Celebs Hypocritical Air Travel

The staunchest warming activists do more than their share of indulging in fossil fuel profligacy. Think about Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Leonardo DiCaprio private jet setting all over the globe. (1)

Or let’s look at Bernie Sanders, who likes to call man-made climate change the greatest crisis humanity faces, yet has no qualms about living a lavish, jet setting life himself.

In Germany, the Greens are obviously made from the same mold.

Long haul air travel is by far the largest CO2 emitter in a short time period. A trip from Germany to the American east coast, for example, to New York, emits about 4 tons of CO2 per person for a round trip: up to 6 tons are emitted to the American west coast, or about three times as much as driving a car for a whole year (12,000 kilometers) in a mid-size model.

By far the Green voters are the ones who fly most frequently (49 percent reported at least one flight in the last twelve months). ⁽¹⁾

For years, skeptics like Michael Crichton have pointed out the glaring contradictions between the climate rhetoric of the global elite and their private jet fueled lifestyles. Now, the same critique has oozed into the very peer reviewed journals that once dismissed such observations as heresy. ⁽²⁾

The annual emissions of private jets were a hefty 15.6 million tons of CO2 in 2023. Nearly half of these flights were under 500 km, essentially airborne Ubers for billionaires, and some were as short as 50 km. In one hilarious twist, many jets weren’t even carrying passengers but were repositioned empty. ⁽³⁾

Researchers calculated the private aviation sector’s CO2 emissions for the period 2019 to 2023. Flight times for 25, 993 private aircraft and 18,655,789 individual flights in 2019-2023 were linked to 72 aircraft models and their average fuel consumption. Almost half of all flights (47.4%) were shorter than 500 km. Emissions increased by 46% between 2019-2023, with industry expectation of continued strong growth. Researchers state that regulation is needed to address the sector’s growing climate impact. ⁽²⁾

While commercial aviation’s carbon footprint is broadly understood, private jets occupy a particularly egregious spot in the emissions hierarchy. They emit 5-9 times more CO2 per passenger than a commercial flight. Yet, despite their planetary bloviating, the elites’ addition to private aviation remains unchecked, with emissions growing by 46% between 2019 and 2023.

Events like the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Cannes Film Festival, and COP28 as magnets for private jet traffic are gatherings are not just for a Who’s Who of climate alarmism—they’re a what’s what of conspicuous carbon consumption. In 2023 alone, Davos saw 1,559 private jet flights, while COP28, the UN’s very own climate carnival, added 1,012 to the tally. ⁽³⁾

Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex:

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex flew off to a Caribbean island on a private jet just days after attending a conference discussing the impact of climate change on mental health. ⁽⁴⁾

The couple have in the past been keen to highlight their green credentials. When interviewed by Oprah Winfrey two years ago, Harry identified climate change and mental health as the two pressing issues.

But the pair aren’t strangers to private jets. In 2019 Harry and Meghan came under scrutiny for racking up four flights by private jet in the space of just 11 days, including one to Sir Elton John’s home in Nice. While an economy class ticket from London to the town of Nice costs US $306, a private jet flight cost US $29,000. “Frankly it’s hypocritical. Harry can’t be preaching about their catastrophic effects of climate change while jetting around the world on a private plane,” said one of the Princes former bodyguards. ⁽⁵⁾

Harry has previously insisted that he uses commercial flights ‘99% of my life’, but has been spotted using private jets on several occasions.

Greta Thunberg’s Expensive CO2 Atlantic Ocean Trip

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was hailed for taking a wind and solar powered boat from Europe to New York to attend a climate conference. What a lot of the media missed is that it turned out the trip increased carbon emissions because her crew had to fly to New York to sail it back. Two crew members had to fly across the Atlantic to New York to bring the boat back, and two of the crew members that made the original voyage had to fly across the Atlantic from the US to return home. In a nutshell, the 5,337 kilometer flight miles four people generated 2,134,800 grams of CO2 just for the flights alone. Greta’s renewable powered sailboat trip across the Atlantic produced four times more emissions than flying. ⁽⁶⁾

