Megayachts are an ostentatious show of wealth, and while they may occasionally look like fun, their outsized environmental impact is not something to envy.
One Redditor shared an aerial photo of a megayacht docked in Port Vauban, France, the self-proclaimed "capital of yachting." This boat dwarfs all the other vessels in the harbor, taking up as much space as more than 20 other ships. Not only is the yacht massive, but it also appears to have not one but two helipads.
The Guardian wrote on the indefensible environmental impact of these massive boats. It found that these ships can "emit more than 22,000 tonnes (24,250 U.S. tons) of carbon every year, which is more than some small countries."
In the United States, the average carbon pollution of one person is around 16 tons, meaning that these vessels release more climate-warming pollution than 1,000 Americans. These pollutants contribute to higher temperatures across the planet, rising seas, and more extreme weather across the globe.
Redditors did a little investigating and found the yacht was at least once associated with Uzbek-Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, stating that "the yacht is reported to have cost $600 million, employ 84 full-time crew members, and contain the largest indoor swimming pool installed on a superyacht."
According to Forbes, Usmanov has even faced sanctions on at least one of his many yachts stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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Another commenter found that he also faced online vitriol with a niche community: "I knew that name sounded familiar; he was the president of the international governing body for the sport of fencing; people were all up in arms over him over in the fencing subreddit when the Ukraine invasion broke out." Usmanov remains the president-elect of the International Fencing Federation, according to a spokesperson, after being re-elected in 2024.
Others joked about the size of the yacht and the two helipads, with one saying, "It's so big you can take a chopper from the bow to the stern!"
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Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that Usmanov is no longer an owner of this yacht, according to a spokesperson, who said the yacht is now owned and controlled by an irrevocable trust of which Usmanov is not a beneficiary.
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