Take a look at the stands of any professional sporting event, and you’ll likely see dozens or hundreds of hand-drawn signs.
But to support the Toronto Blue Jays’ playoffs run, one pilot took that to the extreme — and other fans are calling them out for the unnecessary environmental damage done by their “drawing.”
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An image shared on the r/TorontoBlueJays subreddit shows the flight path taken by a private plane over Nova Scotia. The pilot flew the plane so that its flight path would create a drawing of the Blue Jays logo during the team’s playoff run, a day after Toronto had dropped the first two games of the American League Championship Series to the Seattle Mariners.
According to FlightAware data, the Oct. 14 flight took off from Halifax Stanfield International Airport, flew east to make its Blue Jay pattern, and then came back west to land at Debert Airport. The flight took 2 hours, 23 minutes, or roughly two full hours longer than a standard Halifax-to-Debert flight.
While the pilot was clearly excited to show off their Blue Jays fandom, and perhaps it brought the Jays some luck since they rallied to beat Seattle in seven games and reach the World Series, that stunt added two extra hours of harmful carbon pollution from the private aircraft.
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Said one Redditor: “The fact someone can do this with a plane is incredibly talented. And the amount of gasoline that must have been used was costly. Rich and talented pilot.”
Pollution from private jets has soared in recent years. A 2024 study found that private aviation created at least 17 million tons of carbon pollution in 2023, and that amount was 46% higher than in 2019.
Short flights of less than 350 miles make up nearly half of all private aviation, the study found. This means many of those trips could have been completed in just a few hours and with significantly less carbon pollution by driving (especially in an electric vehicle).
The Blue Jays flight traveled a total of 354 miles, but a direct trip between those cities is just 37 miles. Multiple Redditors estimated the extra flying likely accounted for about 30-35 additional gallons of 100LL fuel, which is a low-lead aviation gasoline that still features enough lead that it’s considered a major source of lead-to-air pollution, as the FAA outlined during the first Trump administration — as more of a true version of “chemtrails” — in addition to contributing significant carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
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“Suck on that climate activists!!!!” one Redditor wrote.
Should the ultra-wealthy pay a tax to help offset their environmental impact? Only corporations should pay those Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Some fans found the “drawing” to be fun and impressive. But many highlighted the environmental damage it caused, with some calling it “stupid and wasteful,” and one cynically remarking: “And here I am drinking from a paper straw.”
“Must be nice to have money,” one commenter wrote. “Kill the environment for the likes.”
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