Superyachts: Luxury, Tranquility and Ecocide

A superyacht is a boat that exceeds 30 metres in length, with some surpassing even 100 metres—more than a football field. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, there were about 2,000 of these vessels in the world; two decades and a financial crisis later, there are three times as many.

Grégory Salle argues that these are not whimsical fads: on the contrary, luxury yachting highlights the social exclusivity of the wealthiest and the environmental waste they emit. Rather than being si...