The Celebrity Climate Crisis

In recent weeks Taylor Swift’s use of her private jet has garnered a lot of attention following her attempts to sue 21-year-old student Jack Sweeney for monitoring her flights. This has brought into question the significance of celebrity carbon emissions, and whether they are at the core of our current climate crisis. 

Jared Starr of the University of Massachusetts has found that, in 2019, the income streams of the richest 10% of Americans accounted for 40% of total US carbon dioxide emissions. This naturally means celebrities are among the top polluters and due to their status and how easily recognisable they are, they often face criticism in the press. The use of private jets, in particular, has become a recent focus of reporting, because of the amount of pollution they cause. Elon Musk, for example, despite claiming that he intended to become more environmentally accountable, maintains use of his jet to reach the offices of his various businesses. The emissions from these flights alone means Musk pollutes 50 tonnes more CO2 a year than the average American household. 

If we look at the bigger picture though, systemic issues of ignoring environmental concerns are clear. Rishi Sunak, for example, has backtracked on several environmental policies. The proposed bans on the purchasing of petrol cars and gas boilers have been pushed back which he has dressed up with concerns about the working family’s financial situation. While Sunak has assured the public that the UK is still on track to reach its goal of net-zero by 2050, these decisions are certainly not in the right direction. What makes this worse is that normal people are still trying as hard as they can to reduce their carbon footprint, often at their financial expense, as environmentally conscious options are increasingly hard to afford as the cost-of-living crisis continues.