Mark Zuckerberg has chosen France and the La Ciotat shipyard to repair his $300 million yacht. The ecological impact of this behemoth is causing some people to cringe….
A luxurious welcome for a yacht with a disastrous carbon footprint
The Côte d’Azur is used to welcoming the giants of the seas, but it’s quite rare to see the yachts of tech billionaires on our shores. As you may have guessed, the famous La Ciotat shipyard in the Bouches-du-Rhône region of France will soon be home to ‘Launchpad’, the yacht owned by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The vessel, valued at nearly $300 million, has completed a particularly fuel-intensive voyage in less than a year, gobbling up no less than two million litres of diesel, and emitting 5,300 tonnes of CO₂, the annual equivalent of the emissions from more than two thousand cars.
There’s a reason why Zuckerberg chose France. The La Ciotat shipyard is renowned in the small world of boat-owning big money. The area offers extremely rare technical skills and a range of products that are both premium and discreet. La Ciotat has already been home to ‘Koru’, Jeff Bezos’ yacht, for example!
But as the years go by, big boats are becoming less and less popular. The Mediterranean is already suffering the direct consequences of climate change, and people’s ecological awareness is growing all the time. So it’s becoming increasingly difficult to accept that we’re pandering to the demands of ultra-polluting billionaires.
A brief summary of the latest voyages of Zuckerberg’s yacht
The Launchpad has been busy over the last few months. After waiting in vain for its illustrious owner in Hawaii, it undertook an impressive 9,600 nautical mile voyage from San Francisco to the South Pacific. This round trip consumed a whopping 680,000 litres of diesel.
Zuckerberg and his family didn’t stop there. In April, they headed for Norway, a destination conducive to luxury and extreme leisure activities. Aboard the Launchpad and its support vessel, ‘Abeona’, Zuckerberg indulged in activities such as heli-skiing (helicopter-assisted skiing, because why not). The boat acted as a floating base, allowing the businessman to land directly on deck, a practice necessitated by Norwegian regulatory constraints. Once again, the locals were rather critical, but the billionaire clearly didn’t care.
The summer cruise then continued to Greece and then Italy. Between Naples and Positano, for example, the yacht emitted over 6 tonnes of CO₂ in just four days. Such performance is hardly surprising for a vessel equipped with four MTU 20V 4000 diesel engines, capable of reaching a top speed of 24 knots and whose hourly consumption, exceeds 1000 gallons of fuel (that’s about 630 thermal cars at the same time). Each hour spent at sea by Zuckerberg and his guests represents in emissions what an average motorist would travel by circumnavigating the Earth four times.
France in contradiction
The Côte d’Azur can congratulate itself on its internationally recognised technical capabilities. Attracting the wealthy clients who keep our industries going is a good thing from a strictly economic point of view. That said, we’re faced with a major paradox: how can we reconcile France’s declared ecological reputation with the enthusiastic welcome given to this type of ultra-polluting boat?
The Launchpad case is emblematic of the disconnect between the environmental rhetoric of Silicon Valley’s elites, Zuckerberg included, and the reality of their personal practices. At a time when calls for energy sobriety are multiplying in Europe, repairing such an energy-guzzling vessel in peace is a luxury that few regions could afford politically without arousing public indignation.
The La Ciotat shipyard, which specialises in mega-yachts, presents itself as a “spa for luxury ships”. This is precisely the argument that attracts the world’s wealthiest people. Except that hosting a ship like Zuckerberg’s in the midst of a social and climate crisis puts France in a tricky situation. Debates about the privileges of the ultra-rich are increasingly heated, and this kind of situation only serves to fuel them….
Source link
