Emily Atkin, in an article for the New Republic, has written the latest in a recurring genre of articles defending rich people who advocate for action on climate change. A year or so ago, Vox gave us “Rich climate activist Leonardo DiCaprio lives a carbon-intensive lifestyle, and that’s (mostly) fine”; now, Atkin has set out to establish that “Al Gore’s Carbon Footprint Doesn’t Matter.”

Both of these pieces take on a popular right-wing talking point: rich liberals who live carbon-intensive lifestyles yet advocate for government action against climate change are hypocrites. This, Atkin argues,

is deceitful faux-populism . . . climate change advocates who don’t live a carbon-neutral lifestyle aren’t hypocrites because, for the most part, they’re not asking you to live a carbon-neutral lifestyle. They’re asking governments, utilities, energy companies, and large corporations to increase their use of renewable energy so that you can continue to live your life as you please, without contributing to global warming.