By Ally McDowall
December 9 2019, 10.45
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An environmentalist from Putney has insisted people make drastic lifestyle changes to combat climate change but admitted to annual snowboarding trips to France.
Green Party candidate Fergal McEntee travels by car to the Alps every 12 months and flew to Brazil last year for work on a solar power plant project.
The 46-year-old insisted that he is making changes to work towards his goal and is missing his best friend’s wedding in South Africa to show it.
Mr McEntee said: “I know I am part of the problem, but I want to be part of the solution.
“I’ve got this great internal dilemma because I realise the impact that I do more than most people.
“I’ve made substantial lifestyle changes and 98% of the journeys I make now are by cycling or public transport.
“I’ll put my hands up saying I have sinned but if we just spend our time pointing our fingers at people who have taken a flight or eaten a steak then we are never actually going to solve anything.
“But one thing is for sure, we can’t have people flying to Malaga for 30 quid.”
The Dublin native has a stellar resume of environmental work – he assisted the Department for Education’s solar school strategy, set up the non-profit organisation Renewables For School, and received a Masters in renewable energy at the vegetarian-only University Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.
Mr McEntee has supported radical policy proposals such as the introduction of a frequent flyer’s tax and participated in the Extinction Rebellion protests brushing shoulders with Game of Thrones star Jerome Flynn earlier this year.
He highlighted the protests’ merits and called for people to shift their priorities in order to save future generations.
“The whole idea is not to disrupt people, it’s to make people realise that we are juggernauting towards an ecological crisis,” he said.
“Would you get on a plane if you knew there was a 1% chance of it crashing? Now imagine it was your kids getting on the plane and there is a 50/50 chance, that’s where we are right now.
“We’ve got food shortages starting in central Africa, Chad is now unliveable, Australia is 53 degrees Celsius and people are more worried about the train being blocked for ten minutes.”
Read more about what’s important to south west London constituencies in our 24-page General Election preview special.
