Greenpeace Exec Commutes by Airline

So much for do as you say...

Greenpeace exec Pascal Husting commutes 800 km by air because he’d ‘rather not take’ the train
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/0...by-air-because-hed-rather-not-take-the-train/

One of Greenpeace’s most senior executives commutes 400 kilometres each way to work by plane, the environmental group has admitted.

Pascal Husting, the international program director at Greenpeace International, said he began “commuting between Luxembourg and Amsterdam” when he took the job in 2012 and currently made the round trip about twice a month.

The flights, costing about $365 return, are paid by Greenpeace, even though it campaigns to cut air travel, arguing that the growth in flying “is ruining our chances of stopping dangerous climate change.”

One volunteer described the arrangement as “almost unbelievable.” Another said they would cancel their direct debit donation following a series of disclosures about financial mismanagement in documents leaked to The Guardian newspaper.

Greenpeace was forced to apologize for a “serious error of judgment” last week, after it emerged that it had lost $5.5-million of public donations when a member of staff tried unauthorized currency dealing. Each round trip Mr. Husting makes would generate 142 kg of carbon dioxide emissions, according to airline KLM — a carbon footprint equivalent over two years to consuming 17 barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Husting said that while he would “rather not take” the journey, it would be “a twelve-hour round trip by train.”

“I spend half my life on Skype and video conference calls,” he said. “But as a senior manager, the people who work in my team sometimes need to meet me in the flesh.”

He said that from September he would be making the trip only once a month and by train, because the restructuring of his team would be coming to an end “and my kids will be a little older.” John Saven, the head of Greenpeace in the U.K., wrote in his blog: “As for Pascal’s air travel. Well it’s a really tough one. Was it the right decision to allow him to use air travel to try to balance his job with the needs of his family for a while?

“For me, it feels like it gets to the heart of a really big question. What kind of compromises do you make in your efforts to try to make the world a better place?

“Honesty and integrity to the values that are at the heart of the good you’re trying to do in the world cannot be allowed to slip away. For what it’s worth, I don’t think we’ve crossed that line.”

Richard Lancaster, who said he had been involved with Greenpeace since the 1980s, responded: “I volunteer with Greenpeace but work in the commercial world and if I took a job in another country I’d expect to move to where the job is and if I couldn’t for family reasons I wouldn’t take the job — so I find Pascal’s travel arrangements almost unbelievable.” Another supporter wrote: “So disappointed. Hardly had two pennies to rub together but have supported [Greenpeace] for 35+ years. Cancelling [direct debit] for while.”

Greenpeace has campaigned to curb air travel and end “needless” domestic flights. In a briefing on “the problem with aviation,” the group said: “In terms of damage to the climate, flying is 10 times worse than taking the train.”

 

More liberals refusing to eat their own cooking. Why is anybody surprised?

After all, chief environut wacko Al Gore invented "Do as I say, not as I do."