In our last edition, I wrote an opinion piece saying that it was time to do something about climate change. The devastating storms Milton and Helene were made significantly worse by fossil fuel emissions warming up the ocean. However, recently, I’ve seen several tweets and Instagram posts that believe that celebrities like Taylor Swift are the driving force behind climate change. My “for you” page on Instagram is full of memes about Swift using a private plane to get from the stands to the field after a Chiefs game. This is simply not true. Swift is not the cause of climate change.
I’d like to start off by saying that I’m not a Swiftie. I even think her music is bad, something that I’m sure many of you Hoot readers will strongly disagree with. However, my opinions about her music do not change the facts about her carbon footprint.
Taylor Swift’s annual emissions are a little more than 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide. That’s about 576 times more than the emissions of the average American. Most of those emissions come from her use of her private jet, which flew 178 thousand miles in 2023. However, she often performs in different cities every week or even every day and needs to travel by jet to make it to her shows on time. Putting aside whether or not her jet travel is necessary, it doesn’t even account for that much pollution. All air travel—public and private—makes up just slightly more than two percent of carbon emissions. That’s about the same amount of emissions that are released by ExxonMobil. Yes, you read that right. One single company accounts for as much carbon pollution as the entire air travel industry. ExxonMobil emitted 111 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2023, almost 14 thousand times more than Swift. That number does not include the pollution that comes from people using the oil they produce; it only includes emissions released in the production process.
A 2017 study found that 100 companies were responsible for 71 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The top 25 polluting companies were responsible for more than half of emissions. A significant portion of those companies were fossil fuel producers like Exxon.
When we hear about someone’s carbon footprint, whether it’s our own or that of a celebrity like Swift, we must remember where the idea of carbon footprint came from. The concept of a carbon footprint originated with a marketing campaign from British Petroleum (BP) following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal was to distract climate activists from the real polluters like BP and make them focus on average people who contributed very little to climate change. It worked pretty well then. We cannot let it work now.
While it can be easy to point fingers at celebrities like Taylor Swift for their high carbon footprints, it’s crucial to remember the broader context of climate change. The reality is that a small number of corporations and industries are responsible for the majority of global emissions. Blaming individual actions, especially those of public figures, diverts attention from the systemic issues that need addressing. We must focus on holding corporations accountable, advocating for policy changes and pushing for sustainable practices at all levels. True progress in combating climate change requires collective action and systemic change, not scapegoating individuals. As we move forward, let’s direct our efforts toward solutions that tackle the root causes of this urgent crisis.
