Pity poor rich lady Sloan Barnett. All she did was ask a totally reasonable question— "What can we actually do to make a difference on Earth Day besides buying a Prius?" and answer herself with a totally reasonable answer. She is buying the environmentally friendly products made by a company called Shaklee, which her husband and others recently bought for $310 million. "This is the grass-roots way to help save the world," Barnett told the guests at her Shaklee party, who included Melania Trump, Jessica Seinfeld, and the Times' Ruth La Ferla. One of those ladies kept butting her nose in people's business and asking pesky questions, however!

"Did [Seinfeld] plan to reduce her own carbon footprint by selling off a few of her possessions? 'What I have and what I don't have is not something I talk about,' she said." But Barnett was, perhaps ill-advisedly, more honest with herself and the reporter. "Concerned with carbon emissions, she is about to replace the Barnetts' two family cars with hybrids. 'I turn the water off when I'm brushing my teeth,' she said. 'I'm always learning, I'm always trying to improve.' Still, she has no plans to reduce the family's significant carbon footprint by, say, selling the Manhattan second home. 'I'm not a perfect person,' she said. 'I'm not the greenest woman in America.'" It's almost as if Ruth was trying to make these women look foolish! That's so not in the spirit of Earth Day. We all of us do what we can. —Emily

The Cream Is Cleaning Green [NYT]

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