Onlooker captures photo of massive yacht with bizarre feature: 'Strange'

"Is this a strange stern or is [it] pulling something?" one Redditor wondered as they shared a picture of a yacht off Playa Flamingo, one of the most popular beaches in Costa Rica.

While they may never receive a response to their question, some members of the yacht subreddit where they posted it had a few things to say about this boat.

"I really think it looks goofy," one of them commented.

Drawing admiration from some and loathing from others, yacht ownership is the privilege of the rich, who can afford these luxurious floating houses and their ongoing costs. They also illustrate to perfection these people's disconnection from the reality of the environmental crisis.

Yachts have a disastrous carbon footprint. Per CleanTechnica, the world's top 300 superyachts generate nearly 285,000 tons of carbon emissions each year. And that is without mentioning noise and light pollution, as well as the discharge of wastewater, which can contaminate the seas and oceans.

According to a report by Oxfam, the consumption and investment habits of the world's super-rich 1% are outsized, hampering efforts to mitigate climate change.

"If everyone began emitting as much carbon as those in the top 1%, the remaining carbon budget would be gone in fewer than five months," the organization wrote.

It added, "If everyone emitted carbon at the same rate as the luxury transport emissions of 50 of the world's richest billionaires, the remaining carbon budget would be gone in two days."

Some companies are now seeking to help yacht owners reduce their environmental costs by switching to cleaner fuels and tapping into more sustainable construction, such as Silent Yachts with its solar-powered yachts or Arc Boats and its electric ships.

These initiatives, however, cannot undermine the urgency for the elite few to change their consumption patterns and adopt a simpler way of living.

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