Our Radical Fashionistas

Climate scientist Fred Singer offered an editorial on Earth Day:

Today is Earth Day – and also the anniversary of Lenin’s birth. How appropriate! The Reds have morphed into Greens. In the old days of Marx and Lenin, capitalism used to oppress the working class; now it despoils nature. The new religion of environmentalism is on full display in the “Green” issue of Vanity Fair (May 2006), the magazine of conspicuous consumption. So amidst the ads for diamond-studded $10,000 watches and super-powered $100,000 SUVs you find paeans of praise for the moneyed “defenders of the environment.” The irony of it all seems to have escaped the editors.

On the cover of the May issue sits a grim-faced Al Gore, with Julia Roberts hovering over him – done up as a wood nymph in a green Bill Blass dress. There is also actor George Clooney and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. To find out which is which, I had to consult page 244: George is the one with the Brooks Brothers suit, Edun shirt, and Ferragamo shoes. Thanks for your help, VF.

On page 106, VF inducts James Hansen into its Hall of Fame. He is the NASA employee whom the “White House tried to muzzle,” who received a $250,000 grant from the Heinz Foundation [Ed.: That would be Teresa Heinz Kerry], who endorsed John Kerry before the 2004 election, and who has been hyping climate fears and mishandling data for nearly 20 years, setting some sort of record unmatched by others. (Not that they haven’t tried.) He is seen wearing a Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit, Calvin Klein shirt, Pringle sweater, and Tyrwhitt shoes. Very elegant.

And beginning on page 200, claiming to be “armed with hard science,” VF explains how New York, Washington, and – yes – Martha’s Vineyard (horrors!) will be all underwater before 2100. (Not even the UN’s IPCC science report agrees with them –although Hansen does.) In the process they manage to deliver ad hominem attacks on respected scientists. How sad.

The ignorant leftism of the fashion magazines is one of the weird phenomena of our time.

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