[Climate activists spray-paint a $300 million super yacht belonging to Walmart heir Nancy Walton Laurie in the island of Ibiza]
[Futuro Vegetal climate activists hold a banner reading “You consume, others suffer” in front of the spray-painted yacht of Walmart heir Nancy Walton]
[Yachts docked at Ibiza port]
[A worker cleaning a yacht’s windows]
[Climate activist Karen Killeen in front of a yacht holding a banner reading “Stop Luxury Emissions”]
Karen Killeen (interview): “We still allow this total injustice and this obscenity of frivolous emissions. Emissions like jets and yachts and the golf club and the beach club represent the lifestyles of people who create those emissions.”
[Yachts docked at Ibiza port]
[A worker cleaning a yacht’s deck]
[Killeen gluing a sticker reading “Jets and yachts, the party’s over”]
[Killeen holding a banner reading “Your Luxury, our climate crisis”]
Karen Killeen (interview): “I think we need a change of attitude, not just in the rich, but also in general society and in the politics. There has to be change in legislation. We can’t just expect the rich to change because they won’t change unless they get pressure from below and from above. When their lifestyle is seen as no longer acceptable, then they will change.”
[Climate activists disrupting Europe’s biggest private jets sales fair in Geneva]
[Climate activist holding a banner reading “Ban private jets”]
[Activists seated in front of a private jet during a sales fair holding banners reading “Ban private jets” and “Private jets drown our hope”]
[A security person pushing a climate activist]
[Activists seated in front of a private jet]
[Sagrario Monedero, Greenpeace Spain head of action and systemic impact, walking at a park]
Sagrario Monedero (interview): “The number of private jet flights in Europe grew by 64% last year. We have gone from 350,000 private flights in 2021 to more than 570,000 last year. In addition, it is a very polluting way to travel. The emissions produced by private jets are ten times higher than those produced with conventional flights.”
[Activists standing in front of a private jet holding banners reading “Private jets burn our future” and “Ban private jets”]
[Security personnel covering activists with a blanket
[Activists holding banners against private jets inside a bus at Geneva airport]
Sagrario Monedero (interview): “But apart from that, we are seeing that they are flights that take place over very short distances. We have analyzed and out of the ten most frequent routes of private jets, seven are very short routes in which there is also an alternative by train. They are routes like Rome to Milan, Geneva to Paris or Nice to Paris.”
[Scientist rebellion activists protesting at Norway airport against private jets]
[Climate activists protesting against private jets at Malpensa Airport]
Dana Fisher (interview): “These specific luxury practices are disproportionately contributing to the climate crisis at this point if you map out carbon emissions and as a result, it makes a lot of sense for these activists to be calling out these types of behaviors. So I think it is not anecdotal at all, but rather kind of a small bit of the movement that is going to probably be getting a lot more attention in the coming years.”
[Extinction rebellion activists blocking the entrance to Harrods aviation]
[Scientist rebellion activists disrupting the Brussels Air Ops Show holding banners reading “Make them pay” and “Your luxury our collapse”]
[David Gitman, president of the private air charter provider Monarch Air Group, walking at the company’s headquarters]
David Gitman (interview): “The way I see private aviation, it’s main role is to supplement where the general aviation simply does not have a solution to. Is it used by celebrities? Of course it’s used by celebrities, but so are shoes. So T-shirts. We’re not going to stop wearing T-shirts because you know somebody else that uses a similar T-shirt. So I definitely think that private aviation has a role, a critical role. I don’t see another option to fulfill this role in many areas where general aviation, for completely understandable reasons, is unavailable to do that.”
[Gitman working at his desk]
David Gitman (interview): “I think they (climate activists) are bringing up a valid point. But what they’re kind of missing in a way is the solution to this point. So if you look at the private aviation over a span of 30, 40 years and you look at what the industry has done to move towards sustainability and to become a less of a factor and more of a solution. Things like reducing fuel burn. If you compare the fuel burn of a Lear 25 from decades ago and a modern Citation CJ+ series, you’re talking more than a 50% reduction.”
This script was provided by The Associated Press.