Eight hundred and twenty two celebrities flew into Las Vegas mid-February for the Super Bowl LVIII in their private jets. Among them was pop-star Taylor Swift, who flew straight from her tour in Tokyo to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
She admitted 19,000 miles worth of planet-warming emissions on her journey to the Super Bowl and released 200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, according to Gregory Keoleian, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan.
In December, Swift’s attorney sent a cease and desist letter to college junior, Jack Sweeney, who tracks the private plane usage of her and several other major celebrities. Swift was worried about his “stalking and harassment behavior.”
Sweeny gets his information from the public domain and said he uses information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and broadcasts aircraft signals to track jet use and carbon footprints. He said he believes in transparency and public information according to an interview with the Washington Post.
Private jets produce 5 to 14 times more emissions per passenger than commercial planes, according to the European clean transportation nonprofit group, Transport & Environment.
Having a private jet might be convenient but celebrities are taking advantage. Swift released 8,293.54 tons of carbon dioxide in 2022. According to Statista, the average American produces 14.4 tons of carbon dioxide a year. The difference is astronomical.
Earlier this month, Swift took her jet from the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield to the St. Louis Airport in Cahokia Heights, taking 13 minutes, 2 tons of carbon emissions and $844 worth of fuel.
A 13-minute flight is absolutely absurd. At this point the popstar is being lazy and is misusing her privilege.
“Swifties,” Taylor Swift’s super fans, are protecting and overlooking the celebrities’ faults, hardly acknowledging that what she has done is wrong.
Carbon emissions cannot be given out like candy. Swift needs to rethink her traveling patterns or someday karma won’t be a relaxing thought.
