Pres. Obama and a host of other world leaders convened in Paris this week to discuss the environment at the United Nations Climate Change summit. While Justin already wrote about the exorbitant cost of the meal the world leaders would be enjoying, the Daily Caller did the math and found that the president's trip to Paris would emit more carbon dioxide than 72 cars--over a year.
Obama’s Paris jaunt will send more CO2 into the atmosphere than 31 American homes‘ energy usage for an entire year. The president’s trip is equivalent to burning 368,331 pounds of coal or 797 barrels of oil, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon footprint calculator.
Just one leg of the president’s Sunday trip to Paris emitted 189 tons of CO2 after travelling 3,855 miles and burning 19,275 gallons of jet fuel, according to Daily Caller News Foundation calculations based on past presidential flights. Obama’s return flight to Washington, D.C., would double the amount of CO2 burned to 378 tons — more than 72 cars driving for a year.
It's perfectly fine to care about the environment, and steps should be taken to avoid needless pollution. I think it's rather hypocritical for the United Nations to ask for world leaders to travel (with large entourages) to a location to discuss the environment, rather than hold the conference in a much greener method. It's 2015--video conferencing exists. Having the world leaders stay home and conserve energy and conferencing in this manner would be a unique, albeit one with far fewer photo ops, way for the United Nations to promote environmentalism.