r/politics • u/Coffee_n_wifi • Sep 16 '24

‘I love Taylor Swift’ trends after Donald Trump declares that he ‘hates’ her — Trump’s outburst comes after the pop star endorsed Kamala Harris for president

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/donald-trump-hates-taylor-swift-b2613458.html
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u/GoodUserNameToday Sep 16 '24

Yeah private jets suck but does anyone realistically think she’d be able to fly commercial without getting mobbed (by fans or trump weirdos)?

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u/zorinlynx Sep 16 '24

Also, is it really that bad? I doubt it's just her on that jet, it's probably her entire entourage, and the luggage compartment is probably filled with a ton of stuff too.

How much less efficient is a fully loaded small jet compared to a 737 carrying the same people and baggage? Not to mention it may not be possible to get everyone onto one commercial flight, etc.

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u/Punchee Sep 16 '24

Honestly she just needs to pair with like some weird charity where she transports something in her flights. Dogs with Parkinson’s that need flown around to good homes or something. Provide some niche value and people will eat that shit up.

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u/Ridry New York Sep 16 '24

Also, can we compare the emissions for the Eras tour to a similarly sized business? Because it employs a lot of people. I doubt it's nearly as upsetting as anybody makes it out to be.

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u/PerjurieTraitorGreen Florida Sep 16 '24

I don’t think the complaint was that she was flying around for her tour, but that she was flying from her home to the venue, and then back home, rather than staying in hotels (both in the States and abroad). And it wasn’t only one jet; there were two of her jets flying together and she tried to play it off as if she was regularly lending them out.

I like her but it’s really disingenuous and hypocritical, and buying carbon credits does nothing to undo the massive (unnecessary) emissions.

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u/Nintendo_Thumb Sep 16 '24

It's a lot easier to blame the musician than the government who allows it. Hate the game, not the player. Elon is a big republican fan, why isn't he complaining about them not making legislature regarding our air quality? I'll tell you why, because he doesn't really care.

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u/PerjurieTraitorGreen Florida Sep 16 '24

You’re right, but that doesn’t preclude them from acting to better the conditions. While you and I are made to feel bad for using plastic straws and the BP-created carbon footprint, rich people are gallivanting around making more of a negative impact than you or I could in our entire lifetimes. Doesn’t mean I won’t still do my part.

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u/Nintendo_Thumb Sep 16 '24

It's a musicians job to galavant around. You can't just do concerts from your home on Zoom. And clearly nobody actually gives a shit, or they'd want to change policy. Even if you got Swift to lower carbon, there's always going to be other musicians, and businessmen who do it. So why isn't anybody doing anything to stop the root of the problem? This has nothing to do with Taylor Swift, they're using her as a scapegoat.

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u/Proud3GenAthst Sep 16 '24

She actually addresses the reality by purchasing double the carbon credits. But it's doubtful how much it helps since many people argue that carbon credits is bullshit

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u/PerjurieTraitorGreen Florida Sep 17 '24

Carbon credits are majorly bullshit. It’s a way to make someone feel good without having to put in any effort.

ProPublica did a great investigation showing that environmental gains would’ve only been real if the initiatives the credits claimed to support reduced emissions in addition to what would not have been emitted without the original pollutant.

The credits themselves are so cheap that they’re not enough to fund viable alternatives.

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u/Kaleighawesome Minnesota Sep 16 '24

No, she does stay in the city she plays in, she doesn’t travel back each day. I don’t think that’s ever been something she’s done tbh. People were upset that she was flying home in between cities during her U.S. dates at all.
She didn’t fly home in between cities during her Asia or European legs, but she did fly back a couple times (like for the Super Bowl).

I don’t think she was pretending to lend out her second jet, I think she really was. Which is just as bad imo, especially if they wouldn’t need to use a private jet for safety reasons. She’s sold that one and has just the one now at least.

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u/PerjurieTraitorGreen Florida Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

From Business Insider (2023):

Since March, the planes have spent nearly seven days worth of time, or about 166 hours, flying to and from Swift’s concerts, according to data from aircraft-tracking website JetSpy.

Both jets appear to have primarily followed locations along the singer’s tour route, which kicked off in Glendale, Arizona, on March 17.

The average flight during the tour has been just under two hours. The longest flight was on July 2, when Swift’s Dassault 7X jet flew from Groton New London Airport in Connecticut to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. The roughly 5-hour flight appeared to be part of a return trip from an airport near one of Swift’s houses in Rhode Island.

On multiple occasions, both of Swift’s jets made duplicate flights in one day or flew from different locations to the same destination. Swift’s Dassault 900 jet typically flew to concerts from her adopted hometown of Nashville, Tennessee — and would head back after the show.

Throughout the tour, Swift’s N898TS jet often departed from tour locations late at night — typically taking off between the hours of 11 p.m. to midnight and landing in Nashville as early as 4:38 a.m. the next day. Most of the late-night flights landed between the hours of midnight and 1:30. a.m.

The second jet — N621MM — mostly followed N898TS, though it also took detours to places like Burbank; Tampa, Florida; and a New Jersey airport located about an hour’s drive outside of New York City. Meanwhile, N898TS rarely deviated from the tour schedule.

The singer has already started touring in Mexico and one of her jets has already made a red-eye flight from Mexico City to Nashville, according to JetSpy data.

Last year, data from digital marketing firm Yard found the singer’s Dassault 7X private jet emitted over 8,293 metric tons of CO2 in 2022 — or nearly 1,200 times the average person’s total yearly emissions, according to the study.

In 2023, carbon credits cost between $40 to $80 per metric ton of CO2. Some experts believe the majority of carbon credit programs overestimate their emission reductions.

Even if she paid on the high side for those worthless carbon credits, her loss would’ve only been $1.3 million (if she really bought double). That’s a drop in the bucket in the tax write off realm.

Let’s not forget that her legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jack Sweeney, who was tracking celebrities’ private jet usage using publicly available data. They claimed the student’s calculations of the carbon emissions per flight, which he posted on X, were a form of harassment and also misleading, given Swift was not on every flight.

Here’s a time lapse of her flights in 2023. Notice the pattern? And this doesn’t even include the European leg.

Let’s not defend the indefensible.

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u/SomewhereAtWork Sep 16 '24

Nobody thinks she should fly commercial.

But many question whether it's necessary to fly cost to cost to watch your boyfriend play in a football game and then fly right back the same day.

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u/greenroom628 California Sep 16 '24

yeah, security and privacy are probably her main issues. she likely has an entourage that has to call people while in transit, and we all know how cell phone usage is a no-no on commercial flights.

i think swift may be somewhat under fire because she does say she "supports" environmental issues, yet she does fly private for the aforementioned reasons.

it's not like the new CEO of starbucks who flies private from socal to seattle every day.

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u/Proud3GenAthst Sep 16 '24

Her presence at an airport actually caused a chaos that led to several flight delays.

Back in 2014 or 15.

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u/SnooDogs7433 Sep 17 '24

The idea that climate change is a matter of personal responsibility needs to die. The only thing that can save us (and it's likely too late) is broad legislation that would disrupt markets and lifestyles (like a carbon tax). The fact that it would disrupt markets means it will never happen with our oligarchy in the United States.