The megastar is romantically involved with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, one of the most famous players in the NFL today. The growing romance between the couple has been closely followed, Swift has attended several matches and this has meant many trips on private jets. The debate became even louder in recent days after the Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, earning their place in the Super Bowl, which will take place in Las Vegas on February 11.
Swift, the popular singer whose dominance in pop culture now includes the first tour to gross more than $1 billion, is the latest in a long line of celebrities, officials and elite businessmen who have come under fire for traveling on private jets. .
Below, a look at Swift’s recent travels, carbon dioxide emissions from private flights, and one of the most common, if controversial, solutions proposed to address such pollution.
Swift’s carbon footprint
If Swift attends the Super Bowl, she will travel to Las Vegas from Tokyo, where her tour will arrive soon. That means more than 30,500 kilometers (19,400 miles) by private jet in just under two weeks. How much carbon dioxide does it represent?
While exact carbon emissions depend on many factors, such as flight routes and the number of passengers, a rough estimate is possible, said Gregory Keoleian, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. Traveling 30,500 kilometers in a Dassault Falcon 900LX, one of Swift’s planes, could release more than 90,718 kilograms (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 the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
How realistic commercial travel would be for Swift is open to debate. After all, she is so famous that, even if she wanted to, flying commercial flights could be chaotic for an airline crew and any public airport. Keoleian said there are other ways public figures who fly private can address climate change, such as through their influence on society, their investments and their electoral decisions.
The controversy over Swift’s use of private jets illustrates the wide disparity between wealthy and low-income people when it comes to the greenhouse gas emissions each person generates, said Julia Stein, a professor at the College of Law from the University of California, Los Angeles.
You’re seeing this play out on a sort of microcosmic scale (with Swift), but that’s also true for industrialized countries because of their historically carbon emissions, he said.
Others who have been criticized
Swift is the latest in a long list of celebrities who have been singled out for the pollution of 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 received 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 international events, from the Olympic Games to the annual UN climate change summit, have also been criticized because of the thousands of people who fly to attend them, 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 jets emit at least 10 times more pollutants per passenger compared to commercial aircraft.
Carbon emissions
A commonly proposed solution to air travel pollution is to pay carbon offsets, which aim to balance the emissions released. For example, trees extract carbon from the air, so offset programs include planting trees which, at least in theory, balances pollution from air travel.
Gates has defended his private jet travel, saying he buys offsets and supports clean technology and other sustainability initiatives. Swift’s publicist did not respond to an inquiry from The Associated Press, but told The Washington Post that the singer buys compensation. The publicist did not provide details.
Still, there are many questions about the effectiveness of offsets. They are poorly regulated and, according to journalistic investigations in recent years, 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 questionable effectiveness, said Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a group that publicizes climate solutions. Planting trees, for example, may or may not work depending on how forests are managed in the long term.
Foley, along with climate change scientists and policy experts, argue that rather than offsetting air travel, it would be far better to sharply 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 have no emissions.
FUENTE: AP
