Taylor Swift is a music artist specializing in pop and country. She garnered immense fame and awards from her recent albums. Just last month, Taylor’s carbon presence caused an increasing backlash from people worldwide. She was named one of the “world’s most polluting carbon celebrities” in 2022 and through 2023.
According to NewsDaily, flight records posted by an Instagram page showed her taking 12 flights on her private jet to see Travis Kelce, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. In the span of three months, the flights came to a total of 138 tons of CO2 emissions. Journalist Parker McKenzie said, “For a trip the length of London to Dubai, a private jet is 11 times more polluting than a regular, commercial aircraft, 35 times more polluting than a train and 52 times more than a bus.”
Taylor prepared for her Eras Tour by purchasing twice the amount of carbon credits necessary for it. A representative of hers said, “The excess credits means Taylor could have accounted for more than enough to cover her latest romance springing up in the middle of her sell-out tour, with her trips to support Kelce upping her carbon emissions alongside her planned tour travels,”
Carbon credits are a way of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere.
- The credits represent 1,000 kilograms of CO2 as a unit of measurement and claim to prevent or theoretically remove it from reaching the atmosphere
- The method Taylor enacts is called carbon offsetting, which is compensation for emissions
- Forest conservation and clean energy projects generate offsets
- Majority of carbon credits on the market fail to show that it generates savings in CO2 emissions
- Some carbon offsetting projects have engaged in human rights violations by displacing indigenous people from their land
Newsweek90 said that she emitted a total of nearly 8,300 metric tons of greenhouse gasses from her jet. This indicates that the average person’s annual emissions are 1,200 times less than hers. Tracking shows that she embarked on 170 flights on her private jet, and these ranged from 80 minutes to 36 minutes at the least. Nevertheless, it does not specifically account for other people using her jet.
Forbes magazine cites a campaign called Yard. The campaign tracks private jet usage from a list solely from CelebrityJets Twitter page, and named Taylor Swift the most polluting carbon celebrity of both 2022 and 2023. To clarify, “Yard’s Digital PR team is aware that this list is not conclusive to the biggest offenders.” The biggest offenders on the list are Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, and Travis Scott.
Forbes references the World Banks CO2 emission data in 2020:
- Per the World Bank in 2020, the global average per capita carbon emission was 4.3 tons
- Per capita emissions are a measurement of the average person’s emission in a given region or country (Calculated by dividing total emissions and the population)
- It’s revealed that carbon emitted from Taylor’s jet is 1,928 times more than the global average, and 637 times more than the total 13 tons of USA’s per capita emissions
According to NewsDaily, the Instagram account that was dedicated to tracking the private jets received an abundance of hate from Swifties. The Instagram page was taken down after accusations of bullying and harassment. Supporters justified the hate because the content was allegedly obsessive and stalking. They are claiming it is illegal and an invasion of privacy to reveal Taylor’s flight records. However, the public should keep in mind that there are multiple pages dedicated for the purpose of tracking other celebrities’ jet usage and are not illegal. Extreme bias from a majority of her platform stems from the fact that many fans believe people want to just pick a bone with her. It’s crucial to remember that it is not sudden that people are recording the artists’ carbon footprint and others are also held accountable for similar reasons.
The truth of the matter is that there is no ethical way for a celebrity of her status to exist, and there is most likely no absolute solution to modern day’s climate change. Holding her accountable is acknowledging that the masses will never equate to the carbon emitted by all celebrities, politicians, and corporations. Restraint is the bare minimum, especially when a crisis as heavy weighted as global warming is brought to the forefront.
