Taylor Swift may have more frequent flier miles than any other person due to her constant flights on her private jet. The sheer number of flights Swift takes and the short distance traveled is leading people to become worried about the number of carbon emissions these planes are releasing. 

Every time a plane flies, they release carbon emissions. Celebrities are notorious for taking unnecessary private flights, adding to the number of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. These emissions warms the planet and is accelerating the rate of climate change. 

People are growing upset over the frequent and often short flights Swift has been taking, most notably a 26 minute flight from St Louis, Missouri, US to Cahokia/St Louis, Illinois. The flight record gained attention when posted on X by University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney.

Sweeney has come under fire from ‘swifties’ for his X account, @SwiftJetNextDay. He posts flight details from Swift’s private jet that are public for anyone to access online, along with the approximate amount of jet fuel used, and most notably, the approximate amount of carbon dioxide emissions. 

Swift’s team caught wind of the account, and sent Sweeeney a cease-and-desist letter to take down the account. The letter was posted on a Reddit thread called r/SwiftlyNeutral, a place to discuss controversial topics regarding Taylor Swift.

In the letter, Swift’s attorneys accuse Sweeney of encouraging stalkers to pursue Taylor by posting the location of where the flight landed. The letter is vague and includes posts from online users claiming Sweeney’s account is ‘creepy’, but other than that, does not have substantial legal evidence to back up the claims it is making. 

The letter addressed legal ramifications by saying, ‘Your willful and repeated harassment of our client is in violation of several state laws.’ Despite claiming posting the flight details is harassment, the letter does not include which laws it claims Sweeney is violating. They claim there is ‘no justification’ for Sweeney to be posting the flight information, therefore it is stalking. 

Sweeney has now changed his approach with posting Swift’s flight information, and now updates his X with a 24-hour delay, so he is not exposing Swift’s current location where her plane lands.

Sweeney told the Associated Press that he does not feel guilty for posting what is already accessible to the public. “One should reasonably expect that their jet will be tracked, whether or not I’m the one doing it, as it is public information after all.”

This cease-and-desist letter being delivered to Sweeney with no strong legal allegations against him is causing scrutiny towards Swift and her team for their approach. This letter makes it seem like they are trying to take steps to hide her carbon emissions from the public, rather than owning up to it or of course finding an alternative way to travel and not harm the Earth.

In the first seven months of 2022, Swift took 170 flights on her private jet. We can only assume that number has increased since she is now attending weekly football games for her Chiefs football player boyfriend, Travis Kelce, as well as her Eras Tour concerts across the globe.

Of course Swift going on a global tour means she needs to travel from state to state, and even country to country to make her shows no time, so it is reasonable to assume she needs her private jet to make the travel quick. 

Swift cannot be expected to fly on commercial airlines. She is one of the most popular public figures in the world, and it would simply be unsafe for herself and other travelers to fly on a crowded commercial flight. 

The sheer number of flights Swift takes many people are arguing could easily be replaced by driving, therefore offsetting less carbon emissions.

Swifties quickly came to Swift’s defense regarding her carbon emissions, often citing a recently published list in a study done by My Climate, a Switzerland website created to help keep track of carbon footprints and share news regarding climate change. 

My Climate published a list of the highest amount of carbon emissions from the top thirty celebrities’ private jet flights in 2023. Swift did not make the list. However, online users pointed out that businessman Paul Allen, number seventeen, died in 2018. The Business Journals states Allen’s jet was sold to billionaire pilot Jared Isaacman in 2020, so it begs the question if Allen’s name is still listed as the owner of the jet and these are Isaacman’s emissions published, or if this list is out of date.

My Climate claims that they calculate these flight emissions by using ‘public domain flight trackers and social media posts from influencers and celebrities’, and they are stated to just be estimates.

Another website, Yard, calculated the worst offenders of carbon emission release from celebrities’ private jets in 2022, and Swift was number one. They cite their source as the CelebrityJets X page, a page that has now been suspended but also belonged to Jack Sweeney, who runs @SwiftJetNextDay currently.

A representative for Taylor Swift spoke to the Rolling Stone when this data was released. “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”

How accurate are these websites’ sources for tracking carbon emissions released from private jets if they are relying on X users to post the information or stalking celebrities’ instagrams waiting for them to post a picture in a private jet?

This publicization of Swift’s carbon emission offset from her private jets has raised awareness to the public on how much the one percent abuse their privilege to take constant flights anywhere. 

A study done by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) showed that around 50 percent of aviation-related carbon emissions in the US are produced by the first percentile of people.

Average Americans are often fed tips like taking public transportation or biking to help offset their own carbon emissions, but accounts like Sweeney’s help people become aware that celebrities are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions into the air. 

Taylor Swift is not the only celebrity taking private jet flights and releasing thousands of carbon emissions into the air every day. All the people in the top percentile taking frequent flights should be held accountable for their heavy carbon footprint. 

However, Swift’s team attempting to prevent the public knowledge of her flights is an issue regarding peoples’ right to access information.

What seems like a reasonable solution to Swift’s carbon emission issue would be to simply travel by car more frequently. Especially for flights like her 26 minute flight to St. Louis, fans urge Swift to be environmentally conscious and take a safer mode of transportation — for the Earth’s sake.