Here’s How Much Taylor Swift’s Jet Alone Has Contributed to Carbon Emissions in 2023

The beloved music artist, Taylor Swift has contributed significantly to total carbon emissions in a single year. Her alleged plane “stalker” exposed that the pop star flew for about 178,000 miles in her two private jets in 2023. The amount of CO2 emitted by her planes was revealed to be 1,200 tons of CO2, 83 times that of an average American, per The Mercury News. The data was accumulated by Jack Sweeney, a college junior at the University of Florida, who has gained notoriety for sharing information about the takeoffs and landings of celebrity jet planes and helicopters on social media. His efforts were intended to generate environmental awareness and concerns. 

Using publicly available data from the Federal Aviation Administration and tracking broadcasted aircraft signals by volunteer hobbyists, per The Washington Post, Sweeney compiled a video showcasing the whereabouts of the world-renowned singer's plane across the world. The brow-raising video revealed zigged-zagged patterns of the popstar’s private jets indicating that the planes alone had flown over the United States and the world about 170 times in 2023. Simultaneously, the estimated miles were equivalent to flying around the planet a total of seven times. 

To top that record, the Cruel Summer singer made ignorant remarks about the environmental consequences of her plane usage. “Jet lag is a choice,” she could be heard saying to her NFL beau Travis Kelce after she flew across the world from Japan to Las Vegas to watch Kelce and his team the Kansas City Chiefs play against the Sand Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl in February of that year. Swift came under fire for her lack of environmental awareness despite the tons of carbon emissions recorded under her name. Now, Sweeney was adamant about exposing her CO2 emissions to the world undeterred by the threats from Swift’s lawyers. 

In early 2024, the college student was issued a cease-and-desist letter by the lawyers asking him to stop leveraging his social media accounts to track the Love Story singer's jet travels. They cited the singer’s unfortunate history of stalkers and how that dilemma has urged her to live in constant fear for her personal safety. Her attorneys also threatened Sweeney of pursuing “any and all legal remedies” to settle the “stalking and harassing behavior” from his side. “While this may be a game to you, or an avenue that you hope will earn you wealth or fame, it is a life-or-death matter for our client,” the letter stated. According to The Sun, Swift’s spokesperson alleged that Sweeney’s social media had a “connection” to an arrested stalker from her Manhattan townhouse. 

Regardless, Sweeney shared the video with the public in addition to the cease-and-desist letter and claimed her attorneys seemed to have left him alone after that. “Nothing (has happened). I’m not really surprised,” he said to the outlet. Furthermore, he collated the instance with billionaire and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, when Sweeney tracked his jet and published the data online in a similar fashion. “It’s pretty much like with Elon, you know, they’ll say something to intimidate the smaller person,” the student added. However, a 2022 report by a UK-based outlet, Yard, also called out the Grammy winner for her excessive CO2 emissions via private jet usage and listed her among the top 10 celebrity CO2 offenders.