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Davos Forum: permacrisis and private jets

18 January, 2023 11 April, 2023 / Leave a Comment

World leaders, the luxury bubble that rules the world

These days, the planetary elite is gathering in Davos. And try to guess how they reach the World Economic Forum? On a private jet, of course!

Davos Forum: what is it?

Davos is a town located in the Switzerland Alps where, in January, the World Economic Forum takes place. Started in 1971, WEF is a Switzerland non-profit that holds a five-day conference annually. The delegates include political leaders and representatives from international companies, pharmaceuticals, tech, banks and academics.

Every year the leaders tackle a different topic. This year’s theme is: “Cooperation in a fragmented world.”
Since Europe is facing a persistent state of hardship, going from crisis to crisis, we entered the era of “permacrisis.” And there seems to be no end to this challenging time. Other than economics, leaders will touch on environmental and social issues too.

Greenpeace & Davos

Greenpeace published an analysis conducted by the Dutch CE Delft checking the CO2 emissions from the private flights to the Davos Forum:

“The analysis shows a substantial increase in private jet flights to and from Davos airports and an even more sizable increase in CO2 emissions during the week of the World Economic Forum 2022, compared to an average week. The number of private jet flights doubles and private jet emissions quadruple during the week of the World Economic Forum compared to an average week.”

About every second flight is attributed to the meeting. But, the distance travelled is striking:
53% of all private jet flights were short-haul flights under 750 km. 38% were ultra short flights (below 500 km) that could have easily been train or car trips. More than 6% of all private jet flights flew less than 100 km. The shortest flight recorded was 21 km.

Read the full report here.

Clearly, these leaders live in a luxury bubble. In order to address economics, the climate emergency and social injustice, they fly on private jets and go to five-star hotels. Nevertheless, they suggest a radical change in technology and sustainability. In short, they indicate solutions while they exacerbate the problems. Absurd. Isn’t it?

Of course, the idea that leaders travel on private jets to address pollution, causing more CO2, could make us laugh. Unfortunately, the climate emergency is here to stay, and there’s nothing to laugh about.

Why recycling plastic is a dead-end street

In the search for a sustainable lifestyle, great discussions revolve around recycling plastic to limit waste. Even though we pay attention to separate our waste at home, unfortunately, that is not a solution. So a new report on plastic pollution says.

The plastic report by Greenpeace

A new Greenpeace USA report – the source of this post – states that “plastic recycling is a dead-end street. Year after year, plastic recycling declines even as plastic waste increases.”

The good news is that paper, cardboard and metals are effectively recycled. But the bad news is that most plastic is not recyclable.

According to this report, U.S. households generated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, but only 2.4 million tons were recycled.

Furthermore, once the U.S. exported plastic to China, they counted it as recycled, even though much of it was burned or dumped.

Plastic recycling: why doesn’t it work?

1- plastic waste is extremely difficult to collect
2- impossible to sort for recycling
3- it is environmentally harmful to reprocess
4- it’s often made of and contaminated by toxic materials (therefore unusable for food)
5- too expensive to recycle

In the end, the study points out that a circular economy based on recycling plastic is pure fiction.

“Corporations like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Unilever have worked with industry front groups to promote plastic recycling as the solution to plastic waste for decades. But the data is clear: practically speaking, most plastic is just not recyclable. The real solution is to switch to systems of reuse and refill.”

Greenpeace

Of course, refilling and reusing make sense. We refill and reuse plastic containers as much as possible. But plastic is everywhere! And there’s too much of it! Every single item we buy comes with a plastic container and plastic wrap: food, beauty products, cleaning products, and tech stuff… Everything! In fact, the world is submerged by plastic. And researchers found plastic in human blood, too!
Therefore, recycling is not sufficient to solve the plastic waste issue. It’s clear!

The solution? Governments should put an end to plastic production.