Irish Examiner view: 1% are taking rest of us on a short hop to disaster

Super-rich flaunting their use of climate-damaging private planes for unnecessary journeys

Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner took a 17-minute plane journey.

During one of the manic periods of the Covid-19 pandemic, the more paranoid members of what was known as the tinfoil-hat brigade (because they believed that donning such an item protected them from mind-influencing electromagnetic and telephone waves) had a theory about the reason for the virus.

It had been released into the world by ‘them’ to achieve an economic reset and divide society into the pampered and selfish rich and the rest of us, who would act as drones and worker bees. 

Setting aside the argument as to why anyone would bother to implement such a complicated solution when we are making such a good job of reaching that objective unaided, there are moments when you wonder if there is a grain of truth to the madness.

Now is such a moment, as news emerges of those super rich who like to use climate-damaging private jets for short-hop flights.

The debate kicked off when businesswoman and ‘sleb’ Kylie Jenner was Instagrammed with her partner, rapper Travis Scott, in front of two planes and the caption, ‘You wanna take mine or yours?’

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The journey from Los Angeles to nearby Camarillo lasted just 17 minutes, barely longer than if they had instead driven along Ventura Highway while listening to most of the 1972 album that carried that famous song.

While paying ever-increasing fees to travel, queue, and deal with cancelled trips and lost luggage is for ordinary people, a selfish group, who flaunt their high net worth, are operating with a disregard for the planet. Sadly, a plane in the name of the actor Mark Wahlberg, who we usually view in a heroic light, took a 23-minute flight between Dublin and Clare.

In a world where transit is becoming not only more expensive, but can be viewed as socially irresponsible in some circumstances, ostentatious decisions will be seen not only as self-centred and vulgar, but also ‘uncool’, the ultimate deterrent for some.

Frequent use of aviation is a preoccupation of the world’s wealthy people. One per cent of the global population is responsible for half of the emissions associated with flying. As a definition of unsustainable, that would be hard to beat.