Climate Activists Escalate Actions, Targeting Jets, Yachts, and Golf in Global Protests

Last summer, as part of an expanding campaign against the emissions-producing lifestyles of the ultrawealthy, climate activists spray painted a superyacht, stopped private aircraft from taking off, and filled in holes in golf courses.

As the earth warms to dangerous levels, causing more intense temperatures, floods, storms, and wildfires worldwide, climate activism has increased over the past few years. Radical tactics have been used by some demonstrators, including gluing themselves to public highways, disrupting prestigious sporting events like tennis and golf, and even painting or sopping famous works of art.

After spending a long time attacking some of the most profitable corporations in the world, including banks, insurance companies, and oil and gas conglomerates, they are now focusing on the wealthy.

Using spray paint, Killeen and other members of the environmentalist group Futuro Vegetal, often known as Vegetable Future, defaced Nancy Walton Laurie’s $300 million superyacht.

“You consume, others suffer,” read one of the protesters’ banners. Almost 100 protestors attached themselves to aircraft gangways and the exhibition gate in Geneva, disrupting Europe’s largest private jet sales event.

A private airplane was spray-painted by the German environmental organization Letzte Generation on the vacation island of Sylt in the North Sea. In Spain, protesters filled up holes in golf courses to draw attention to the activity’s high water usage during hot, dry spells.

Luxury Emissions Under Fire

climate-activists-escalate-actions-targeting-jets-yachts-and-golf-in-global-protests — Last summer, as part of an expanding campaign against the emissions-producing lifestyles of the ultrawealthy, climate activists spray painted a superyacht, stopped private aircraft from taking off, and filled in holes in golf courses.

Abigail Disney, Walt Disney’s grandniece, and 13 other protesters were detained at the East Hampton Town Airport in New York in July for obstructing the movement of cars into and out of the parking lot.

That was the first of up to eight operations conducted in the upscale Hamptons neighborhood. Moreover, protesters disrupted a museum gala, crashed a golf course, and marched in front of some exclusive mansions.

Luxury travel is “the real culprit,” according to Richard Wilk, an economic anthropologist at Indiana University, in the emissions of the ultrawealthy.

A superyacht with a permanent crew, a helicopter pad, submarines, and pools releases around 7,020 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is more than 1,500 times more than a conventional family car.

He provided estimates of the top billionaires’ annual emissions in 2021. Also, according to the non-profit organization Greenpeace, private planes in Europe alone last year produced more than 3 million tons of carbon pollution, which is equal to the average yearly CO2 emissions of nearly 500,000 EU citizens.

Nevertheless, Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, cautioned against diverting focus from the fossil fuel industry, which is accountable for at least 70% of all emissions.

Florida-based private plane charter company Monarch Air Group’s president, David Gitman, urged activists to reconsider their course of action.

Source: ABC News