Climate activist has ‘deep internal conflict’ over buying private jet
This is the first of two articles highlighting the sheer hypocrisy and double-standards of those who claim to be trying to ‘save the planet’
This first article was published on the Sky News Australia website on March 14th, with the headline ‘Climate activist and tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes said he felt “deep internal conflict” over his recent decision to purchase a private jet‘.
It reads:
A billionaire tech entrepreneur and climate activist has lamented his “deep internal conflict” over owning a private jet after his multi-million-dollar purchase was exposed earlier this week.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of Australian software giant Atlassian, took to LinkedIn on Thursday to explain his decision to purchase a Bombardier 7500, an aircraft believed to cost upwards of US$75m (AU$119.2m), according to Business Insider.
It followed a report in The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window column the aircraft was confirmed to be Mr Cannon-Brookes’ and was spotted at Sunshine Coast and Essendon airports and had recently made a trip to London around the launch of the Formula One, where Atlassian sponsors a team.
“I’m not denying I have a deep internal conflict on this,” Mr Cannon-Brookes wrote on LinkedIn.
“There’s a couple of reasons I’ve purchased a plane. Personal security is the primary reason (an unfortunate reality of my world), but also so I can run a global business from Australia, and still be a constantly present dad.”
The Atlassian founder’s plane purchase comes as he has championed many environmentally friendly causes and initiatives over the span of his career.
In 2022, he made an $8b bid alongside a consortium led by Canadian investment firm Brookfield to purchase Aussie power giant AGL Energy and shut down its coal operations and replace them with renewable projects.
He has backed a renewable energy project called SunCable which, in 2024, won government approval to build the first phase of an undersea cable between Darwin and Singapore to deliver solar-generated electricity.
Mr Cannon-Brookes has also backed green philanthropic fund Terra.do which aims to shift 100,000 Australians into clean energy roles by 2027.
With the many green moves under his belt, the Atlassian founder noted the jet purchase was a “trade-off” he decided to make.
“Although private aviation is far from a big contributor to global emissions, it is a carbon-intensive way to travel,” he said.
“Aviation is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise due to the distance of flights and the energy density of fuel.”
Mr Cannon-Brookes said he has an “extremely rigorous carbon regime” for flying as he uses “direct air capture and sustainable fuels for the carbon and contrails” which allows him “to far exceed” his flight footprint.
“My commitment to climate is as strong as ever,” he said.
“I’m still pretty damn focused on making an impact at a large scale, removing huge volumes of emissions through active investments and philanthropy…and have the proud, scars to prove it.”
Former AFR columnist and founder of Rampart Joe Aston lashed the Atlassian founder’s attempted justification for purchasing, particularly his concerns about “personal security”.
“Watching him lie to himself so publicly in order to maintain his self-narrative of a moral actor is actually more delicious than the jet purchase itself,” Aston wrote.
Mr Cannon-Brookes has a collective wealth with his ex-wife Annie Cannon-Brookes of $24.38b, according to the AFR Rich List.
How I feel for the poor man, his heart must be breaking having to purchase a private jet while caring so much about the planet. Not.
These people make my blood boil. This is rampant hypocrisy of the worst kind.
Rampant hypocrisy of the worst kind sounds like a good title for a film about the climate scam, budding filmmakers 🙂
If he really thought the planet was in a ‘climate emergency’, the very last thing he would have done was sponsor the Williams Formula 1 racing team, and spend $75 million on an aircraft, both of which emit copious amounts of the carbon dioxide alarmists seem so very afraid of.
His ‘commitment to climate is as strong as ever‘. Yeah right. Pull the other one you hypocritical barsteward, its got bells on it.
This is the classic example of one rule for me and another for thee.
I’m sure he is all in favour of the rest of us stopping driving and flying, while he continues to swan about in his private jet telling everyone how the human race is doomed unless we regress about 300 years.
See the Sky News article here: skynews.com.au
Header image: Getty Images
Part two will be published on Tuesday.
About the author: Andy Rowlands is a university graduate in space science and British Principia Scientific International researcher, writer and editor who co-edited the 2019 climate science book, ‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap‘
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John O'Sullivan
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well said, Andy. Totally agree – these hypocrites need exposing
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