A Reddit user sparked a lively discussion when they shared an image of a gigantic support yacht docked in San Diego.
The picture was accompanied by the caption, "Hodor docked in San Diego with 3 carriers in port yesterday. USS Nimitz in foreground." As other posters pointed out, the caption was inaccurate on both counts. The aircraft carrier was actually in the background, and it was the USS Carl Vinson, not the Nimitz.
As fans of "Game of Thrones" have already worked out, the ship takes its name from the show's popular gentle giant of the same name. Well, actually, the character's real name is Wyllis (or Walder, if you're a book snob), but we don't need to relive that scene again. Like the character, the ship is made to carry things. Lots of things. It's a self-described 216-foot-long "toybox" for the ultra-wealthy that was assembled in Spain.
The scale of the decadence on display is hard for the average person even to conceive, as is the outsized impact that luxury forms of travel have on the environment. In 2024 alone, private planes put over 17 million tons of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere, according to PBS. That's equivalent to more than a million typical Americans or the entire output of well over a hundred nations.
The megayachts that the Hodor carries goodies for are even worse. Just one of these monstrosities emits over 6,000 tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to the pollution of more than 1,500 cars on the road. It's essential to remember that when companies roll out glossy ads boasting about their green initiatives, their owners often undermine those actions.
"Obscene. In a taboo kinda way," one user observed. Another was baffled by the logistics of keeping such a monster afloat. "How can one person afford that much fuel? Does a tanker follow the ship?" they wondered. Another just cut to the chase: "Some people have way to [sic] much money."
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