Because flies are harmful to the climate, the Swedish environmental activist travels by ship to the climate summit in New York. But several of her team members take the airway.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg appears to be causing more greenhouse gases through her trip from the UK to the United Nations Climate Change Summit in the US than if she had flown. About five employees would sail their yacht back to Europe, said Andreas Kling, spokesman for Thunberg skipper Boris Herrmann, the taz. " Of course they fly over there, that's no different," Kling said accordingly. Also skipper Herrmann will take the plane for the return journey.



The sailing trip therefore requires at least six air travel across the Atlantic. If Thunberg had flown with her father, only two would have been needed back and forth. A flight from New York to Hamburg, according to the emission calculator of the organization atmosfair, has a negative impact on the climate, which is more than three quarters of what anyone can cause if global warming is to be limited to two degrees.

Because flights are detrimental to the climate, Thunberg had sought a less harmful option to reach the New York Climate Summit. On Wednesday afternoon, the 16-year-old had gone aboard the ocean-going yacht Malizia II . Together with the two professional sailors Herrmann and Pierre Casiraghi as well as her father Svante and a filmmaker in the south of England Plymouth she set sail. The ship moves through wind power, electricity for navigation and communication is generated by solar cells.



Herrmann's co-sailor Casiraghi is, according to the world, also the majority shareholder of the Monacair airline in Monaco, which offers helicopter flights for private customers, for example to avoid traffic jams or to get to the ski resort quickly. It advertises a 7-minute transfer to Nice airport, 20 minutes by helicopter cost 690 euros. The newspaper also refers to the high material and personnel costs for the travel preparations, the arrival of a media team, a support crew and other volunteers, which Greta Thunberg also thanked at a press conference for her commitment.