Soccer superstar David Beckham has earned yet another distinction that sets him apart from mere mortals—but this time not in a good way. It turns out Beckham has the world’s largest carbon footprint and, for that matter, the largest in human history, according to Carbon Trust, a green group based in the UK.
Beckham and his spicy wife Victoria (aka Posh of the Spice Girls) fuel multiple homes around the world as well as 15 gas-guzzling vehicles, including a Hummer, a Porsche and a customized Lincoln Navigator. And between them, the couple logs more miles in carbon-spewing airliners than most pilots.
Photo by Marty Melville/Getty Images
In 2007 alone, Beckham flew 250,000 miles—more than he would need for a trip to the far side of the moon—jetting off to play in soccer matches around the world, to fulfill his advertising contracts, and to serve as official photographer for the Spice Girls when the group kicked off its comeback tour. In the process, Beckham personally contributed 163 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (compared to 9.4 tons annually for the average British citizen).
And that’s not even counting the carbon released by the raucous cheers and swooning sighs of his adoring fans.
Naturally, environmentalists and green politicians are calling on Beckham to reduce his carbon footprint by making lifestyle and travel choices that lead to fewer emissions, and to help raise awareness about the dangers of global warming.
What do you think? Should David Beckham use his wealth and celebrity to adopt a more eco-friendly lifestyle and become a role model for environmental stewardship instead of the poster boy for carbon excess? Or is he being unfairly singled out by environmentalists intent on using his celebrity to highlight their cause? Use the “comments” link below to share your thoughts.
Media coverage:
- Here Eco Becks -- Daily Star
Comments
Personally I think that this man has a duty and a moral obligation to set an example to the rest of us by leading by ‘example’. He has to decide what he thinks is important for the future of his children and the children of the rest of the world.
Can he choose between financial reward and common sense? His fans adore him and follow his lead daily. I believe he has the enviable position to be able to achieve a great deal of good by altering his lifestyle choices and become a leading advocate to carbon reduction. You never know he might even gain a few more adoring fans. But he will need to take their ’swooning’ carbon emissions into account as well. A bit of a ‘catch 22′ situation.
This man is but one person, A soccer Star ! On the field he uses nothing but his body and mind. Compare his uniform and eequiptment to oh Football,
Who then has more impact on their environment?
I would imagine as a soccer star he does quite a lot of training /Running .
Again he would use very little equiptment say compared to a baseball star with a wieight lifting program,who most likely has his own built in gym.
now about all those vehicles this soccer star has? Does he need them all?
It depends on what this star definition of success is? He needs something to keep playing at the caliber he does.
Would it be better if he used and abuused women?
Perhaps have a temper always getting into fights?
Or just be so stuck on himself . He doesn’t even acknoledge all his fans .
From the 60 Minutes piece I saw on him ,’He is quite a nice guy .
Instead of attackng his auto collection ,maybe we should asked him to purchase a windmill Put solar energy into all his homes,and even add a solar vehicle to his collection of cars.
By the way I would bet his cars are tuned up so that they give the best performance the are able.
Can any of us say our vehices are in tip top shape.
I don’t have high expectations of celebrities, but I do believe in social pressure. Hollywood is the land where image rules, and with the likes of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio (who flies commercial whenever possible instead of using private jets) polishing their images as environmentally responsible celebs, sooner or later Beckham and Posh will wake up and smell the off-gassing of their overconsumptive images and how it impacts their A-list viability.
Until then – as long as no trees die and no personal property is destroyed – I say, let the environmentalists have at Beckham and Posh.(Who knows where this may lead? Someday, instead of “Bend It” perhaps the world may one day say, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle It Like Beckham.”)
Beckham & wife are role models for the younger generation. They should feel a duty given the environmental precariousness of our Earth to reign in his ugly spewing. Has he no deep thought in his head. Is it only about $ and celebrity.
Superficial is super wasteful.
would love to know how you come up with the figure of 163 tonnes that is so far off the mark its not funny.
multiply that figure by 100 & you’re closer to it.
if you take both of their co2 emissions..
he’d travel in either first class or on private jets… meaning he’d be emitting a lot more than 8.5 tonnes per 20,000 km flight.
what multiplies the cost is his wifes use of the spice girls own jumbo jet & her jetting around the world.
When you compare 163 tons of pollutants to 9.+ tons, the ratio works out to 16-1 (rounded). Does anyone have the right to spew the same amount of polution as 16 of his peers? I don’t believe so. Respectfully, Uncle Bear *:-))
He should be kicked off the planet.
Absolutely. Sure, high-profile people need to travel more – that’s pretty much unavoidable – but surely there are ways to minimize it and make it cleaner.
We need to counter advertising by making it clear that conspicuous consumption is selfish and destructive.
I’ve heard that Beckham is basically a good bloke, always keen to pass the credit to his team-mates. He’d probably be keen to do the right thing, but it must be difficult when they are caught up in that lifestyle.
Beckham is living what most of us would call the American dream. He has profited from his talents and savvy and made a bundle of boodle. By our own mythology he has the right to do with it what he wants.
On the other hand, the faster we burn up the oil that we have the fewer innocent species in tropical forests will go extinct. Without chainsaws the big trees are hard to cut down. From this point of view what Beckham is doing is laudable. We all should drive a big guzzler. What are we trying to save fossil fuels for anyway? Even if we conserve it is all going to be burned anyway.
If you really want to do good for the future stop having children.
Are you all dumb? Does anyone think Beckham has all 15 “gas-guzzling” vehicles running at the same time? His footprint is the cost of entertainment for the millions of fans he entertains everyday. So really, it is the fault of all of his fans. Don’t cheer for him, because you release carbon. Don’t watch him on tv, because you use electricity, which is bad because of the carbon release needed to produce electricity. And whatever you do, don’t run a website like About.com that has hundreds of servers that use electricity too.
It’s all well and good pointing the finger at celebrities and, sure, they do have an obligation to show a good example. But I say that the rest of us are just as stupid for supporting and paying the wages of people like this in the first place. Football is a sport that anyone can play on a field. Why do we need to make a select number of people rich and famous just for being good at it?