Elon Musk, Fashion Slave and Letters

                                              Environmental Issues

Threatening Weather, James Charles (1851-1906) Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND]

Was climate change on the agenda at Davos, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting? How many private jets took these people to Switzerland?  How did the prince and David Attenborough get there? According to Libby Purves, in The Times, 25.2.2019, the number of private flights was 1,500.

Elon Musk whose company Tesla wants to, “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” and who once described fossil fuels as, “the dumbest experiment in human history,” appears to have no qualms about how his corporate jet is used. It flew over 150,000 miles last year – 6 times around the world. What for? Amongst other things:

1. Data shows the jet flew from one part of Los Angeles to another to spare Mr Musk from traffic.

2. The Washington Post reported that Musk flew 300 miles from Los Angeles to Oakland so that he could visit a video-gaming competition with his children and do some business related to Tesla.

(The Times, 2019)

If you are into “the sustainable energy philosophy” then surely your lifestyle must reflect that in some measure

Fast Fashion

…While my love for new things has not waned, I am trying not to be such a slave to fast fashion. Gone are my bags-full-of-crap days and instead I buy one nice thing every couple of months. I no longer step inside certain shops which I know to have dubious manufacturing practices or poor quality which means I will chuck out the garment in a few months’ time.”

(Serina Sandhu, The i, 2019)

A house-point for Serina.

Letters

On going for a haircut when I had started to go grey, I was attended by a young female hairdresser, who asked in all innocence: “Would you like your highlights retouched, Sir?” How could I not give her a generous tip?

(Tim Ewebank, The Times 28.1.2019)