With fame comes fortune, and celebrities use their big bucks to relish in luxury and privilege, especially in the purchase and use of private jets.Quick, efficient and isolated travel is a major perk that major A-list celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Floyd Mayweather, Drake and more revel in, even with the extremity of Kylie Jenner taking a long distanced 12-minute flight. Climate change is an exigent issue and if not treated with more care and importance, will lead to dire consequences.The question stands, are the short flights really worth the colossal impact on human health and earth? Taylor Swift is now under fire for her revealed overuse.
The Study By YARD That Exposed Celebrities
Yard is a sustainability marketing firm that has conducted in-depth analysis and research over the span of 7 months, and curated a detailed, well-written report using the data to rank celebrities on their use of their private jets and subsequent carbon emissions. Within the report, they state that their purpose of the study is "to highlight the damaging impact of private jet usage."
Yard's Digital Sustainability Director, Chris Butterworth, made an overall statement detailing how celebrities and their usage of private jets has been far from environmentally friendly.
“It’s easy to get lost in the dazzling lives of the rich and famous, but unfortunately, they’re a massive part of the CO2e problem we have with the aviation industry. Aviation is responsible for 2.4% of human-produced CO2e every year, and research shows a vast divide between the super-rich and the rest of us regarding flights, travel, and even general emissions." - Chris Butterworth
Yard's report was based on data posted by Celebrity Jets, who reveals information from ADS-B Exchange, which is "the world’s largest source of open unblocked unfiltered flight data for enthusiasts" according to their twitter page.
On the 16th of July 2022, Kylie Jenner posted a black and white photo of her and Travis Scott standing between two private jets, captioning the cinematic photo "you wanna take mine or yours?". This led to a great deal of criticism and inevitable judgement towards Kylie and celebrities alike for using private jets in a time of climate crisis.
Despite the intense backlash she faced, the report revealed Kylie was not even in the top 10 of the worst celebrity offenders. She was ranked 19th, whilst her beau Travis Scott was ranked 10th.
Unfortunately, Kim Kardashian also ranked above them both with 7th place. The report details that Kim's jet has emitted 4268.5 tonnes of carbon emissions over the course of 57 flights within 7 months, which is over 609 times more than the average person emits annually.
So, you may be wondering, who ranks in at first place? It is none other than pop princess and icon, Taylor Swift.
According to Yard's report, Taylor Swift's jet was reported to have flown 170 trips between January 1 and July 19 of 2022. The total time the jet was flown amasses to 22,923 minutes, emitting 8,293.54 tonnes of carbon. The report also provides the striking contrast that this amount is 1,184.8 times more than the average person emits annually.
No circumstance could make these excessive emissions acceptable nor understandable, however fans have also noted that these numbers have calculated to a colossal amount even though the star is not on tour. This fact has left many wondering, what do these numbers and emission totals look like when the star goes on world tours?
The distance between Missouri and Nashville is over 6 hours, however Taylor's private jet completed the journey in a total of 36 minutes, becoming the shortest recorded flight Swift has been on within the span of 7 months.
Taylor Swift Denied The Allegations
Rolling Stone queried each celebrity within the list for comment following the release of Yard's data. A spokesperson for Taylor Swift told the outlet,
"Taylors jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all these trips to her is blatantly incorrect." - A spokesperson for Taylor Swift
This response has precipitated an influx of negative opinions towards Taylor, condemning her for a lack of responsibility, accountability, fake 'wokeness' and activism towards climate change issues alongside a lack of general care for the planet and non-celebrity human health.
E! News released a YouTube video on the 31st of July 2022, discussing this controversial issue and Taylor's response.
The comment section is flooded with a multitude of fans expressing their disappointment with Swift. Some describe her as a good person who is able to take accountability for wrongdoing, and are continually perplexed as to her current lack thereof.
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