Flying on a private jet is one of the most carbon-polluting ways to travel. Legal scholars and lawmakers are calling for taxes to address the environmental cost.
Few celebrities have had their jet travel come under as intense scrutiny in recent months as Taylor Swift, who has crisscrossed the country in a private plane to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce play for the Kansas City Chiefs. Fox News blasted her on Sunday as she arrived in Baltimore to attend the AFC championship game, [tweeting](https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1751757687707115758) that her jet was “belching tons of CO2 emissions.”
Private jet trips rank as the most carbon-intensive ways to travel, generating nine times as much carbon per passenger as flying commercial, according to a [2023 paper from University College London](https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/000218.v1). And now that the Chiefs have made it to the Super Bowl, many are wondering whether Swift will fly the roughly 14,000 miles it would take to get from a concert in Tokyo on Feb. 10 to the game in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 and then to Melbourne in time for her next show on Feb. 16, reigniting the debate over whether owners of private planes should be held responsible for the planet-warming emissions they generate.
No reason to just limit this to billionaires. *All jet travel* is highly polluting. Private jets, while inefficient, are also rare, and thus only emit about 1% of all jet emissions.
This is a hard pill to swallow for millennials as they use travel as a coping mechanism to escape the horrors of this collapsing planet. They’ll never give up on travel.
Man, wait till you hear about everyone else flying to the SB on their private jets. The focus on swift is politically motivated
Because controversy drives clicks.
Implementing a carbon tax on flights would be great, but mostly because it would establish carbon taxes as a meaningful way to pay for and discourage warming emissions.
All air travel is not a significant source of emissions (~1 to 2%) when compared to energy, ground transport, and agriculture (~90%) – but if we can get society to except a carbon tax on it then it should be easier to introduce the idea for those major emitters as well.
I’m here for banning all non-cargo jets carrying less than 100 passengers.
Be prepared for a huge uptick in the turboprop industry though.
Could take Amtrak. Should leave now – what with delays and waiting for the more important fright traffic. /s
“CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAX”
“TAYLOR SWIFT IS MAKING IT WORSE AND IS ALONE IN THIS”
Literally no single person needs or should have a private jet.
9 comments
Flying on a private jet is one of the most carbon-polluting ways to travel. Legal scholars and lawmakers are calling for taxes to address the environmental cost.
Few celebrities have had their jet travel come under as intense scrutiny in recent months as Taylor Swift, who has crisscrossed the country in a private plane to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce play for the Kansas City Chiefs. Fox News blasted her on Sunday as she arrived in Baltimore to attend the AFC championship game, [tweeting](https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1751757687707115758) that her jet was “belching tons of CO2 emissions.”
Private jet trips rank as the most carbon-intensive ways to travel, generating nine times as much carbon per passenger as flying commercial, according to a [2023 paper from University College London](https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/000218.v1). And now that the Chiefs have made it to the Super Bowl, many are wondering whether Swift will fly the roughly 14,000 miles it would take to get from a concert in Tokyo on Feb. 10 to the game in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 and then to Melbourne in time for her next show on Feb. 16, reigniting the debate over whether owners of private planes should be held responsible for the planet-warming emissions they generate.
Some environmentalists are pushing for an [outright ban on private jets](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/27/greta-thunberg-joins-protest-against-expansion-of-hampshire-airport), including Greta Thunberg and the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, who called for a ban while protesting at a private jet airport near London on Jan. 27. Others, such as Bill Gates, have [touted carbon offsets](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-gates-private-jet-doesnt-make-him-hypocrite-because-he-invests-billions-into-climate-change/) as a way to counteract emissions from private jet travel, particularly if the trips they make are to promote good causes.
Swift’s publicist has said she buys carbon offsets to compensate for her jet travel, but didn’t respond to a request for more detail about what kind or how many offsets the artist has bought. There’s a [wide range](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/08/14/climate-crisis-why-all-carbon-credits-aren-t-created-equal/f6f30852-3a59-11ee-aefd-40c039a855ba_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) in quality and oversight in the offset market, and [many offsets are meaningless](https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/04/17/carbon-offsets-flights-airlines/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8).
But legal scholars and Congress members are pushing for another way to make private jet owners such as Swift pay for their emissions: taxes.
**Read more:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/31/taylor-swift-super-bowl-jet-tax/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/31/taylor-swift-super-bowl-jet-tax/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
No reason to just limit this to billionaires. *All jet travel* is highly polluting. Private jets, while inefficient, are also rare, and thus only emit about 1% of all jet emissions.
This is a hard pill to swallow for millennials as they use travel as a coping mechanism to escape the horrors of this collapsing planet. They’ll never give up on travel.
Man, wait till you hear about everyone else flying to the SB on their private jets. The focus on swift is politically motivated
Because controversy drives clicks.
Implementing a carbon tax on flights would be great, but mostly because it would establish carbon taxes as a meaningful way to pay for and discourage warming emissions.
All air travel is not a significant source of emissions (~1 to 2%) when compared to energy, ground transport, and agriculture (~90%) – but if we can get society to except a carbon tax on it then it should be easier to introduce the idea for those major emitters as well.
I’m here for banning all non-cargo jets carrying less than 100 passengers.
Be prepared for a huge uptick in the turboprop industry though.
Could take Amtrak. Should leave now – what with delays and waiting for the more important fright traffic. /s
“CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAX”
“TAYLOR SWIFT IS MAKING IT WORSE AND IS ALONE IN THIS”
Literally no single person needs or should have a private jet.