One of the features of a good number of religions is their tendency to urge asceticism \/simplicity\/don\u2019t bother with all those material things on their followers. Another no less striking feature of those same\u00a0religions is the way that such hair shirt commandments are so often broken by their priests and, for that matter, high priests.<\/p>\n
If this report by Mail on Sunday<\/em> is correct, Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the UN\u2019s IPCC, and a man notorious for urging the simple life on the rest of us, has yet to do the same thing\u00a0himself:<\/p>\n He is the climate change chief whose research body produced a report warning that the glaciers in the Himalayas might melt by 2035 and earned a Nobel Prize for his work \u2013 so you might expect Dr Rajendra Pachauri to be doing everything he can to reduce his own carbon footprint. But as controversy continued to simmer last week over the bogus \u2018Glaciergate\u2019 claims in a report by the UN\u2019s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change \u2013 which he heads \u2013 Dr Pachauri showed no apparent inclination to cut global warming in his own back yard. On Friday, for the one-mile journey from home to his Delhi office, Dr Pachauri could have walked, or cycled, or used the eco-friendly electric car provided for him\u2026But instead, he had his personal chauffeur collect him from his \u00a34.5million home \u2013 in a 1.8-litre Toyota Corolla\u2026<\/p>\n As he waited outside the institute office for Dr Pachauri, the chauffeur said: \u2018Dr Pachauri does use the electric car sometimes but most of the time he uses the Toyota.\u2019 The electric car might be kinder to the environment and more suitable for short trips, explained the chauffeur \u2013 who has worked for the environmentalist for 19 years \u2013 but it was simply too small for Dr Pachauri and a driver to share. \u2018When he uses it, he has to use it by himself,\u2019 he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n More knockabout stuff here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the features of a good number of religions is their tendency to urge asceticism \/simplicity\/don\u2019t bother with all those material things on their followers. Another no less striking feature of those same\u00a0religions is the way that such hair … Continue reading