By Miranda Devine
It doesn’t get more hypocritical than A-listers jetting in on private planes to bemoan climate change at Google’s private party in Sicily this week.
The Gulfstreams, mega-yachts and gas-guzzling Maserati SUVs used to ferry the wokerati around the seaside Google Camp have been spewing out greenhouse gases at the rate of small nations.
Former President Barack Obama, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, singer Katy Perry and Prince Harry are said to be among 300 guests invited by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to their luxurious annual shindig which has been dubbed “Davos by the Sea.”
Either they don’t believe climate change is the big problem they keep saying it is, or they just don’t care enough about saving the planet to give up their perks.
But they can hardly lecture the rest of us on prudent management of the earth’s environment when they’re burning up more than 300 gallons of diesel an hour on their private yachts or spewing tons of CO2 into the air from their private jets.
Whether it’s the megawatts of power consumed by the sound system at a dusk concert or the bright lights illuminating the ruins of the Temple of Hera where the Google Campers dined under the stars on Monday night, their eco-indulgence knows no bounds.
For instance, the swanky Verdura resort where they’re staying, on Sicily’s southwestern coast, might have won a sustainability award, but it’s all relative.
It still features three water-guzzling golf courses, and the whopping carbon footprint of a 60m power hungry infinity pool, four outdoor thalassotherapy pools, steam baths, saunas, dozens of plunge pools and a private beach filled with imported sand flown in using more carbon miles.
Prince Harry even gave a “barefoot speech” to the billionaires about the need to save the environment, as Page Six reports, only days after vowing that he would confine himself to siring only two children as his personal contribution to saving the planet.
It doesn’t get much sillier than being lectured on carbon footprints by a prince whose family rattles around in multiple palaces. Unless you count the imminent visit to New York by Swedish teenage eco-evangelist Greta Thunberg, a favorite of Harry’s wife Meghan, who has just placed her on the cover of the September issue of British vogue she has spent all year “guest editing.”
Thunberg was invited to lecture the United Nations on climate change next month but, unlike the Google campers, at least the child tries to practice what she preaches, and refused to pollute the air by flying.
It took another eco-conscious nobleman, this time from Monaco’s royal family, to come to her rescue with the offer of his racing yacht to sail her across the Atlantic on wind power.
No doubt Harry and Meghan would approve.
Also discussed at Google camp was the current political situation across the planet. It doesn’t take much guessing to figure out that the re-election of Donald Trump was not on the agenda.
SEE ALSO
A-listers flock to Google summit in private jets, mega yachts to talk climate change
Days after the 2016 US election, a video was leaked to Breitbart of a meeting at which top Google executives, including founders Brin and Page, lamented Trump’s victory at great length.
“As an immigrant and a refugee, I certainly find this election deeply offensive, and I know many of you do too,” declared Brin.
“So many people apparently don’t share the values that we have.”
Ominously, he went on to say that Google would be working hard to find the solution by “being very vigilant and thinking about all these issues [to see] what we can do to lead to maybe a better quality of governance and decision-making.”
Three years later, as long as Google and pals confine themselves to gas-bagging at luxury resorts we can safely ignore them as harmless virtue-signalers.
But if they try to subvert the will of the people, it’s war.
