Paul McCartney's green car backfires, bigtime

Sir Paul McCartney is said to be "horrified" that his new eco-friendly hybrid car was flown 7,000 miles from Japan, reports the London Telegraph.

The Lexus LS600H was a gift from Lexus to the former Beatle, who helped promote the hybrid vehicle. But instead of arriving by boat as expected, the car was flown to Britain, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea.

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. Co2balance.com Director Mike Rigby said, "That is the equivalent of driving the car around the world six times."

Of course, let's keep this in perspective. 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."

--Craig Pittman

[AP Photo]