Mark Zuckerberg's $300 million superyacht didn't get a warm welcome when it arrived in Longyearbyen, a remote town in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. As the Meta CEO explored Arctic waters aboard his massive vessel called Launchpad, accompanied by a $30 million support ship named Wingman, climate activists staged a protest, sounding alarms over the environmental cost of the billionaire's visit, the Hindustan Times reported.
Protesters marched through Longyearbyen with banners and whistles, calling out what they saw as a jarring example of climate hypocrisy in one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet.
"If he thinks he can come to one of the most threatened and fragile places in the world with two yachts (while one of them emits 40 tons of CO2 per hour), without being criticised, he's thinking wrong," read a post from local activist group Arctic Climate Action Svalbard (@arcticclimateaction), as reported by NRK.
The message didn't stop at emissions. Protesters also criticized Zuckerberg for the broader harm caused by Meta's platforms.
"We'll tell Mark Zuckerberg what many inhabitants of Longyearbyen think about him hosting disinformation on his platforms which is threatening democracies worldwide and impeding on meaningful climate mitigation," Arctic Climate Action's post continued.
Zuckerberg's yachts have become symbols of a widening climate gap: the ultra-rich using high-emission transport in places already bearing the brunt of rising global temperatures. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, according to one study. Meanwhile, superyachts such as Launchpad can burn thousands of gallons of fuel per day, releasing as much pollution in a few hours as the average person does in a year.
These protests also draw attention to broader questions about fairness and responsibility and what it means to visit nature without destroying it in the process.
For people looking to counteract this kind of impact, organizations such as Clean Arctic Alliance are pushing for a ban on heavy fuel oil in Arctic waters. Others, including Sea Legacy, are fighting to conserve marine ecosystems such as polar ice caps. But local actions such as the one in Svalbard may be just as powerful and send a clear signal that, even in the far north, people are watching.
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