Celebrities using private jets for frequent flights has become a hot topic recently, after Kylie Jenner received backlash for flying private amid a climate crisis. But according to a new study, it appears as though Taylor Swift is the biggest celebrity polluter of them all.
The report comes from sustainability marketing firm Yard, which researched over 1,500 celebrity flights using public data from the whistleblower Twitter account Celebrity Jets in order to find the celebrities with the highest CO2 emissions. The study recorded the number of flights each star has taken so far, the average time of their flights, the number of miles traveled, and the total CO2 emissions since the beginning of the year.
Surprisingly, the “Bad Blood” singer comes in at number one with 8,293.54 tonnes of flight emissions this year. That is 1,184.8 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions, according to Yard.
Swift has traveled on her private jet a total of 170 times since January, with her average flight time being just 80 minutes. The company also found that her shortest flight was a 36-minute trip from Missouri to Nashville.
While Kylie Jenner received criticism last week for sharing a photo of her two private jets, the Kylie Cosmetics founder didn’t even make the top ten celebrities with the highest carbon emissions. However, her sister Kim Kardashian was ranked at number seven with 4268.5 tonnes of carbon emissions and her partner Travis Scott was named number ten.
Much like Jenner’s post, it didn’t take long for social media to react to Taylor Swift’s ranking as the number one celebrity with the highest carbon emissions. “Girl, you’re making it harder and harder for me to defend you,” tweeted one fan in response to the report, while another shared a cheeky rendition to Swift’s song “august” in light of the news.
On 15 July, the Kardashians star posted a black-and-white Instagram photo of herself and Scott hugging in front of their two private jets, alongside the caption: “You wanna take mine or yours?” Fans quickly called out Jenner for the “obnoxious” post, while others pointed out the likely carbon footprint of her private jet usage. It was later revealed by Celebrity Jets on Twitter that, according to Jenner’s flight path, she was only in the air for just three minutes.
Since the beginning of 2022, celebrities have emitted an average of 3376.64 tonnes of CO2 emissions in their private jet usage – 482.37 times more than the average person’s annual emissions, according to Yard.
Among the list of private jet perpetrators included Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, Alex Rodriguez, Blake Shelton, Steven Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey.
