Taylor Swift is the devil. At least, tabloids seem to think she is.
It doesn’t matter how and what she does, there’s always something to pinpoint for the clicks and the likes. She broke Ticketmaster, she’s caused seismic activity, and she pulled Lana del Rey to collect an award with her on stage – how dare she?
Lately, she has seemingly become Earth’s biggest polluter, with commentators around the world pointing the finger at her for jetting to and from concerts around the world, without a care in the world for the CO2 emissions her private jet is spewing out.
“They say fame comes with a price to pay and after watching Miss Americana, you realise that,” says Swiftie Tamara Llasat, 34, who works in customer service and as an editorial reader.
All the bad press reminds fans of Swift’s “Reputation Era” back in 2016, where tabloids were ripping her apart for her feuds with Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West. It might sound like old news, but people are still concerned with who she dates too.
Last year the Internet was mad because she was allegedly dating The 1975’s controversial frontman Matty Healy. The “aws” and “ohs” followed when she started dating National Football League (NFL) player Travis Kelce.
Taylor Swift drawing by Miguel Arévalo for Alt-Natives
The problem now? She’s taking attention off the game and emitting so much CO2 on her trips to see her beau and touring that she’s basically responsible for climate change.
“Last time I checked, nowhere it said that the global warming issue had to be solved by Taylor Swift. Using her name is a strategy to get views, reads, and interactions,” says Llasat. “More than 500 hundred private planes took off from Las Vegas once the Super Bowl ended. But whose name was on the news?”
Taylor Swift performing live with The 1975 @ The O2, London in January 2023. Photos by Sara Valle
Swift is by no means on the top 10 of most polluting personalities, not even now that she has become a billionaire, as reported by Bloomberg.
“Does any man have this much pearl-clutching happening when men fly private? Can she do anything right? The way we hold female celebrities up to such a higher standard of everything than male ones is horrifying,” says Michelle Minnikin, 45, an organisational psychologist and author based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Minnikin released a book, Good Girl Deprogramming, “about how ‘society’ trains women and girls to ‘behave’ through the use of coercive methods” and what women can do about it.
“I think Taylor Swift learned the hard way that being a good girl meant that she was getting trampled on. She clearly has had more than enough of being a good girl and comes across as very boundaried and protective of her peace.
“She doesn’t take any crap and has good people around her,” she adds. “What we see happening to Taylor is similar to [what happens to] anyone who dares to put their head above the parapet.”
“We are, whether you like it or not, in the middle of a huge climate emergency, and the aviation industry is a massive contributor to this. Personally, I can’t live with myself unless I am doing as much as possible to combat and raise awareness of that,” says Lisa Johnson, 50, a Manchester-based owner of sustainable beauty brand LJ Natural.
Johnson is against people who regularly fly off for weekends away or who don’t choose the climate-friendly option.
“I’m aware that some celebrities are treating their personal planes like cars, and that’s not okay. But it’s also not okay that Taylor Swift is currently being scapegoated in this. Shall we first talk about Travis Scott, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Steven Spielberg, or do we not mention them because they’re men?”
Two years ago, in 2022, data analysts Yard posted a study that revealed Taylor Swift was the biggest offender amongst a list of celebrities emitting CO2 from private jet usage.
But the information came from an unverified Twitter (now X) account that didn’t consider the gallons of petrol used per hour or if the celebrity in question was in the jet or not. Swift’s representatives said the singer’s jet was loaned out regularly.
“We need to find alternatives urgently. We need to change our lifestyles. And yes, our celebrities need to change theirs,” says Johnson. “Let’s discuss private aviation, but let’s not target one individual.”
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