When 16-year-old Swedish climate-change mascot Greta Thunberg travels she does so by high-tech, carbon-avoiding racing sailboat and not by plane. Why aren’t the rest of us doing this, to save the planet?
Because it’s not terribly convenient, it turns out.
In fact, a British yacht skipper’s flight to the U.S. to help Thunberg get to Portugal by non-climate-endangering sailboat produced the same carbon emissions the voyage aimed to save.
Such are the contradictions of living life by publicity stunt.
Nikki Henderson, 26, flew to the U.S. from Britain to sail the 48-foot catamaran La Vagabonde 3,000 miles to Portugal, carrying Thunberg and her father. Post-trip, Thunberg will go on to attend the COP 25 climate change talks in Madrid.
The voyage was meant to save approximately two or three tons of carbon dioxide emissions, but Henderson’s flight from Britain to the U.S. most likely produced the same amount of emissions the journey hoped to save, countering Thunberg’s mission, The Times reported.
Not to mention the way it also cancels out Thunberg’s pious avoidance of air travel.
Henderson offered to sail Miss Thunberg to Spain after she had issued a plea on social media for help getting back across the Atlantic Ocean, after the summit was moved at the last minute from Santiago in Chile to Madrid due to the protests in the South American country.
Henderson is no stranger to seeking out the spotlight; she has a YouTube channel boasting more than 1.1million subscribers called “Sailing La Vagabonde,” which documents travels aboard the yacht.
In August, Thunberg took a zero-emissions sailboat to cross the Atlantic from Plymouth in the U.K. to the United States. The 60-foot racing yacht was equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines.
