 pounds.

Charging time? For that 2 hour flight, you can recharge the ElectraFlyer’s battery pack in 6 hours from a 110W  electric power socket, or in 2 hours from a 220 W socket. Neat.

It complies with FAA regulations, and you can purchase an optional ballistic parachute for emergencies.  Maintenance costs are super low, and your neighbors won’t complain about noise, though most of us don’t have runways in our yards.

The ElectraFlyer C will likely only get better with development cycles.  Pretty effing rad!

Link [Dance with Shadows]

Why Fly When You Can Take the Train? 21 Trains Cheaper than Airfare

Air travel is a hassle. From parking to negotiating the crowds inside to getting onboard only to find that you can barely fit into your tiny seat, it’s an uncomfortable luxury for which we pay dearly. But, there’s another option if your flight is short. Trains are often cheaper, more comfortable and less of a hassle. America’s train system is far from perfect – hopefully it will be greatly improved upon in the years to come – but it’s still a great option that many people seem to have forgotten about.

From the Traveler’s Notebook:

Consider a 5 hour train ride from Boston to Philadelphia. The equivalent flight takes over two hours; however, after adding in time spent arriving early plus waiting in baggage claim, you can easily spend close to 5 hours in transit. If you take the train instead, you’ll spend $157. The cheapest flight available is $265. That’s a 43% savings over flying, and you can get an additional 10-15% if you are a student, AAA member, or military.

Now that airlines are raising airfares and tacking on more and more fees, it’s a great time to look into whether train travel could be a good option for your next trip. The Traveler’s Notebook has compiled a list of 21 trains that are cheaper and faster than flying. Brilliant! And, taking the train is better for the environment – mile by mile, trains use 28% less fuel than planes and cars.

Link [The Travelers Notebook]
Photo credit: Flickr user Odalaigh

Bad Carbon Karma: Lawyer Flies from Oregon to Saudi Arabia Every Three Weeks

Thomas Nelson, a lawyer from Oregon, regularly flies back and forth to Saudi Arabia to visit a client who can’t fly to the U.S. That’s ‘regularly’ not as in once or twice a year, but every three weeks. Nelson says he’s forced to do so because his client faces charges here for financing terrorism, and that he’s afraid to communicate via telephone or email due to possible surveillance.

From the New York Times:

Because he is constantly shifting time zones to see his client face to face, “I just don’t sleep normally anymore,” Mr. Nelson said. “But I don’t have a choice. It’s very clear to me that anything I say to my client or to other lawyers in this case is being recorded.”

Across the country, and especially here in Oregon, it seems, lawyers who represent suspects in terrorism-related investigations complain that their ability to do their jobs is being hindered by the suspicion that the government is listening in, using the eavesdropping authority it obtained — or granted itself — after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

There are all kinds of issues in play here, not the least of which is the creepy fact that the government is able to violate lawyer-client privilege by snooping on their communications. But there’s an unspoken aspect to it: what about all of the carbon being produced by the constant unnecessary flights? Oregon to Saudi Arabia is a very long trip – and as the article suggests, Nelson isn’t the only one making frequent flights like this. I can only imagine how large this guy’s carbon footprint is. It’s stupid and definitely bad for the earth…

Link [New York Times]

Photo credit: Karl Dolenc

Airlines Slowing Down, Lightening Their Loads to Save Fuel

Would you care if you got to your destination 2 minutes later than usual? Airlines are starting to bet that you won’t even notice, and slowing down slightly will end up saving them big bucks in fuel. Belgium’s Brussels Airlines is the first to try it, slowing their speed by about 10 kilometers per hour and lightening each plane’s load by using lighter seat covers, bringing less water on board for toilet flushing and possibly getting rid of the ashtrays, all of which can add up pretty quickly.

From BBC News:

The airline said slowing its planes by about 10km/h would cut its annual fuel bill by 1m euros ($1.6m; £800,000) and add a minute or two to flight times.

The measures will also reduce the airline’s emissions of global warming greenhouse gases, a spokesman said.
Oil prices have risen steeply recently, adding hugely to airlines’ costs.

Brussels Airlines is looking at nearly 100 ways of cutting fuel use, including more efficient fuel use and reducing weight on its planes.

Undoubtedly these changes are due to strain on the airline’s finances rather than concerns about the environment, but in this case, who cares? What matters is, they’ll result in a huge reduction in fuel use, and if more airlines follow, we could see some dramatic effects. This is exactly the way more companies need to start thinking. Leave it to Europe to pioneer such a simple yet smart concept.

Link [BBC News] via [The Road to the Horizon]