Sadly, some celebrities are still disconnected from the reality of increasing global temperatures and are moving further away from the simpler, more sustainable way of living that we should all strive to adopt.
Canadian rapper Drake had his newly renovated private jet shown off in an Instagram video, which one Redditor decided to share with the members of the subreddit group r/Torontology.
"It's, like, probably one of the craziest moments of my life," Drake was cited as saying in several videos displaying bits of the plane presentation. "I actually didn't believe it until AJ told me, 'Let me get you the biggest jet in the game out of anybody. It'd be, like, you and the president, that's it,'" the rapper added.
His excitement is understandable, and the world would be a simpler place if we didn't have to consider pollution. But the world just isn't that simple, so it's worth reviewing an estimate of the jet's impact when used for just a handful of passengers.
According to JetFinder, an aircraft rental service in Toronto, "Air Drake" is a Boeing 767 jet built in 1996. Granted to the singer by air cargo company Cargojet, it is 180 feet long. Now that it has been refurbished, it is said to seat 33 people and cost as much as $200 million.
"Remember it's the internet!" one Redditor warned. "Numbers will ALWAYS be inflated."
The internet is full of verifiable facts, too, though this is indeed a case that's hard to verify without access to specific purchasing documents. Whether upgrading the plane cost Drake less than $200 million or not does not change the fact that the singer's new toy will consume an enormous amount of fuel, which could be priced between $6,000 and $10,000 per hour of flight, JetFinder points out.
Private jets are indeed known for their disproportionate carbon footprint, when they account for a small proportion of total flights. As Greenpeace explains, a flight on a private jet causes about 10 times more carbon dioxide pollution than a regular flight per person.
And their worldwide total has more than doubled in two decades, according to a Guardian article in 2023. Drake's 767 is even worse than a typical private jet since it is a converted large commercial airliner, too, so it's a safe bet that any flight on it is even more polluting per passenger unless he's routinely packing in dozens of guests on his flights.
"You can live in that s***," one Reddit user said about Air Drake.
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Should the ultra-wealthy pay a tax to help offset their environmental impact?
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Absolutely 💯 "Tax the rich," another commented.
In Europe, several governments have considered banning private jets, but the measures have yet to be passed into law.
France has been looking to discourage their use by forbidding domestic short-haul flights where a train alternative is available, but critics showed that the measure targeted few routes and did not include connecting flights, Euronews noted last year. The Netherlands has also been taking steps to lower private jet usage due to environmental concerns, with plans to ban their operations in Amsterdam's Schiphol and Eindhoven airports in 2025 and 2026.
In the meantime, traveling more responsibly is a choice that you can easily make, as there are many other ways to travel than private flights, starting with train and bus rides. Driving an electric car is another option to reduce fuel consumption and, ultimately, to curtail the release of polluting gases into the atmosphere, which have been warming our planet.
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