Superyachts
Luxury, Tranquility and Ecocide
1. Edition January 2024
140 Pages, Hardcover
General Reading
Short Description
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 simply the plaything of billionaires with extravagant lifestyles, the superyacht offers a disconcerting reflection of the world as it is. A contemporary form of ostentatious seclusion, a magnifying glass for social inequalities, the superyacht leads us straight to the great questions of our time, including the question of ecocide. From class struggle to the over-consumption of the rich, from tax evasion to environmental crime, from eco-bleaching to the differential management of illegalities, to pull the thread of super yachting is to unspool the whole ball of capitalism.
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 simply the plaything of billionaires with extravagant lifestyles, the superyacht offers a disconcerting reflection of the world as it is. A contemporary form of ostentatious seclusion, a magnifying glass for social inequalities, the superyacht leads us straight to the great questions of our time, including the question of ecocide. From class struggle to the over-consumption of the rich, from tax evasion to environmental crime, from eco-bleaching to the differential management of illegalities, to pull the thread of super yachting is to unspool the whole ball of capitalism.
Abbreviations & acronyms
Preface to the English edition
1. A colossus at anchor
2. One form of excess can conceal another
3. Floating palaces
4. Specimens
5. UHNWI
6. Yachting lifestyle
7. The abode of production
8. Amsterdam's red party
9. ISF-IFI & Co.
10. Riding the financial storm
11. Conspicuous seclusion
12. The political geography of luxury sailing
13. Playing the eco-friendly card (greenwashing)
14. Posidonia
15. The Marine Observatory
16. At sea/in a meeting
17. Red-handed
18. When Capitalocene and eco-socialism take to the water...
Notes and references
Naomi Oreskes, Harvard University
'Superyachts offers a deep dive into the world of the wealthiest. It is also a great case study for green criminology. In this breathtaking - and often humorous - book, Grégory Salle shows how capitalism is definitely destroying the planet.'
Gwenola Ricordeau, California State University
