If Taylor Swift Can Fly Her Private Jet, Why Can’t I?

Taylor Swift sits at the top of two lists: most-streamed artist on Spotify in a day and most carbon emissions by a private jet. Only one of those was expected.

In July, Kylie Jenner posted a picture on Instagram that sparked the latest wave of anger at the Kardashians. She and Travis Scott were posed in front of their private jets with the simple caption: “you wanna take mine or yours?”

The comments were flooded with angry fans and Instagramers.

“creeps like you Killin the earth”

“gurl what about NEITHER!!!”

This online chatter led to the circulation of an article listing the ten celebrities with the worst private jet emissions. With over 8,250 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted from her private jet this year, nearly 1,200 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions, pop princess Taylor Swift was given the crown of number one polluter. That doesn’t feel very America’s Sweetheart to me — and it didn’t to her PR team either, who quickly released a statement claiming that the emissions came from Taylor lending her jets to other celebrities (as if that really makes it better).

Accompanying Taylor on this top ten list are Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, A-Rod, Blake Shelton, Steven Spielberg, Kim Kardashian, Mark Wahlberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Travis Scott.

At this point in the climate movement, many of us are aware that the real polluters are companies, not the average college student. But suspended somewhere between us and billion-dollar corporations are the multi-millionaire celebrities. Although not as rich as Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, they are far from normal and even farther from innocent.

While we, as current students or recent graduates, may try to reduce our carbon footprint by taking one fewer flight a year, celebrities take 10-minute flights when they could easily drive. Despite these uneven contributions to the climate crisis, the blame is put on the everyday person.

Yes, we should buy less. Yes, we should eat more plant-based foods. And yes, there are a million other things the average person should be doing to reduce their carbon footprint.

But at the same time, companies shouldn’t continue to produce products they know will end up in landfills. Elected officials should implement policies that will encourage behavioral change. Celebrities should stop taking 10-minute flights.

This misattributed blame for the climate crisis has resulted in a blatant double standard that even activists continue to participate in. While sharing lunch with a group of community organizers, I asked for a straw and was looked at like I’d grown a second head or committed the worst crime on the planet.

So I write this as an acknowledgment of the frustration many of us have with the movement. It’s difficult to keep your own morale high and commit to the lifestyle changes that climate action requires when we see others undermining that work.

And even when you do persevere through it, you never seem to be doing enough — despite countless individuals emitting thousands of times more carbon than you. I don’t have the solution to these feelings of defeat or hopelessness, but there are three things I like to remind myself of that do help.

First, I’m not alone in feeling this way. The majority of young people struggle with some form of climate-related anxiety. Second, we’ve made a lot of progress in combating this global crisis. Countries around the world have scaled back fossil fuel usage and renewable energy has become much more affordable.

Third, there are things we can control. We can directly impact our own behaviors and communities: families, schools, workplaces, elected officials, and neighborhoods. Whether through voting, participating in local initiatives, or adopting small lifestyle changes, there are steps we can take that add up and help us regain a sense of agency in a crisis that thrives on our complacency.

Jordan A. Sanchez ’24 is a Physics concentrator in Winthrop House. Her column “Everyday Environmentalist” appears on alternate Fridays.