The carbon emissions of the private jet owned by Elon Musk is thick enough that it will take six years for a small forest to offset.
The world’s richest man Elon Musk (maybe the second richest as Bernard Arnault recently trumped him) decided that he wanted to watch the World Cup final last week and unlike the rest of us, he got onto his private jet which cost a cool $70 million and flew to the match venue.
Carbon Emissions
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He flew from San Jose to Qatar forking out $47,000 for the trip and that one trip released enough carbon emission that an average American car would in 12 years or the equivalent of seven trips around the world.
The trip from San Jose to Luton, UK is 5,352 miles and it is another 3,263 miles from Luton to Qatar. Assuming it’s a to-and-fro trip, Reddit users calculated that he will burn 15,000 gallons of fuel in total. That’s nearly 136 tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
The Arbor Day Foundation says one mature tree absorbs 48 pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere in one day, it would take a small forest of 1,000 Oakwood trees 6.25 years to offset Musk’s trip to watch the football game.
This isn’t unusual for Musk who has in the past take a nine minute flight on his jet from San Jose to San Francisco.
Elon Musk vs Carbon Emissions
Reddit user Jeremymia posed the question on whether Musk really should be condemned for flying private. “I ask this in good faith, is the amount of emissions created by Musk really significant on a global scale, or is it more like it’s everyone acting like him causing the problem?”
Musk’s jet is something that is envied even by owners of private jets themselves. The interior of the Gulfstream G650ER business jet can easily accommodate 18 people. It features four living areas, to work, dine, entertain and relax. The aircraft has a galley with two storage compartments, a microwave and even a convection oven. While the seats are fully reclinable and can be converted into bed the fold up tables can be joined up to from a dining table.