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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Scrutiny over singer Taylor Swift’s trips on private planes has been mounting on social media for weeks, with people pointing to the planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions released with each flight. .
The megastar is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, one of the most famous players in the NFL. The growing romance between the pair has been closely watched, with Swift appearing in several games, which has meant plenty of traveling on private planes. The rumors became even stronger in recent days. after the Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, sending them to the Super Bowl, which will take place in Las Vegas on February 11.
Swift, the hitmaker whose dominance of pop culture now includes the first tour to gross more than $1 billion, is the latest in a long line of celebrities, government officials and elite businessmen who have fallen under the control of scrutiny over private jet travel. A look at Swift’s recent travels, carbon dioxide emissions from private jets versus commercial jets, and one of the most common, albeit controversial, solutions that have emerged to address such pollution.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift walk together after an AFC Championship NFL football game between the Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, on Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore . (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
SWIFT CARBON FOOTPRINT
If Swift attends the Super Bowl, she will travel from Tokyo, where she is on tour. That will mean over 19,400 miles (30,500 kilometers) by private jet in just under two weeks. How much carbon dioxide will that be?
While exact carbon emissions depend on many factors, such as flight routes and the number of passengers, it is possible to make a rough estimate, said Gregory Keoleian, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. Traveling 19,000 miles in a Dassault Falcon 900LX, one of the Swift planes, could release more than 200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
That would be about 14 times more than the average American home emits in a year, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
How realistic commercial travel would be for Swift is open to debate. After all, she’s so famous that even if she wanted to, flying commercial flights could be chaotic for an airline crew and for any public airport she frequents. Keoleian said there are other important ways public figures who fly private can address climate change, such as through their influence on public attitudes and perceptions, investments and who they vote for.
The controversy over Swift’s use of private jets illustrates the “huge disparity” between wealthy and low-income people when it comes to the greenhouse gas emissions each person generates, said Julia Stein, a professor of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
“You’re seeing this play out on a sort of microcosmic scale (with Swift), but that also applies to industrialized countries in their carbon emissions historically,” he said.
Taylor Swift walks on the field after the AFC Championship NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
OTHER WRITINGS
Swift is the latest of many famous people who have come under scrutiny for the pollution caused by their travels around the world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio and many others have periodically attracted attention for their trips in private jets.
“It’s surprising that Ms. Swift feels so much outrage when private jet customers are overwhelmingly men over 50,” said Jeff Colgan, a political science professor at Brown University. “The focus should really be on a broader class of people.”
Major events, from the Olympics to the annual U.N. climate summit, have also come under fire for the thousands of people flying in to attend, trips that contribute to climate change.
All air travel generates emissions, although private jets produce much more per person. A 2023 study by the Institute for Policy Studies found that private planes emit at least 10 times more pollutants per passenger compared to commercial planes.
CARBON OFFSETS
One often-discussed way to tackle pollution in air travel is to pay for carbon offsets, which aim to balance the emissions released. For example, trees extract carbon from the air, so offset programs include planting trees that, at least in theory, balance the pollution caused by air travel.
Gates has defended his trip private plane saying it buys offsets and supports clean technology and other sustainability initiatives. Swift’s publicist told The Associated Press that “Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all of her tour travel” before she began her tour, but did not provide any details.
Still, there are many questions about the effectiveness of the offsets. They are poorly regulated, and investigations by news organizations in recent years have shown that some programs overestimate the amount of carbon being captured or have questionable practices.
“Offsets remain the Wild West of climate change and have been plagued by fraud, failed projects and dubious effectiveness,” said Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a group that publicizes climate solutions. “Planting trees, for example, could work – or not – depending on how forests are managed in the long term.”
Foley, along with many climate scientists and policy experts, argue that rather than offsetting air travel, it would be far better to dramatically reduce the use of airplanes, particularly private jets, while developing cleaner fuels. Several airline companies are also developing airplanes that run on electricity and therefore will not generate emissions.
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