Biden-Harris Supporter Taylor Swift Provokes Backlash And Mockery After Topping List Of Private Jet Polluters

[Drop dead]

Celebrity excess has been the subject of heated discussion lately, with
Kylie Jenner drawing attention to the inordinate amount of pollution
emitted by the wealthy, after she used her private jet to take a 17-minute
flight, then followed it up with an Instagram post flaunting her ability
to fly to the grocery store.

Jenner was labelled a “climate criminal,” with Instagram and Twitter users
expressing frustration at the public efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle,
blown away by the fumes of private jets.

Now, UK-based sustainability marketing firm Yard has assembled a ranked
list of the biggest celebrity “climate criminals,” and Taylor Swift tops
the list, her plane having taken no less than 170 flights in 2022, with
total CO2 emissions clocked in at 8,293 tons, according to Yard’s data.

Swift instantly overtook Jenner as the face of the problem, although many
reacted with surprise as much as anger; after all, excess and criminal
indulgence are baked into the Kardashian-Jenner brand, while Swift has
cultivated a more folksy image. The contrast stuck many as amusing, and
Swift soon became the subject of mockery.

Twitter users began posting fake Swift Tweets imagining that the singer
holds a burning hatred for environmentalism, while others jokingly pointed
out Swift’s song lyrics that mention planes.

In response to the backlash, Swift’s representation clarified with Rolling
Stone that the singer’s jets weren’t always being used by her, stating:

“Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute
most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”

The clarification was hardly surprising - despite her cottage-core
persona, fans understand that Swift is just as ruthlessly entrepreneurial
as the Kardashian-Jenners.

On the Taylor Swift fan subreddit, r/TaylorSwift, fans expressed
disappointment in the singer, noting that Swift’s jets being loaned to
others wasn’t the point - it’s that Swift’s jets were allowed to belch out
truckloads of carbon into our skies, the singer seemingly making no effort
to reduce her carbon emissions.

Some fans had the opposite reaction and simply refused to acknowledge the
problem, labeling the list as “misinformation.”

One particularly dedicated fan even posted their own list on Twitter,
highlighting Swift’s supposed contributions to environmentalism. Said list
included the fact that Swift sold one of her two private jets, and
emphasized the singer’s affection for penguins; the thread was quickly
deleted after everyone on the internet laughed at it.

Of course, Swift wasn’t the only “climate criminal” on the list; Floyd
Mayweather Jr. and Jay-Z were placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, while Alex
Rodriguez, Blake Shelton, Steven Spielberg, Kim Kardashian, Mark Wahlberg,
Oprah Winfrey and Travis Scott made up the rest of the polluters
(ironically, Kylie Jenner never actually made the list).

In response to data published on his own wasteful flights, Drake also
attempted to set the record straight, by telling fans that his three of
his ridiculously short flights didn’t actually have anyone on them, which
didn’t exactly diminish the backlash.

The rich and famous don’t seem interested in reducing their emissions,
only in making excuses for them; public access to flight data must be a
real headache - celebrities surely want to spew their emissions in secret.

But as heat records continue to explode, and the air becomes heavy with
smoke, those dinky little paper straws and recycling sorting bins aren’t
going to cut it - the public are throwing water balloons on a house fire,
while the wealthy toss gasoline.

Celebrities aren’t going to have a sudden change of heart, but they might
just be pressured into reducing their obscene waste; after all, approval
and validation is one of the few things the public can take away from
them.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2022/07/30/taylor-swift-
provokes-backlash-and-mockery-after-topping-list-of-private-jet-
polluters/?sh=72cf0171d0d0