On the red carpet, all the top stars are climate savers. Important topic. After an event, however, the reality appears to be different. As research by the British marketing agency "Yard" and a nasty student on Twitter show, some celebrities spend an alarming amount of time in private jets - regardless of the enormous emissions and costs that such planes cause. Undefeated in first place: Taylor Swift.
The study was based on data from the CelebJets Twitter account, which can be attributed to Jack Sweeney, the same young man who drove Elon Musk insane (read more here). Sweeney doesn't do anything illegal: Using public data, he remembers which private jet belongs to which person and publishes a tweet as soon as these planes move.
"Yard" analyzed these movement profiles and compiled statistics. The trigger for the work was the scandalous flight of influencer Kylie Jenner, who recently caused an outcry with a short-haul flight of a ridiculous 60 kilometers (find out more here). But despite her jet-set lifestyle and provocative postings on Instagram about which private jet to take, Jenner is currently only ranked 19th among the biggest air polluters.
The top 10, led by Taylor Swift, eclipses Jenner. "Yard" created the ranking according to the so-called greenhouse potential, measured in carbon dioxide tons. On average, according to the research, each private jet celebrity has produced 3376 tons of carbon dioxide so far this year. For comparison: an EU citizen consumes between seven and eleven tons a year, Americans are slightly higher with an average of 16 tons. But now the flop ten for the period from January 2022 to today:
Regarding the methodology of the research by "Yard" and also "CelebJets", it should be said that these are all flights of the jets - whether they are flying for maintenance, picking up someone or actually traveling with the respective owner.
However, the prominent passengers will not be able to avoid a fundamental debate for much longer. The flights are getting a lot of attention around the world, with Vice magazine calling the private jet aficionados "climate criminals."
In social networks, people are wondering why people are talking about small savings and climate-neutral lifestyles against the background of such environmental sins, when a few cause the annual carbon dioxide pollution of an average person within ten minutes.
In fact, aviation is turning out to be a major driver of climate change. According to "Yard", it is responsible for 2.4 percent of annual CO2 emissions - flights in private jets have a disproportionately large share.
Sources: Yard, Vice, Twitter
