Disney VIP world tour will produce 6.2 tons of carbon for each guest
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Travelers on a $110,000 "bucket list adventure" will emit 20 times more carbon than poor people in a year.
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Disney VIP world tour will produce 6.2 tonnes of carbon for each guest.
Disney is offering a $110,000-per-ticket elite package vacation with 6.2 tons of emissions for each tourist - 20 times more than a person in a low-income country responsible for in an entire year.
The 24-day "bucket list adventure," limited to 75 people, visits 12 Disney resorts across six countries and three continents. Customers will fly aboard a "VIP-configured" Boeing 757 with Disney workers "who [will] provide fun and fact-filled stories enabling you to be immersed in every location you visit."
Passengers board the ship on July 9, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. They will fly from there to San Francisco, then to Tokyo through Anchorage, then to Shanghai and Hong Kong, then to Agra in India, Cairo, Paris, and finally to Orlando, Florida. The tour has already sold out.
Tons per guest exceed global average
According to an analysis conducted by the clean transportation group Transport & Environment (T&E), the jet fuel used to power the aircraft for the entire 19,600-mile (31,500km) journey would emit 462 tons of carbon dioxide - or 6.2 tons for each paying guest, which is more than most people in the world account for in an entire year.
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The average annual CO2 emissions per capita in a low-income nation in 2019 were 0.3 tons, according to World Bank data.
Globally, the average yearly carbon footprint per capita was 4.5 tons. To stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, every individual on Earth would need to release an average of only 2.3 tons of CO2 per year by 2030.
'Luxurious' carbon footprints
T&E's aviation director, Jo Dardenne, stated, "This Disney tour demonstrates once again that there is no means of transportation more unfair than air flight." Only the wealthy can afford to travel, causing their annual carbon footprints to skyrocket with just one such trip.
“And while the price may seem extortionate, it doesn’t even adequately reflect the true cost of the pollution.”
A Disney spokesperson said the company had “a long commitment to protecting the planet and delivering a positive environmental legacy for future generations."
#Qataris, despite their small number, were the worst per-capita polluters, followed by #Kuwaitis in third place and #Saudis in fourth place, according to statistics provided by the Global Carbon Project.#ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/OncZClEkVT
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 3, 2022
Disney would be monitoring the emissions from the tour and balance them with “investments in high-quality, certified natural climate solutions” that would “result in verified emissions reductions."
“Our investments in these projects also prioritize providing co-benefits like conserving habitat for wildlife, creating jobs, protecting water resources, and reducing impacts from floods and soil erosion,” the spokesperson said.
Environmentally expensive flights
Climate activists noted that the trip, which costs $109,995 (£91,000) per ticket, shows research demonstrating how wealthy persons are disproportionately responsible for the lion's share of carbon emissions globally.
According to one study, frequent flyers, who account for only 1% of the global population, accounted for half of the aviation industry's carbon emissions in 2018.
In the 2020 study, North Americans flew 50 times farther than those from Africa and ten times farther than persons from the Asia-Pacific area.
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Another study published the same year discovered that the global north was responsible for 92% of excess emissions, while the countries in the south accounted for only 8%.
According to a third research, the wealthiest 10% of families worldwide were responsible for nearly half of global emissions in 2015, up from 34% five years earlier. The poorest half of the world's population was responsible for 15% of CO2 emissions.
The carbon footprints of the world's richest 1% will be 30 times bigger by 2030 than the amount sustainable by keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, according to an Oxfam study.
