The singer has threatened legal action against a 22-year-old student who has been tracking her private jet, claiming his actions constitute ‘stalking’
Taylor Swift doesn’t want you to know that she flew her private jet 13 minutes from one side of a city to another, the same journey which takes 30 minutes by car. No, she doesn’t want you to know that her private jet is a big polluter, if not one of the biggest in America. It’s why the billionaire pop star previously said she loans it out for friends and family to use. It’s why she stocked up on double the amount of carbon credits (effects of which are questionable) needed to offset her Eras Tour. And it’s why she’s now threatening to sue Jack Sweeney – the 22-year-old who has been tracking her private jet alongside those of Russian oligarchs, Elon Musk and other unimaginably rich individuals – with claims of breaches of her privacy.
Swift’s lawyers have sent Sweeney a cease and desist letter, alleging that his actions constitute “stalking and harassing behaviour”, and are causing the pop star and her family “direct and irreparable harm, as well as emotional and physical distress”. They claim Sweeney is motivated by either wealth or fame, while for Swift, the situation is a “matter of life or death”. They also claim there’s “no legitimate interest in or public need for this information, other than to stalk, harass, and exert dominion and control”. The letter paints a convenient image of a vulnerable and mentally distressed woman being stalked by a creepy man on the internet, not an ultra-wealthy, security-laden star spewing unnecessary amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Beyond the cynical mining of the singer’s traumatic history of stalkers, the out-of-touch legalese seems to ignore the very violent nature of the climate crisis and the direct harm it inflicts on people worldwide. It was just months ago that a young woman died during a Taylor Swift concert amid a sweltering heatwave in Rio de Janeiro. At least 1,000 people were reported to have fainted that day and the singer herself struggled to breathe on stage.
For every passenger, private jets pollute as much as 14 times more than commercial flights and 50 times more than trains. Carbon emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect which traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and increases temperatures. To get an idea of how bad things are, we’ve just lived through the first year of global warming temperatures continually exceeding 1.5C, the number scientists want to desperately avoid under the Paris Agreement.
In the past few years, Swift has dealt with a significant number of male stalkers. Most recently, a 33-year-old man was arrested and charged with harassment and stalking after he was found near her New York home. In 2019, she even wrote about carrying army-grade bandage dressing for gunshot and stab wounds. With the majority of stalking victims being women, it’s no wonder Swift is concerned about her safety. Yet Sweeney, a college student who tracks public figures’ carbon footprints from publicly available data, argues the jet flight information is not a complete picture of where Swift could be at any given moment, comparing it to a public concert schedule.
Flew from Cahokia/St Louis, Illinois, US to St Louis, Missouri, US 24 hours ago.
— Taylor Swift Jets (Tracking) (@SwiftJetNextDay) January 31, 2024
Apx. flt. time 13 Mins. pic.twitter.com/WFEp5k3ZTS
Even Swift’s usually die-hard fans are disappointed over the attempted silencing of Sweeney. “It is necessary work. Shame is the last weapon we have against the Kardashians and Bezoses of the world,” one fan wrote. “I love her. I love her work. I love her music. But these are all just facts. We are fans...not members of a cult.” Another Reddit user argued the legal letters are not about stalking at all, rather a knee-jerk reaction to a hint of criticism. “I’m sorry, I love her a lot, but this is making it very hard to root for her,” they wrote.
The attempted suppression of Sweeney’s findings is part of a wider pattern of criminalisation employed to silence climate activists worldwide. “Criminalising defenders encourages collective stigma and sends off an intimidating message,” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said last year. Activists and journalists are not just being harassed for speaking out against powerful groups and people, but murdered too. In 2022, at least 177 land and environmental defenders were killed for trying to protect the planet.
Despite the empowerment they preach in their songs or sell in their products, celebrities are rarely expected to be moral guides for the masses. Yet given Swift’s vast fanbase, which is largely young, she possesses a unique opportunity and platform that could genuinely galvanise climate action. Instead, she has decided to send a troubling signal about the seriousness of climate change. In an age of sustainable touring, where the likes of Coldplay lead, Taylor Swift instead sells one of her two private jets, doubles down and sides with the petulant Elon Musks of the world who think they’re beyond reproach.