The BBC reports today that Greta Thunberg will travel to some climate conferences by sail.
Guest post by Mike Jonas
Greta Thunberg to sail Atlantic for climate conferences
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has accepted a ride across the Atlantic by boat to attend two key climate conferences.
The teenager will make the journey aboard the Malizia II, a high-speed 18-metre (60ft) yacht built to race around the globe.
“We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to New York in mid August,” she tweeted.
Thunberg refuses to fly because of the environmental impact of air travel.
In a Facebook post, Team Malizia said they were “honoured to sail Greta Thunberg emission free across the Atlantic”.
Is Greta Thunberg the first climate activist prepared to abide by their convictions and use “carbon-free” travel? I think she is.
My personal opinion is that Greta should be congratulated for her integrity (just as the others should be condemned for their hypocrisy).
But maybe, just maybe, this story will drive home to people just how ridiculous the whole “carbon-free” idea is.
Greta is fortunate enough to be invited to visit the other side of the Atlantic in a fast racing yacht, because she is famous. That’s the positive part of the story. But let’s go through just a few of the issues arising from this story:
1. It will take a very long time compared with flying, especially if you aren’t famous. At Malizia II’s trans-Atlantic racing speed of 14.5 knots (https://www.yacht-club-monaco.mc/en/route-du-rhum-malizia-ii-finished-5th/), an Atlantic crossing takes a fortnight. Time is money to most people, and especially to businesses.
Want to use your 4-week annual leave or the children’s school holiday to visit relatives on the other side of the Atlantic? Forget it.
2. The Atlantic, just like any large body of water, has severe storms. Even professional competitors in ocean races get sea-sick.
“It’s a feeling that you just want to jump off the side of the boat and end it all. It’s miserable, you don’t feel like doing anything, you get lethargic and you get tired. You loose[sic] interest in anything except in how manky you feel and pretty much each time you move, or change your environment, you end up throwing up.”.
(There’s lots more like that). Greta will be in an ocean racer, and even without a storm I doubt she will enjoy it. What will trans-ocean travel be like in our future “carbon-free” world?
3. …
There really isn’t any point in going on with this – the whole “carbon-free” idea is utterly impractical. In a “carbon-free” world, they are going to have to have all nuclear-powered ships and planes, or the whole world just descends into poverty. How long did they say we had left to go “carbon-free”?
So, while I congratulate Greta on her high ethical standards, maybe be best thing that can come out of this journey is the final realisation that the whole “carbon-free” thing is an exercise in absurdly expensive futility. The cost of going “carbon-free” – if it is actually possible – is clearly many orders of magnitude higher than just adapting to what the climate may or may not do. And bear in mind that China and India and others will do more than enough to guarantee that we will have to adapt to that anyway.
I hope that Greta’s greatest achievement will be getting the message through to the media and the politicians that they have been conned.
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I just crossed the North Sea in a 60 ft sailing boat, which is a 120 year old restored fishing vessel. 38 hours sailing from the Norwegian coast to Shetland. Even in good weather it’s non-trivial. Everyone on 4-hour watches, cooking eating and sleeping in cramped conditions. Sleeping isn’t easy in claustrophobic bunks. Some were sea-sick. Ever tried using a sea toilet in a big swell? You do get used to all of it, and when the sun shines and the boat is sailing well it’s fantastic. Then there are racing yachts, which are more like huge dinghies, much faster, but even more cramped and uncomfortable. You need to be experienced, fit, strong and tough to sail on them . Sending Greta on such a yacht would be an abuse. I predict a trial run, and the idea being dropped.
sonofmetman; I believe you are right. The more one thinks of little Greta on a boat like that, for two weeks, the more absurd and irresponsible the idea looks. The boat’s owner and captain should think twice about this, no matter how much PR they hope to get out of the stunt, it will backfire badly if Greta needs to be hauled aboard a helicopter after a few days.
