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“Just drive and enjoy the scenery.”
Photo Credit: iStock
This government official is choosing one of the most environmentally unfriendly ways to travel.
A subreddit dedicated to tracking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ private jet shared the environmental impact of his 45-minute flight.
The flight from Tallahassee, Florida, to Melbourne, Florida, might have been short, but the impacts are long-lasting. The account estimated the total cost of the flight, which came out to 1,087 pounds of jet fuel, or $908 worth, and 2 tons of carbon dioxide pollution.
While driving from Tallahassee to Melbourne would take over four hours and thus might not be awful to replace with a flight if time were of the essence, flying on a commercial plane could significantly reduce those emissions, as they’re better “split” between passengers.
It’s not necessarily the plane itself; it’s the number of passengers the plane carries. Per passenger, private jets are one of the most harmful ways to travel. The European Federation for Transport and Environment found that “private jets are 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (per passenger), and 50 times more polluting than trains,” and the gap is expected to grow.
Planes emit a significant amount of CO2 into the air by burning fuel. This carbon pollution traps heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. Hotter temperatures result in more frequent extreme weather events, including droughts, heat waves, and hurricanes.
Celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Elon Musk have come under fire for similar planet-warming private flights. Swift’s “private jet usage amounted to an estimated 8,300 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2022 – that’s about 1,800 times the average human’s annual emissions,” according to Carbon Market Watch.
You’re probably already avoiding private jets, but for more ways to reduce your carbon pollution, try switching to renewable energy, driving an electric vehicle, reducing food waste, and avoiding single-use plastics.
Redditors in the comments were frustrated with DeSantis’ wasteful behavior.
“[He] spends more time in flight than a fly,” a Redditor wrote.
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Another wondered why he didn’t “just drive and enjoy the scenery.”
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