Yacht-Zee$: The Billionaires Behind the Energy Class War: Summary and Review of Robert Bryce’s New Mini-Documentary

       Robert Bryce is an energy realist. He might piss us off at times, but he usually has a very good point even when he does. Here, he points out the hypocrisy and the well-off perpetrators of what he calls an energy class war. In his email about the mini doc, he notes that it calls out the hypocrisy of billionaires, those who support green radical climate activism, in particular. He notes that it is those with private jets and yachts who are leading the work, for instance, to ban gas stoves.

     There was also a copyright issue that caused his mini doc to be taken down, but he was able to re-release it, at least via email. Thus, I assume the issue was minor or cut out.

He begins by noting that super yachts produce about 7000 tons of CO2, equal to the CO2 emissions of about 1400 U.S. residents. Bezos’ superyacht also has a support yacht. Then he notes Bezos’ initiative to decrease methane emissions from cows, i.e., cow farts. He refers to:

“The billionaires who have turned climate activism into a personal brand while living like Saudi princes.”

     He notes that yachts are the biggest emitters, bigger than the large mansions and private jets.

     He starts with Mark Zuckerberg, contrasting his immense yacht fuel use, equivalent over a nine-month period to 44,000 Honda Civic fill-ups, with Facebook’s statement on being committed to helping to solve the climate crisis.

     Next is Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs. In 2021, she pledged to spend $3.5 billion to fight climate change. She is a major donor to climate activist-oriented environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Rocky Mountain Institute. He notes that those groups are involved in the push to ban gas stoves. She also has a $120 million yacht. The hypocrisy is painfully obvious.

     Next is Michael Bloomberg, who has pushed climate change as an issue and remains a huge donor to those who promote climate activism. He is the major donor to the Beyond Carbon campaign that seeks to close all coal plants in the U.S., block all new natural gas plants, and force the grid to run solely on weather-dependent resources. Bloomberg, he notes, owns 12 houses and three jets but no yachts.

     He moves on to Jeff Bezos, the guy with the biggest and most expensive yacht and support yacht. The emissions from those yachts are equivalent to those of 2800 residents. The Bezos Earth Fund has bankrolled a $100 million effort to monitor oil & gas methane emissions from satellites in space. Thus, he points out the hypocrisy that a guy with a huge carbon footprint is leading the charge to monitor the greenhouse gas footprint of others.

Why should we care? He points out that these big-emitting billionaires are heavily funding mainstream environmental groups to push climate activism through their foundations. Those contributions allow them to write them off their taxes so that it reduces their tax liability, meaning that in a sense, they are being subsidized by other taxpayers.

     He quotes from Oxfam:

“Richest 1% emit as much planet-heating pollution as two-thirds of humanity.”

     That two-thirds of humanity is made up of 5 billion of the world’s poorest people! Finally, he calls the whole situation an energy class war, though he does not elaborate.

     Again, he does have a point, a pretty damn good one.

 

Yacht-Zee$ Uncensored - Robert Bryce

    

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Yacht-Zee$ Uncensored. Yacht-Zee$ Uncensored - Robert Bryce