Space Travelers

Million of dollars and tons of carbon dioxide emissions later, Katy Perry became one of six women who were on board of the Blue Origin, a space flight hosted and crafted by Jeff Bezos. ⁽⁷

After returning safely, Katy notably claimed that the controversial trip was for ‘the benefit of Earth’, she said, “It’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth.” As Eric Worrall said, “I don’t know why people are making a fuss. There is nothing new about celebrity climate hypocrisy.” ⁽⁸⁾

Blue Origin generates close to 75 million tons of CO2 per passenger on the flight. To put this into perspective, this can be compared to around the same amount of carbon emissions that an average human can burn throughout their entire life.

Burning the same amount of CO2 in a 10 minute flight to space as opposed to an entire lifetime is something that can be equated to just how comfortably and lavishly the upper class appear to be living. ⁽⁷⁾

Carbon Offsets

If you have purchased an airline ticket recently you probably noticed that you are now invited to pay extra for carbon offsets.

What are these and why would anyone purchase them? Airplanes don’t run on solar power, wind, or batteries. The only energy source that currently is dense enough to power them is jet fuel.

Many high profile celebrities that preach to us about cutting back on our use of hydrocarbons travel the world in private jets. They like to feel good about themselves, but find it embarrassing when they are caught is such rank hypocrisy.

So, carbon offsets were invented. This means you can burn all the hydrocarbon fuels you want, so long as you pay an organization who claims to have saved hydrocarbon fuels in some other way.

Arthur Robinson asks is this honestly done? He doubts it, saying anyone who sells such credits is not likely to have the highest ethics. The only major source of clean power is nuclear power. ⁽⁹⁾

In most cases, the energy in question is already being produced, a pretense is just made to allocate it to a particular customer for a fee. So, now you can feel good about yourself by purchasing carbon offset when you fly.

In October 2024, Robinson noted that United Airlines was bragging about its use of ‘biofuel’ in their airplanes. They actually claimed to be converting wood into jet fuel and therefore running on renewable energy. However, the bottom line in very tiny print of United’s poster was it mentioned that less than 0.1% of their fuel was produced this way.

Robinson adds, “Can you imagine the thinking behind this bizarre advertising? A large airline company is actually using some of their resources to produce a little jet fuel from wood, for the sole purpose of being able to advertise it” ⁽⁹⁾

Lastly, USAID gave $68 million dollars to the World Economic Forum, a group of networking billionaires who meet in January each year to ski in Davos. They turn up in private jets to discuss how they can stop the average man flying.

Jo Nova wonders why no media outlet on Earth seemingly figured this out for themselves. Perhaps it was the millions in funding the government paid some media outlets, presumably to say nothing at all the right moments? (10)

References

1. Gosselin, “Biggest do as I say German hypocrites: greens do more air travel than anyone else, “notrickszone.com, February 27, 2019
2. Stefan Gossling et al., “Private aviation is making a growing contribution to climate change,” nature.com, November 7, 2024
3. Charles Rotter, ‘Private jets, public hypocrisy: how climate alarmists just reinvited irony,” wattsupwiththat.com, November 7, 2024
4. Ryan Prosser, “Harry and Meghan fly to Caribbean on a private jet days after attending a conference where attendees were told climate change is impacting our mental health,” dailymail.co.au, October 21, 2023
5. Michael Hamilton, “Dumbo Jet: Eco-warriors Meghan Markle and Prince Harry fly on private jet again to France after gas guzzling Ibiza trip,” The Sun, August 17, 2019
6. Bjorn Lomborg, False Alarm, (New York, Basic Books, 2020)
7. Amanda Handley, “Opinion: Celebrities need to stop going to space,” newsrecord.org, April 22, 2025
8. Eric Worrall, “Katy Perry slammed for climate hypocrisy over trip to space.” wattsupwiththat.com, April 17, 2025
9. Arthur Robinson, Access to Energy, October 2024
10. Jo Nova, “USAID gave $68 million to the WEF billionaires ski club at Davos,” joannenova.com.au, February 8, 2025