Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is traveling over 145 locations, with concerts attracting thousands of people to each location, according to Statistica’s recent publication. According to CNN Business, the concert is estimated to gross over 2.2 billion dollars for Taylor. But what does Taylor’s constant travel mean for our environment?
Taylor Swift is recognized by a recent study done by Yard to be the highest CO2 polluter due to her usage of her private jet. Ignoring all other modes of transportation that Taylor takes for her concerts, Taylor emitted 8,293.54 tonnes of carbon mid-way through 2022, putting her at the top of the list for celebrity’s pollution.
Taylor’s representative, though, speaks on her climate impact to BuzzFeed News. They said that “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals,” and that “to attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”
To put this into perspective, the average celebrity puts seven tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually due to private jet fumes. That means Taylor is emitting over a thousand times more CO2 than the average celebrity, who emits significantly more than the average person does. The average U.S. citizen emits just over 850 pounds of carbon into the air per year, according to a study done by Our World in Data.
It has recently been brought into light, though, that Taylor purchases carbon credits in an attempt to offset her carbon emissions. Carbon credits are permits that allow for an individual or company to release up to one ton of CO2 emissions per credit. According to Twitter page “Taylor Swift Updates”, Swift has purchased over double the amount of carbon credits necessary to offset her carbon emissions for her tour.
Terrapass reports that a carbon credit is valued at $40-80 dollars per credit, where one carbon credit is equal to one ton of carbon emitted. Though the number of credits purchased has not been spoken on by any of Swift’s representatives, this means that with Taylor’s 8,000+ tons of carbon emitted (according to The Tab), Taylor has spent— at a minimum— over $330,000 on carbon credits in 2022 alone.
With as much carbon as Taylor has released, her carbon offset number is much greater. There are many celebrities who have not gone to the lengths that Swift has to offset her carbon footprint, so Swift stands out with her environmental consciousness.
