Staff Writer: Rena Danho

Email: rdanho@umassd.edu

(Image via latime.com)

When you hear Taylor Swift, you may think of her music, her rerecording all her old albums and putting them out again for fans. If not her music, then maybe you’re a football fan and heard of her through her most recent boyfriend, Travis Kelce.

But one thing you may not think about right away when you hear Swift’s name is her carbon footprint. 

With Swift on her Era’s Tour, she has been traveling from city to city across the world, and most recently, after dating her new boyfriend, has been traveling much more to see his games in between shows.

However, University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney did not let this fact slip his mind. Using an account on X, Sweeney has been tracking the celebrity’s jet, and now, because of this, Swift’s legal team has been threatening legal action against Sweeney.

It all started on his personal X account, where Sweeney not only shared the findings of Taylor Swift’s private jet but also other celebrities like Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and more. In addition to these celebrities, Elon Musk, who owns X, was also identified and, in return, banned Sweeney from the app.

However, the banning didn’t stop Sweeney, who then made the account tracking Taylor Swift. Of course, Taylor Swift’s legal team must have been unhappy with his account because, in December 2023, Sweeney received a cease-and-desist letter.

In the letter, Swift states how Sweeney’s actions are of “stalking and harassing behavior” despite all of this information being public and open to anyone. 

In a talk with the Washington Post, Sweeney tells them that he saw the cease-and-desist as a tactic to try and get him to stop posting about the flight information. He also goes on to state that all the images found on account are simple sketches of where she is in the cities. All of the tour dates saying the cities she would be in, along with the NFL schedule, are public for anyone to look at. 

Despite the amount of carbon Taylor Swift has released by traveling for the Eras Tour and games for her boyfriend, she still is under her carbon credit limit. 

Carbon credits act as a credit card for carbon emissions. When you purchase a certain amount of carbon credits, it is an allowance for you to “use” carbon. 

Although there are also carbon offsets that compensate for the carbon credits used and parched, according to Swift’s team, she purchased double the carbon credits needed for her private jet during the Era’s tour.

Right now, Taylor Swift is in the spotlight and getting the rightful backlash for the carbon emissions her private jet has released. 

According to Weareyard.com, the top five celebrities that have released the most carbon are Taylor Swift, Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, A-Rod, and Blake Shelton. So even though Swift is guilty of carbon emission and is trending online for this, sadly, she is not the only celebrity to do so. 

Back in 2022, Kylie Jenner was thrown into the spotlight after posting on Instagram a picture with Travis Scott, with two private jets in the background, and this caption: 

“you wanna take mine or yours?”

Celebrity use of carbon credits still does not excuse their emissions. They still have a massive effect on our planet through carbon released whether or not it’s “paid for.” Yes, Swift purchased enough carbon credits for her tour, but does it make it any more right for her to be flying so often?

People have taken to the internet to call out Swift – pointing out just how unnecessary some of her flights are. Most recently, she took a thirteen-minute jet ride to her destination, just eight miles away.

Now on TikTok and Instagram, videos of airplanes sped up are being shown and captioned with jokes along the lines of “When Taylor Swift has to go turn the light switch across the room.” 

Many fans aren’t happy with her actions and find it hard to side with Swift after learning the truth. The fact that her carbon credits offset the cost of traveling worldwide and that she still has leftover carbon credits does not matter.

But the problem didn’t start with Taylor Swift and won’t end with her either.