Uh oh -- The Times in London reports that globe-trotting raconteur Michael Palin has offended his green friends.
Michael Palin is facing moves to oust him as president of a leading environmental group because of his passion for long-distance air travel.The Times has learnt that senior members of Transport 2000, which campaigns for sustainable travel and against growth in flights, believe that Palin sets a poor example.
He has flown more than a quarter of a million miles in the past 17 years while making his six TV series, which began in 1988 with his attempt to retrace the fictional footsteps of Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days. He has travelled across every continent, visited both poles and, most recently, climbed the Himalayas.
On screen he is seen riding dog sleds, camels, elephants and hot-air balloons. But few viewers will have realised how many air miles he clocked up making the programmes. For the Himalayas series alone, Palin made seven return trips between London and Asia. His share of the carbon dioxide emissions of those flights was 24 tonnes, 12 times more than the average car emits in a year.
Palin recently admitted that he had spent the past 17 years “busy polluting this environment on almost every conceiv- able form of carbon-emitting vehicle”. But he also claimed that his adventures reduced overall greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to remain on their sofas.
He told a recent environmental conference: “I shall continue to make travel programmes, secure in the knowledge that the food I’m seen eating, the sanitary arrangements I’m seen experiencing and the coughing attacks that strike me halfway up high mountains are doing more than any government could to persuade people to stay at home.”
However, travel firms use the phrase the “Palin effect to describe the surge in bookings for each destination he visits.
Next, in will come the Spanish Inquisition.
Posted by Alan at January 14, 2006 12:25 AM