There’s just no excuse good enough. The April 8th total eclipse is burning through whatever positive progress we may be making on CO2 pollution for 2024. It’s likely to overshadow (in a negative way) every other major event of the year (including Taylor Swift concerts and the Super Bowl, as other writers have noted) in terms of its energy intensity.
Here are the estimated carbon emissions from eclipse tourism in 2024, considering both air and car travel for 4 million people:
To contextualize this figure, let's compare it to other significant sources of carbon emissions:
Some of you of a certain vintage may remember musician Carly Simon’s famous line from “You’re So Vain,” where she chided the protagonist for flying his Lear jet to see the total eclipse of the sun. Back then, that was considered a rebuke, aimed at some narcissistic, ultra-wealthy, jerk. The rest of us thought it normal to wait for the eclipse to come to our local heavens.
Not any more. The jerk label has apparently been scrubbed clean, and you’re now one of the cool kids if you spend lavish amounts of money taking your kids to see the sky get dark in the daytime for a few minutes.
Do I sound bitter? Yeah, I’m feeling it a little this morning. Many of us have devoted our careers to telling the Climate story, cajoling, informing, and nudging people to do a little better, to take their impact a little more seriously.
It’s hard to stay optimistic about the prospects for large-scale change when millions of seemingly well-educated and affluent people dart toward the nearest shiny object, the next novelty item, oblivious to the fact that they’re accelerating our worldwide slide into Climate chaos and suffering.
Maybe trying to save us from ourselves is just a waste of energy, like trying to convince an alcoholic to sober up, when he simply likes being drunk. Whatever. Let these thrill seekers chase the darkness. The rest of us will be here when the four minutes is up, trying to buy them a few more years of undeserved normalcy before civilization goes up in Climate-driven flames.