Fighting Global Warming on the Fly [1]
Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson [2] on
Less than a year ago, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [3] was being lauded as the cover boy for NewsWeek's issue about how to battle global warming [4]. But critics are calling attention to the governator's daily commute -- Sacramento to Los Angeles and back -- by airplane. "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 figures compiled by the Helium Report, an online publication for buyers of luxury items." Schwarzenegger counters that he purchases carbon offsets [5] to compensate, but as CMD previously reported [6], there is growing concern that those quick and easy fixes may be nothing more than feel-good greenwashing [7]. Denis Hayes, president of the Bullitt Foundation [8], which funds environmental projects in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. said that "He has been very bold on all these [environmental] initiatives, so it is sad to see him undercut that. If you are going to be talking about an issue, you should be living the reality you are trying to embrace."