We Must Not Even Think of Accusing Leonardo DiCaprio of Hypocrisy

Friday’s crash of the Virgin Galactic space-plane in California was, of course, a tragedy. One test-pilot was killed and another seriously injured. 

But there is, at least, a silver lining: There’s no need to worry about another possible issue concerning Richard Branson’s spaceflight venture—namely, that all those internal-combustion-powered flights would contribute to the dread danger of climate change.

Indeed, to the untrained eye and the untutored mind, it might seem that so much fuel-burning jet- and rocket-powered air-activity would inevitably add to the carbon load of the atmosphere.

But there’s no need to worry about that.

How do we know? Because as The New York Times report on the crash tells us, among those on the waiting list to fly on the Virgin aircraft is the actor Leonardo DiCaprio. And DiCaprio, of course, is a duly designated United Nations Messenger of Peace, with a specific mandate to focus on climate change. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said of the actor in making the appointment last year:

Mr. DiCaprio is a credible voice in the environmental movement, and has a considerable platform to amplify its message. I am pleased he has chosen to add his voice to UN efforts to raise awareness of the urgency and benefits of acting now to combat climate change.

Given DiCaprio’s estimable position, we can be certain that he would do nothing to jeopardize the environment by flying in carbon dioxide-producing machines. 

In fact, because he is so special, DiCaprio can be a UN Messenger of Peace and be an early flyer on Richard Branson’s rocket project—if the $250,000-a-person flight program ever takes off.

So there is no hypocrisy here; none whatsoever.

Thus our political conscience requires us to conclude that accusations that DiCaprio is having it both ways—publicly soaking up liberal adulation for climate-change activism while privately seeking to go space-joyriding—are obviously the mean-spirited insinuations of right-wingers, clinging, no doubt, to their God and their guns.