Harrison Ford has found himself being accused of hypocrisy after delivering a speech at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York yesterday.
The actor addressed the issues of deforestation and now wildfires in the Amazon, and the urgency needed to address the problems.
“We’ve been talking about saving the Amazon for 30 years, and we’re still talking about it,” Ford said.
“The world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon is crucial to any climate change solution for its capacity to sequester carbon, for its biodiversity, for its freshwater, for the air we breathe, for our morality. And it is on fire.
“When a room in your house is on fire, you don’t say, ‘There is a fire in a room in my house.’ You say, ‘My house is on fire,’ and we only have one house.
“There is a new form of nature at hand, stirring all over the world. They are the young people who, frankly, we have failed — who are angry, who are organized, who are capable of making a difference.
“They are a moral army. And the most important thing that we can do for them is to get the hell out of their way.”
But it wasn’t long before critics were rounding on him, mainly focussing on the actor’s decades-long love of aviation.
Said one: “Harrison Ford has an aviation hobby and he owns airplanes. Ford’s carbon footprint is multiples of the average person’s carbon footprint around the world. What would the world look like if everyone lived Ford’s lifestyle?”
Harrison Ford has an aviation hobby and he owns airplanes. Ford’s carbon footprint is multiples of the average person’s carbon foot print around the world. What would the world look like if everyone lived Ford’s lifestyle?
— Jeffrey W. Ludwig (@jwludwig) September 23, 2019
Many others chimed in too.
Harrison Ford owns 10 airplanes and at least as many cars and motorcycles.
He frequently brings a couple of his planes when shooting movies. https://t.co/OJDVwo8KX3
— Rev. Ducati💬 (@Reverend_Ducati) September 24, 2019
We may metaphorically only have one house, but Harrison Ford personally has more than one house and gets between them in his jet.
— David Pecchia (@dpecchia) September 24, 2019
I hope he didn’t forget to turn off his private jet’s engine after parking it at the hangar.
— K. Bella (@kweexter) September 23, 2019
As long as my carbon footprint is smaller than Harrison Ford’s, I figure I’m doing my part to save the planet
— Stephe96 (@Stephe96) September 24, 2019
So says the guy who zips around in private jets.
— Jim (@Jim_the_Troll) September 23, 2019
An article in the Daily Mail from 2015 tallied up eight planes in his fleet, including an $18 million Cessna private jet, along with a helicopter, several motorbikes and dozens of classic cars.
Another interview from 2010 quoted him as saying: “All of my planes are great to fly, and that’s why I’ve got so many of them…I’m so passionate about flying I often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger.”
He famously crash-landed in his two-seater PT- 22 on a golf course after running into engine troubles in 2015, sustaining minor injuries.
Read more at Yahoo News
To be fair, the number of airplanes and toys Harrison Ford owns is irrelevant. He can only operate one at a time. The real issue is the hypocrisy of climate crusaders travelling by private plane or limo, protected by armed guards and fartcatchers. The rest of us are expected to walk, bicycle, bus, subway or stand in line, cram into a flying tin can by the hundreds, like livestock. Celebrities must be numb to their hypocrisy.
Ford isnt the only one who flies all over and lectures others about this Global Warming/Climate Change scam John Travolta as a 707 which often flies all alone on Al Gore has plenty of his own private jets and the Sierra Club has its own Aircraft
Flying machines aside, the real issue (here) is why is Harrison Ford making an appearance at the UN? What are his qualifications on climate science to state his opinion? My understanding is he was a carpenter before he became an actor. So, I’d respect his opinion on staining a kitchen cabinet. Consequently, I would not consider his opinion on a “climate crisis” as any more informed than my next door neighbors thoughts shared at a weekend barbecue, let alone consider it as a basis to formulate environmental policy at an international event. What did I miss here?
It’s the cult of celebrity. Youth are particularly vulnerable.
Harrison should fly his planes as often as he wants and can afford. They will contribute more of the precious, life-giving, beneficial trace gas, CO2, to the atmosphere. We need more.
Did Harrison land on the runway of the destination airport, as opposed to when he flew “down the coast” from Santa Monica to Santa Ana and landed on the taxiway of John Wayne Airport, which at the time had a commercial airliner awaiting clearance for takeoff. He nearly landed atop the airliner, closely missing the tail as he touched down just ahead of the nose of the jet. BTW, the distance is about 35 miles as the crow flies, I suppose he wanted to beat the traffic on 405 San Diego Freeway…
Until reading this mumbo-jumbo from Harrison Ford I’ve not read anything about the “lungs of the earth” being on fire for quite some time. It just kinda fell off the news front pages/evening telecasts. Guess finding out that the vast majority of the fires were farmers burning their fields for the next plantings and not actual forests burning.
Jet plane hypocrite but I’ll bet his maids don’t use plastic bags .
Ever notice that the more desperate the overblown con job gets the more Hollywood actors get involved .