“Ever tried using a sea toilet in a big swell? ”
Sure have. I remember a cabinmate coming back from an expedition to the loo, grumbling that it should be classed as an extreme sport.
I’d be interested to know, if I wanted to travel across the Atlantic on that very eco friendly yacht, ow much would it cost me? Rather more than an airfare i would bet.
And how many people per month could practically cross the ocean that way? Very much like the solar powered plane that took over a year flying around the world, what she is really proving is that her (parents) ideas are totally impossible and pointless
How come the United Nations approved of a yacht with a name like that.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malizia
Greta-mania is just too stupid for words. The girl who claims to be able to see CO2 is nothing but a prop.
She needs to arrange for transportation at her destination by horse and buggy. She should not make use of any goods or services that have made use of fossil fuels. That includes eating food that has been moved by truck or staying in buildings whose building materials were transported by means that made use of fossil fuels.
Greta of the Corn
What happened to the Malizia I?
Who knows? Perhaps she might learn something that has naught been taught to her by school, parents, or press. She might learn that we largely abandoned such modes of transport for very good reasons.
It’ll also be a very good opportunity for her followers to get bored and go do something more interesting instead.
Seems to me the “sponsors” are trolling Greta and Gang Green.
If so more power to them.
As many have noted,this vessel is the ultimate in hi Tech carbon fibre and very uncomfortable to boot.
I bet Greta’s handlers pull out at the last minute,with some lame face saving excuse.
And how will Greta travel back to Sweden after the conference?
She will ride on a sea-unicorn, the spearhead of climate salvation.
Climate-mania is this decades Beatle-mania, forget One Direction todays teenage girls swoon over global warming crusaders. In a few years the posters of polar bears and glaciers will be taken down and put in the back of the wardrobe and they will be more interested in clubbing and shoes than cow farts.
All of this misses the point a bit.
Greta has said that we need to reduce emissions, inherently by using less energy. And while this mode is likely to be better than air travel, it still consumes emissions. There will be the emissions associated with the support crews and additional infrastructure for the trip. Then there will be the additional emissions as Greta tours around the USA. Tourism is known to be emission intensive.
And the point of the trip? To go to a meeting whereby everyone has been saying the same as Greta is now, and agrees with her. Not exactly earth shattering. Oh and BTW as Greata’s generation is the only one doing anything, so these people are obviously frauds.
Greta has missed her own point. It is not about travelling better. In many cases, it is about not travelling at all.
“it still consumes emissions”
I don’t think so. Photosyntesizing plants consume emissions, but not yachts as far as I know.
I need to throw my 10 cents in here. As much as I am against her false teachings; I don’t wish harm upon her. This trip could could very possibly end in a very nasty way. She’s inexperienced and sea-sickness is not a pleasant feeling (I get sick from just taking a long journey by road. I also went fishing on a canoe once and that is even more of a ghastly endeavor).
What if the vessel runs into trouble? The crew would likely do the smart thing and radio the Coast Guard for assistance, which Greta would quickly denounce seeing that the Coast Guard would send a patrol cutter or helicopter to assist, and both of these methods of transport rely on fossil fuels. Imagine if the crew are forced to abandon ship and the Coast Guard Helicopter arrives to evacuate them, how Greta would refuse to leave the yacht and would probably throw a massive tantrum if an attempt is made to try and force her on board the helicopter. The Coast Guard would be in for a really awful day, having to put up with her screaming and crying the entire journey back to shore.
Greta would demonize the Coast Guard for not being “emissions free”. The Coast Guard is there to save lives. These brave men and women put their lives on the line so that others may live, and many Coast Guard Personnel have sacrificed themselves to allow others a chance to continue their lives. Refusing their help is just plain ridiculous. I know this scenario may sound a bit silly, but I wouldn’t put it past someone like Greta to act in this way.
