By Jack Dini ——Bio and Archives--May 7, 2023
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Flying is in general the most carbon intensive way to travel per mile. Private plane travel is at an all time high; demand continues to outpace supply, and it's more accessible than ever.
A number of celebrities don't 'walk the walk' when it comes to climate change--they just talk the talk.
In the first half of 2022, 10 celebrities released a staggering 3,376 metric tons of carbon emissions. That's about 482 times the average person's annual emissions. Average flight times came in at just 72 minutes with an average 67 miles traveled per flight.
These prominent personalities demand people scale back their lifestyles and accept spartan living, all the while they enjoy rich and lavish lifestyles in huge mansions, private jets and yachts.
Private jet emissions quadrupled as 1,040 flew in and out of airports serving Davos during the 2022 World Ecomomic Forum (WEF) meeting. Is it any wonder that climate campaigners accused the rich and powerful of hypocrisy in flying in on private jets to a conference discussing climate breakdown. Of the flights to airports near Davos, 53% were short haul flights of less than 750 km (456 miles), which could have been done by rail or car, while 38% were over distances of less than 500 km. The shortest flight recorded was just 13 miles. (1)
Climate activists, like the German Greens, you'd think, would themselves be practicing what they preach, at least limiting their emissions to some extent in order to set an example for the rest of us. Yet 62% of all CO2 emissions by government flights were generated by the Greens alone.
Europe's Prince of Private Jets, EU Council President Charles Michel, spent many euros of taxpayer money on private jet flights, some to climate conferences, For while he pleads for climate protection in Brussels, he himself flies for an unbelievable 700,000 euros by private jet, even the shortest distances, such as Brussels to Paris. In true bourgeois style he wants even more money next year for even more flights, reports Pierre Gosselin. (2)
Robert Bryce reports on four of the richest people on earth, two of whom are giving hundreds of millions of dollars to groups like the Sierra Club, Rocky Mountain Institute, Climate Imperative and others that are pushing for bans on gas stoves, as well as policies that will impose regressive energy taxes on the poor and middle class. Indeed, at the same time these climate aristocrats are preaching about the need to take drastic action on climate change, they are flying around the globe in private jets that burn staggering amounts of jet fuel and emit thousands of tons of carbon dioxide every year. (3)
Topping the list of these high flying hypocrites is former New York City mayor and multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has been aggressively pushing for action on climate change for decades.
Expansion of low carbon transit doesn't appear to include Bloomberg'e jets. Bloomberg, or people connected to him used five aircraft which emitted about 3,197 tons of CO2 in 2022. That number puts Bloomberg in the top 10 of all private jet owners in terms of emissions. For comparison, the average American is responsible for about 16 tons of CO2 emissions per year. In other words, Bloomberg's fleet of jets is emitting about 200 times more CO2 per year than what's emitted by the average American.
Here's another comparison: the 328,000 gallons of jet fuel that were burned in Bloomberg's jets last year is about 670 times more than the volume of gasoline consumed by an average American motorist, who burns about 489 gallons in their vehicle per year. Laurene Powell Jobs provides another example of the rank hypocrisy of the climate aristocracy. Jobs is one of the billionaires behind the gas bans. She was a founding board member of Climate Imperative, a new climate activist group that is spending more than $200 million per year to push rapid scaling of renewable energy, widespread electrification of buildings and transportation, stopping the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, reducing pollution from major industrial sources, and economy wide pathways to reduce emissions. (3)
In 2022, Jobs, or people connected to her, took 141 flights on her Gulfstream G650, which burns about 500 gallons of jet fuel per hour. Jobs' airplane burned about 143,000 gallons of jet fuel last year, or roughly 292 times more than the amount of gasoline consumed by an average American motorist.
Elon Musk, who made the bulk of his vast fortune by selling electric vehicles, has declared the climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century. Last year, Musk, or people connected to him took 190 flights on his Gulfstream G650R, which burned 174,000 gallons of jet fuel. That amounts to about 356 times the amount of liquid hydrocarbons that are consumed by an average American motorist.
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Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has also been outspoken about climate change. Last year, Zuckerberg, or people connected to him, took 367 flights on four aircraft which burned 243,000 gallons of jet fuel and in doing so emitted about 2,372 tons of carbon dioxide. (3)
The super rich, hyper-mobile elites who are warning us about the danger of climate change and are funding the anti-industry groups that want to prevent Americans from using natural gas in their homes and businesses, appear to have the attitude of we don't fly commercial, only the little people fly commercial. When it comes to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Bloomberg, Jobs, Musk and Zuckerberg, are literally above it all.
The media's and particularly broadcast networks lack of coverage of this hypocrisy is inexcusable. An example is when Leonardo DiCaprio stood in front of the UN and suggested taxing the fossil fuel industry out of existence. ABC's Good Morning America called him 'incredibly committed' and praised him for advocating bold changes to tackle climate change and for 'not just talking the talk.' (4)
This from a person who cruises in his private yacht, or visits among the four houses he owns scattered on both US coasts, and seems to think that his own air travel doesn't affect the environment, where it does for other people. He even told the German Daily Bild that he planned to travel around the world doing good for the environment. His private jet's carbon emissions can be more than 37 times higher than those produced by flying commercial.
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Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.