Daily Mail, Friday, August 16, 2019 Page 35Greta could
teach our royal
eco-hypocrites
a thing or two
Are you thinking
what she’s thinking?
Jan moirM
any scorn teen-
age environmental
campaigner Greta
Thunberg, but she
has won me over
completely. This week, the
16-year-old set off from the
UK on a 3,000-mile voyage
to new york, where she will
address the United nations
at a Climate action Summit.
In some respects, it is gesture
activism of the worst sort, making
a go-slow journey to prove some
specious point or other.
and yet there is something
undeniably noble about Greta’s
voyage, aboard a no-frills yacht
with a three-man crew, including
her father.
The poor thing got seasick just
sailing around Plymouth Harbour.
How she will fare in the hurricane
season in the atlantic, on a racing
yacht stripped of any comforts, is
anyone’s guess.
So bloody good for her. and, if
the very thought of this plucky
girl, complete with salt-sprayed
pigtail, sailing across an ocean in
the hope of a better world doesn’t
inspire you to become a more
vigilant recycler and all-round
greener person, then shame
on you.
Greta could certainly teach a
thing or two to royals such as the
Duke and Duchess of Sussex and
the Prince of Wales.
Public patience is wearing thin-
ner than the ozone layer with this
bunch of greater-crested, energy-
guzzling hypocrites, who preach
one thing in public while doing
the opposite in their private lives.P
rInCe Harry has said
he and wife Meghan are
having only two children
to save the planet — how
very gracious of them.
yet he sees no irony in reportedly
having taken a private jet to speak
at a Google climate conference
and staying on a 390 ft superyacht
that, experts say, releases into the
atmosphere 3.3 tons of carbon
dioxide every hour it’s at sea.
all to produce some hot air of
his own — during his speech, he
lectured that taking fewer selfies
would help save the planet.
Meanwhile, Meghan has sharedonline ludicrous arty pictures of
her hands cradling the trunk of
an endangered elephant (I hope
it’s his trunk) to promote World
elephant Day, while thinking it is
also perfectly fine to take a private
jet to and from new york to attend
her baby shower.
and, more recently, the couple
apparently took another private
jet for a holiday in Ibiza, which just
makes a mockery of their claims to
be concerned environmentalists.
If it really is a global crisis, then
surely they should act like it’s a
global crisis.
Instead of behaving as though
it’s an issue for which others must
make sacrifices while they carry
on as five-star normal.
no wonder the Sussexes take
such great pains to keep every-
thing about their lifestyle a
secret. exposure of the full extent
of their climate change imposture
might provoke a revolution.
Staunch environmentalist
Prince Charles has tried to
reduce his own carbon footprint.
Crikey yes, one does one’s bit,
doesn’t one?
However, the Prince finds flying
first class ‘incredibly uncomforta-
ble’, according to one biographer.
It must be hideous.
‘Camilla! Camilla! That lady in
the uniform just gave me a plate
of tiny gold bar thingies. What
should I do?’
‘Calm down, Charles. It’s
only butter.’
Perhaps that’s why the Duke and
Duchess of Cornwall regularly useprivate jets on official tours, which,
in recent years, have included the
Caribbean and europe.
Meanwhile, the royal Family
made 204 journeys by helicopter
from april 2018 to april 2019.
In principle, I have no objection
to any of this. Security concerns
and packed schedules mean
that private travel is often the
only option for senior royals on
official business.
But it becomes more problematic
when royal eco-warriors insist on
the same when going about their
private business.
Then it becomes painfully clear
that their comfort, their privacy
and their ease of passage are not
going to be compromised for any
green cause, no matter what they
might self-righteously proclaim in
their speeches or on Instagram.
Meanwhile, Greta Thunberg is
on board a zero-carbon yacht to
america on a journey that will
take two weeks — and, with
no kitchen or toilet, this is no
pleasure cruise.T
oDay, she is heading
towards the azores,
where the forecast is for
three-metre waves and
winds of up to 30 knots.
yet Greta has vowed never to fly
again because of the damage it
causes to the planet — and she is
sticking to her promise.
How very different this stance
is from the lives of our dear royals,
whose idea of hardship is a glass
of non-vintage champagne in a
first-class cabin and the dreaded
prospect of some peasant
(shudder) taking a photograph of
them on a normal flight.
They all preach exactly the same
message as Greta, but refuse to
apply it to their own lives — and
seem to have no perception of how
badly this plays with the public.
especially those who save up all
year for their one special holiday
abroad, only to find themselves
being lectured by a bunch of
selfish, pampered gas-guzzlers
deluded about their own impact
on the planet and on us.
If the royals are going to be
green, they could do worse than
follow the example of Greta, who
inspires millions of schoolchildren
and has the courage and fortitude
to live out her convictions. not
just to strike a pose.SUMMER seems to have rushed
by this year — like something
beautiful and fleeting, but just
beyond grasp.
Outside my London home,
the plane trees have already
lost their lustre and the leaves
are beginning to crisp and fall.
It seems too soon!
No wonder last-minute
holidays are being snapped
up as fed-up families flee the
gales and rain for a bit of last-
gasp sun.
Not much consolation for
those of us left behind, who
must make do with the vicari-
ous thrill of paddling throughthe online shallows of celeb-
rities abroad. Is it any solace
to know that the Beckhams
are in Puglia, drinking water-
melon cocktails, Jeremy Clark-
son has rented a castle in
France for the entire summer
and Robbie Williams was in
Formentera, while Kate Garra-
way had an ‘amazing’ time in
Abersoch in Wales. Not really.
But it was cheering to see
Kate Moss wafting around St
Tropez in a pink cotton kaftan.
Not just because it was lovely
— it’s the first thing she’s worn
for two decades that mere
mortals could wear, too.A unique sight: Kate
in a wearable outfit
Real deal: Greta ThunbergPicture: GETTY IMAGESPicture: ACABAPRESS / SPLASHNEWS.COM