Superyachts are a telltale sign of extreme luxury, and many people who see them either marvel in amazement or imagine the financially elite cruising through the waters with little guilt over the significant pollution they cause to operate.

On Reddit, a user shared a picture of a superyacht seen in Monaco at the time the post was made, and the comments led to both types of reactions.

"Unique 50m Superyacht – recently refitted, currently in Monaco," the caption said.

Reactions went from calling it a "beautiful ship" to calling it "so shoddily made, that the owner would have trouble giving it away," to simply stating that "billionaires are ruining our planet."

The three-tiered, red and white joyMe yacht is reportedly powered by two motors and carries 60,000 liters of fuel on board, according to the Superyacht Times.

Yachts as large as the joyMe have a carbon footprint of an estimated 5,672 metric tonnes, a sum of pollution that would take the average person 860 years to generate, according to Oxfam.

Superyacht pollutants come from the loads of gas they guzzle, as well as the maintenance and energy required for pools and air conditioning.

The Bennetti 50m, another superyacht the same size as the joyMe from the Reddit post, consumes 400 liters of fuel per mile at maximum speed, per a Yachts Invest pamphlet.

When superyachts use such intense amounts of greenhouse gases in only one hour, pollutants are released into the air from combustion, posing a risk to the planet, marine life, and human health.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, these gases hold heat in the atmosphere, creating imbalances in the Earth and altering climate and weather patterns worldwide, sometimes resulting in extreme weather events.

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These extreme weather events not only result in harm to people, property, and infrastructure, but can also be detrimental to all forms of life.

While it is true that just about all human life is responsible for the release of these gases into the atmosphere, the wealthy pollute the Earth at a disproportionate rate with their superyachts, private jets, and other overconsumption.

One study published in Nature Climate Change concluded that the wealthiest 10% of people in the United States and China are responsible for about two-thirds of global warming between 1990 and 2022. The not-so-wealthy, however, are just as negatively impacted by the wealthy's overconsumption.

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