Outraged bystander sparks debate by sharing mind-blowing photo from local harbor: 'What is the point?'

The terms superyacht or megayacht simply don't do justice to Roman Abramovich's $600 million vessel. That extends to its remarkable pollution, even when it's merely sitting in the harbor.

A Redditor drew attention to some sobering energy usage data of the yacht, the Eclipse, on the r/environment subreddit.

They linked to a Luxurylaunches piece in their post, and framed the photo with an excerpt from the article. 

Luxurylaunches wrote that Abramovich's "superyacht is so massive that it is burning one ton of diesel every day to run its air-conditioning just so that sea water and mold do not spoil its plush interiors and expensive artwork and keep its anti-paparazzi laser system running."

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the former owner of the Premier League's Chelsea FC has apparently docked the Eclipse in the Turkish resort town of Marmaris to avoid EU and UK sanctions for alleged links to Vladimir Putin. He has said he no longer owns the yacht, but The Telegraph cast doubt on those claims. 

Abramovich is also accused by the BBC and Bureau of Investigative Journalism of circumventing millions of dollars in EU taxes on his fleet of yachts in a scheme dating back to 2005.

Either way, the massive pollution of the 553-foot yacht goes on unabated. The Guardian argued that "owning a megayacht is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in," in a piece that put Abramovich's whole fleet's annual carbon pollution at an incredible 22,000 tons.

Given the extensive pollution, even when they're not being run, it's hard to dispute the logic. That doesn't even get into the other types of carnage for the planet of these yachts, which a French sociologist characterized to Bloomberg as "ecocide."

Redditors were alarmed by the enormous pollution and excess of Abramovich and the Eclipse, which accommodates up to 36 guests and 70 workers.

"These people are climate sadists," one wrote.

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Another poster questioned the need for it: "What is the point of a boat like this? Like, if you want somewhere to host 30+ guests in luxury, why not just build a villa somewhere? You get way, way more luxury for that kind of money, and won't be burning stupid amounts of fuel."

"To show the plebs where their place is," a Redditor solemnly answered, pointing to the optics of billionaires' megayachts in the wild.

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