Elon Musk dragged online for a 9-minute private jet flight

Elon Musk has copped some criticism online over a short private jet trip that took him just 31 miles, or nine minutes of flight time.

The outrage was sparked when the ElonJet Twitter bot account, which Musk has attempted to bribe to be shut down in the past over people using it to meet him at his landing locations, published a post that revealed Musk's jet took off from San Joe, California, US and landed in San Francisco. Many Twitter users were quick to point to the carbon emissions caused by Musk's private jet flight and his overall public message of reducing the reliance on fossil fuels.

Notably, text messages between Musk and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates revealed that Gates holds a $500 million short position against Tesla. Gates was attempting to meet with Musk to discuss climate philanthropy prospects. Musk replied by saying, "Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change."

Read more: Bill Gates warns Twitter may become 'worse' with Elon Musk at the helm

The argument of the extremely wealthy touting eco-friendly options using private jets to travel hardly new, as a few years ago, the idea was brought to the mainstream with Leonardo DiCaprio, a big advocate for climate issues, faced heavy backlash over his use of private jets.

It's certainly an interesting argument as the impact of private jet flights, or any plane for that matter, is not negligible and is even more prominent when you are a person who is advocating for eco-friendly options such as Teslas.

However, the situation seems to be a lesser of two evils, as Musk could certainly use a car to travel the short distance of 31 miles, and with that, he would reduce his environmental impact, but he would be wasting time on travel. Time that could be spent solving problems that may have a longer positive impact on the environment.

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