Paul McCartney 'horrified' as his eco car is flown 7,000 miles from Japan
By Rob Davies
Last Updated: 12:33PM BST 13/05/2008
Sir Paul McCartney is said to be "horrified" that his new eco-friendly car was flown 7,000 miles from Japan.
The Lexus LS600H, which costs £84,000, was a gift from Lexus to the 65-year-old former Beatle, who helped promote the hybrid vehicle.
But instead of arriving by boat as expected, the car was flown to Britain on a Korean Air flight, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea.
Sir Paul is a vocal advocate of vegetarianism and has long been a poster child for environmental activism.
His 6-year marriage to Heather Mills, with whom he campaigned against seal culling, came to an end yesterday after their divorce was finalised in the High Court.
A source is reported to have said: "Paul was offered a Lexus as a gift and ordered the hybrid limo because it helps to reduce emissions.
"He'll be horrified after learning it was delivered by plane. Paul has always campaigned for green issues and he can’t understand why anyone would send an enormous car from Japan to Britain on a plane."
Carbon offsetting firm CO2balance.com said the plane journey would have caused a carbon footprint of 38,050kg, compared to 397kg for a three-week boat journey.
A carbon footprint is the measure of the impact that human activity has on the environment and is measured in units of carbon dioxide.
Co2balance.com Director Mike Rigby said: "That is the equivalent of driving the car around the world six times."
A spokesman for Swissport, the freight handling company who unloaded the car at Heathrow, said: "Obviously we were happy for the business but everyone was shocked. The carbon footprint must be enormous."
Paddy Gillett of the anti-aviation lobby group Plane Stupid, said: "For anyone to pretend that a private limousine is in any way eco-friendly is like pretending a private jet is. It's total greenwash."
Sir Paul, who is also a vegan, has previously lauded Lexus for their commitment to making hybrid vehicles. Lexus sponsored the singer’s 2005 US tour.
BTW: Pound/Dollar rate = apx. 1/1.9
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