Over the past several years, Taylor Swift and other celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Jay Z, Floyd Mayweather and the Kardashians have been huge CO2 polluters. Many of them own private jets that they use at their disposal which emit tons of climate-threatening fossil fuels.
Swift has been a “climate criminal” for years and has used one of the most CO2-produced private jets in the world to meet up with her friends and boyfriend, Travis Kelce. The average carbon footprint is four tons per person per year. In just three months her flights produced 138 tons of CO2 emissions. Even worse, these celebrities and the ultra-rich have shown to not care about their CO2 emissions, regardless of the environmental consequences. On July 12, 2022, Kylie Jenner was reported to have taken a 17-minute flight from Van Nuys in Los Angeles to the nearby town of Camarillo, according to an article from The Guardian. This would have taken Jenner less than an hour if she had simply driven.
Jenner is not the only celebrity to take advantage of their private jets. Former boxer, Mayweather, took a flight that was recorded to only be in the air for 10 minutes. This one seemingly harmless flight emitted one ton of CO2, according to the same article from The Guardian. Drake took an 18-minute flight from Hamilton, Ontario to Toronto, Ontario, releasing five tons of CO2 emissions.
It is understandable to think that a few individuals won’t be able to make a large impact on the world, but they actually could. These jet owners are emitting more carbon than the whole country of Denmark, according to The Guardian. Celebrities can reduce their carbon footprint if they adopt sustainable practices such as utilizing renewable energy and eco-friendly transportation options even though fame may limit the options for certain high-profilers, flying commercial has proven to be a seamless process for many. Even though air travel has a large carbon footprint, it pollutes much less than private jets. If the rest of the world can fly in commercial planes, they should too.
Photo credit: “Emirates’ Airbus 319 Luxury Private Jet Service ‘Emirates Executive'” by Brian Cantoni is licensed under (CC BY-ND 4.0 Deed).
