Saint Greta of Thunberg is splashing the headlines for getting an all-expenses-paid jaunt with daddy across the Atlantic on a very flash, very fast yacht. I wouldn’t mind that experience either. But St Greta is stacking up brownie points by the dozen with this exercise in virtue signalling. It is all so “zero carbon”.
Team Malizia, skippered by Pierre Casiraghi and Boris Herrmann have the great honour and pleasure to sail Greta Thunberg from the UK to New York for the UN Climate Action Summit on Malizia II. The journey will start in mid-August. Greta accepted the offer to sail with Team Malizia as Malizia is a zero-carbon mode of transport to reach the USA. […]
[…] The sailboat is outfitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to allow for a zero-carbon, trans-Atlantic voyage.
Greta is taking a sabbatical year from school, and aims to attend a number of events during her time in North America, meeting with people most impacted by the climate and ecological emergency, climate activists, and decision-makers. […]
Greta doesn’t fly because of the tremendous amount of emissions caused by air travel – emissions that are strongly amplified due to the fact that they are released high-up in the atmosphere. She will therefore choose the least carbon-intensive modes of transportation throughout her travels across the Americas.
After months of research and considering different options for her journey, Greta will sail across the Atlantic in a zero-carbon racing boat called Malizia II, a foiling sailboat built in 2015, which is fitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to generate electricity on board the vessel. Greta will be joined on board the boat by her father Svante Thunberg and filmmaker Nathan Grossman of B-Reel Films, who will document the journey.
Borishermann Racing
B-Reel films! What a laugh.
From the image above of Malizia II, you can clearly see that the yacht was hand azed from a single trunk of an ancient tree. Oops, no, trees have carbon so we can’t use wood for our zero carbon means of Atlantic transport.
No, this fine piece of nautical engineering was fabricated by Multiplast. Their name gives a clue and their website lays it out quite clearly
Since 1981, Multiplast has been designing and manufacturing multihulls and monohulls in high tech composite materials with unparalleled performance (Atlantic records, the Jules Verne Trophy, Route de Rhum, the Volvo Ocean Race…)
Multiplast has rapidly forged a reputation, becoming the world leader in performance boat construction as well as in the use of high performance composite materials, allowing it to work with world renowned naval architects.
Multiplast
Yes, the yacht is built from carbon fibre materials. The website proudly states that Multiplast recycle raw materials (pre-preg polypropylene film, cardboard, acetone…)
Oh dear, polypropylene comes from the petrochemical industry, cardboard is carbon based, acetone is an organic compound because carbon atoms are present in acetone’s chemical formula. It consists of three carbon atoms, six hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom.
Not doing so well in the zero carbon stakes are we?
All these composite materials are heated in ovens to cure, these ovens require energy. The entire production factory is air-conditioned.
Its 5,300 m2 is divided into four 50x30m air conditioned hangars, with controlled temperature and humidity levels (21°C ±3oC, humidity <65%).
To provide that amount of precise air-conditioning requires a heap of energy.
There is not a chance that the fine vessel Malizia II could exist in a zero-carbon world.
And we haven’t even started on the sails, sheets and rigging.
A ‘zero carbon’ trip across the Atlantic my astern.
