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submitted 11 months ago by lettruthout@lemmy.world to c/climate@slrpnk.net

“The rich gazed at their superyachts, and decided they were not enough. The new breed of megayachts, which are at least 70 metres (230ft) in length, may be the most expensive moveable assets ever created.”

“First and foremost, owning a megayacht is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in. Abramovich’s yachts emit more than 22,000 tonnes of carbon every year, which is more than some small countries. Even flying long-haul every day of the year, or air-conditioning a sprawling palace, would not get close to those emissions levels.

The bulk of these emissions happen whether or not a yacht actually travels anywhere. Simply owning one – or indeed building one – is an act of enormous climate vandalism.”

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[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

I see it as self-sorting, with no need to ban them. Eventually, most of the world is either going to be climate migrants or impacted by climate migration or impacted by climate change in some other way, likely all three. Some of those impacted people might be really resentful about it. Some of those resentful people might see wealthy executives and oil companies as personally accountable. It probably won't take long for the wealthy to wise up and voluntarily give them up once it becomes clear what an acme bullseye they really are.

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[-] BlueAlienSmut@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Anyone else read that as MeGAYachts and assume this article was about gay cruises being environmentally destructive?

[-] lntl@lemmy.ml 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The Guardian, a shill for oil?

Why 'ban yachts' when a carbon tax would achtually reduce fossil fuel consumption and emissions? I'll tell you why: because banning yachts doesn't put a restriction on fossil fuel consumption.

It bans yachts.

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[-] shalafi@lemmy.world -3 points 11 months ago

This hill worth dying on? How many are there in the world? I may be way wrong, but I'd imagine the CO2 output of these things is a drop in the global bucket.

Abramovich’s yachts emit more than 22,000 tonnes of carbon every year, which is more than some small countries.

If you drill into the next article and look at the chart, it looks like we're talking about one dude's yachts, plural. And he's a massive outlier.

Easy to say, "Fuck the billionaires! Fuck their feelings!" but banning anything costs political capitol as well as time and money.

I'm not going to piss myself off coming up with right-wing talking points, but we all know damn well there would be a dozen forms of shit fit. "Now the libs want to take your boat! Guess you don't deserve to spend your hard-earned money without their approval!"

And for dubious benefit we're going up against the very people who have the time and money to fight this? We got better, more impactful and practical, work to do than fight a handful of billionaires over a handful of boats.

[-] crsu@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

The fashion industry has more emissions than the entire shipping industry

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Imma need some sources on that one, but I've seen some crazy, non-intuitive shit in my time.

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this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
694 points (98.6% liked)

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