A British yacht skipper’s flight to the US to help Greta Thunberg sail to Portugal has produced the same amount of carbon emissions the voyage hoped to save.
Nikki Henderson, 26, flew to the US from Britain to sail 48-foot catamaran the La Vagabonde.
The vessel is carrying Miss Thunberg and her father Svante 3,000 miles to Portugal where she will go onto attend the COP 25 climate change talks in Madrid.
The journey was meant to save approximately two or three tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
But Ms. Henderson’s flight from Britain to the US likely produced the same amount of emissions the journey hoped to save, countering Ms. Thunberg’s mission, The Times reports.
Ms. Henderson was a skipper in three ARC Trans Atlantic races. In two of them, she was the youngest competitor.
She also skippered the Caribbean 600 and has raced in three Caribbean seasons.
Ms. Henderson tweeted: ‘I decided to help @Sailing_LaVaga and support Greta because she is changing the world – simply by standing up for what she believes is right and staying true to her values.
‘I so admire that, and hope to draw strength from her.’
The 16-year-old climate activist, who became world-famous for founding the ‘school strikes for the climate,’ refuses to fly in planes because of the carbon footprint.
The ship, belonging to Australian YouTubers Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu, left from Hampton, Virginia, last month.
The couple also has their son Lenny onboard.
It aims to reach Portugal, more than 5,500 kilometers (about 3,500 miles) away. From there Ms. Thunberg will make her way to Madrid in Spain for COP 25.
The Australian couple offered to sail Miss Thunberg to Spain after she had issued a plea on social media for help getting back across the Atlantic Ocean after the summit was moved at the last minute from Santiago in Chile to Madrid due to the protests in the South American country.
Read rest at Daily Mail
Not only did Nikki Henderson fly across the Atlantic so Greta could return to Europe in a boat theoretically power by sails, but others did the same for her trip to North America. Less carbon dioxide would have been emitted if Greta’s family and her handler took a commercial flight. It is about appearances, not substance.