“I hope that Greta’s greatest achievement will be getting the message through to the media and the politicians that they have been conned”
I doubt it, the media and politicians work hand in hand and are part of the “con”
As for Greta hopefully she will discover boys………
Why there is no group of ‘Alarmist Rebellion’ formed yet to inform people about the truth! It is to counter the ‘Extinction Rebellion’. Science should not be allowed to continue in that path in the twenty-first century. Sensible people and true scientists should come forward. All of her talks should be boycotted. France already showed the direction. Massive protest should be launched every place where she goes to misinform the general public.
re: ” Why there is no group of ‘Alarmist Rebellion’ formed yet to inform people about the truth! It is to counter the ‘Extinction Rebellion’. ”
Done in public, do you want to get rocks thrown at you?
Teenage Psychopath In Sweden
I worry about poor little Greta, that thing is a stripped down racing yacht with few creature comforts. Also the real possibility of storms (caused by climate change of course), becalming, icebergs etc. Greta is a delusional little girl, not an experienced sailor, this may not be the fun and games she is expecting – although I’m sure she’ll blame climate change for her inevitable sea sickness
Yes, again it is the uber-elite crowd that supports the radical misunderstandings of this poor girl who is being used and used and used as a political propaganda tool.
The boat is custom built for round-the-world racing at undisclosed cost by the princes of Monaco — for who money is not an issue.
The yacht has a diesel engine and a diesel generator as a matter of course.
But she sails like a demon dream…..and poor little Greta will have the ride of her life.
Headline Greta Thunberg’s arch-nemesis, Matilda Olofsson, foils her plans once more
“I intend to shadow Greta’s yacht with an old oil tanker I won using my mom’s credit card on eBay”
https://spectator.us/greta-thunberg-arch-nemesis-matilda-olofsson-foils/
Closing lines:
My plan is to follow Thunberg’s prissy little ship in my own vessel; Greta’s Downfall, dropping five oil drums into the sea every three hours, while Uncle Jörgen shoots at them with his hunting rifle. Using Google Maps I’ve calculated that it will take us 12 days to get to New York from Gothenburg, and so for every one tonne of fuel oil Greta saves, I shall be using at least 126 tonnes.
I cannot describe how excited I am to be contributing to the end of days. The world will burn, and I am the kindling.
Look upon this Greta and despair: Every move you make. Every breath you take. Every bond you break. Every step you take. I’ll be thwarting you.
Send out the Trump Coast Guard and build a seawall.
No way to know if Greta Thunberg tends more to asperger or juvenile narcissm, as with climate change:
Wait min. 30 years for a safer diagnosis.
We’re watching you Thunberg. Everything you eat, everything you wear, everything you drink, everything you get in, on top of or under. We are the Carbon Information Agency. We don’t sleep. And we are going to ensure you get none either, worrying about being caught for carbon crime. You have been warned.
It’s like the Children’s Crusade: Ignorant, pliant children pressed into service by manipulating adults for a misguided cause. It might take a generation but when more curious, courageous kids start questioning the unscientific ignorant orthodoxy of their parents, there will be a backlash against the emptiness of the AGW theory. A solar minimum will only further accelerate the assault on the AGW fable.
Decent sized cyclone developing in the North Atlantic. It will be a rough crossing.
Traveling by sailing vessel can be dangerous. My great grandfather was lost at sea when his ship capsized on the run from Dundee to London; this was in the 1890’s. The North Sea can be very rough, but the North Atlantic is worse.
Across the ocean on a keel of…uranium!
Well. I have tried to find confirmation that the keel of Malizia II is made of uranium, without luck yet. But virtually all high-performance sailing boats have keels of depleted uranium, since it’s much heavier than lead (19.1 kg/dm3 compared to 11.4 kg/dm3) it improves the performance significantly.
Personally, I have nothing against depleted uranium being used this way. The radiation from it is insignificant.
But I’m sure the environmentalists are dead against using uranium in any form! The mere word “uranium” for them means nukes and WWIII…
Have Greta thought of that?
–Ahrvid