Greta Thunberg’s plan for carbon-free travel was contradicted when her sailboat captain flew across the Atlantic Ocean to pick her up.
Thunberg, 16, has been on a tour of North America to raise awareness for climate change. As part of her pledge to cut back carbon dioxide emissions to save the planet, Thunberg vowed not to travel by air to limit her carbon footprint while she tours.
The plan for “zero emissions” travel was subverted when Thunberg’s yacht captain, Nikki Henderson, 26, flew to the United States from England, burning roughly two or three tons of carbon CO2 in the process. Thunberg and her father, who has traveled North America throughout his daughter’s activist tour, could have flown aboard the same flight and burned just as much CO2.
Henderson was forced to make the flight last second because protests in Chile caused the U.N.’s Cop25 climate summit to be moved to Madrid, Spain. Thunberg was set to speak at the conference but needed to leave the U.S. sooner than expected.
Their trip from the U.S. to Lisbon, Portugal, has been riddled with bad weather and uncooperative winds throughout. The group is expected to make land by tomorrow morning after 21 days of travel.
Day 20. Our last day on the ocean! We can now almost smell land! We expect to arrive at Doca de Santo Amaro, Lisbon sometime between 8.00-10.00 tomorrow morning. @_NikkiHenderson @Sailing_LaVaga @elayna__c pic.twitter.com/VSMiRTQpKR
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 2, 2019
This is the second time that Thunberg’s ship crew was forced to fly to accommodate her “zero emissions” travel. In August, Thunberg sailed to the U.S., but a sailing crew had to fly to the states from Europe to bring the boat back while the teen completed her visit.
