A group of climate activists with Climate Resistance protested at The Elite London, a luxury lifestyle event that featured a private jet fair, drawing in London's most wealthy elites for an exclusive showcase, The Canary reported.
The protesters called for the abolishment of the super-rich, publicly shaming them for participating in environmentally harmful luxury lifestyle activities, including flying on private jets.
Climate Resistance (@climate_resistance), the activist group behind the protest, posted a short clip of the rally to its Instagram page.
"Hey hey! Ho ho! The super-rich have got to go," chants rang loudly as security tackled individual protesters and physically removed them from the event.
"So security is allowed to use that much force or is it just when protecting rich peoples ego-taxis?" one user retorted, writing under the Climate Resistance Instagram video.
The private aviation industry has contributed a significant amount of carbon pollution in the last few years. According to PBS, private jet pollution rose 46% from 2019 to 2023 and represents nearly half of the total carbon impact of the entire aviation industry.
Despite being a smaller subset of the larger general community, the super-rich — those who participate in these kinds of luxury lifestyle activities — are flying without regard to the environmental impact they're creating.
"The damage is done by those with a lot of money and the cost is borne by those with very little money," said Stefan Gössling, professor of Tourism Research at Linnaeus University, according to PBS.
Some activists, according to PBS, suggest proposing legislation to collect a tax fee when landing that is commensurate with the damage created by flying private. This is similar to the megayacht "impact fee" Maine lawmakers proposed to offset the damage created by allowing megayachts to dock in the state's harbors.
"The climate crisis is propelled by the super-rich ... A livable future can't be a luxury," said Sam Simons, per The Canary.
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