Tech nerd Mark Zuckerberg has found himself at the center of an embarrassing climate change flip-flop, thanks to his $300 million mega yacht. The 41-year-old Meta boss, worth roughly $230 billion, has reportedly been burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel since launching his personal, 387-foot vessel last year.
The yacht, dubbed Launchpad, runs on four diesel engines that use about 291 gallons of fuel every hour, which allegedly emits 40 tons of CO₂ over that same period of time.
Zuckerberg, an outspoken advocate for climate change policies such as the Paris Agreement and scaling carbon dioxide removal technologies to limit global warming, has been roasted on social media over the yacht's massive carbon footprint.
"Another reminder that Net Zero is only for the peasants," one person wrote on X next to a video of the massive luxury vessel sailing near Florida. "Meanwhile ordinary people drive electric cars and recycle, because the planet matters. But for him, apparently, the planet doesn't matter," another social media user added. Others called the multi-million-dollar yacht the ultimate "symbol of hypocrisy," as Zuckerberg has spent more than $100 million funding climate advocacy and related initiatives through his philanthropic organization.
Some critics of Zuckerberg's lavish mode of transportation noted that Launchpad was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to climate hypocrisy. The mega yacht has been accompanied on its journeys by a 220-foot, $30 million support ship called Wingman, which can carry smaller boats, a miniature submarine for exploration and even a helicopter. "Rich people when they say "we’re all in this together" then fire up four diesel engines," an X user commented.
In just nine months between 2024 and this year, the $300 million super-yacht burned more than 528,000 gallons of diesel fuel, before docking in France’s La Ciotat shipyard in August, according to the Greek Reporter. That usage amounted to more than 5,300 tons of carbon emissions being released by the one ship alone, the same as nearly 400 US households over one year.
The revelations about Zuckerberg's boat sharply contradict the Meta CEO's past comments about the dire situation Earth faces because of climate change, which has been largely blamed on human activities such as burning fossil fuels. "Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late," Zuckerberg said in 2017 while condemning President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.
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