Point 1: "X" personally uses more energy in one month than most people use in an entire year. Hippocrites can't be trusted. (replace "X" by any well-known environmentalist).

Counter-point:

That's so handy. If every environmentalist becomes the ascetic you want him to be, noone will be able to bother you and your scorched earth policy.

I hope that one day, the current biased so-called free market economy will be moderated and corrected by a parallel economy of societal and environmental costs. It could help clarify the situation when our job conduce us to have environmentaly expensive activities. Reason tells me it's admissible as long as we're mandated by a lot of people to do so, like politics.

I admit it's difficult to explain how a SUV may really be needed by any politic. But occidental world is so wrong that such over-branded goods may be required to gain and keep some credibility (OK, certainly not a SUV). That's why, for your information, as long as my children are not strong enough to deal with social pressure, I'll continue to buy them stupid and dispensable stuff like Spiderman school bags.