Most people know America’s sweetheart, Taylor Swift. She is popular for her music, concerts and relationships. She is breaking records and changing the world, but it isn’t for the better. Her environmental and political impact is now being recognized and her political impact is highly influential to her fans.
Some of her environmental effects include the fact that Swift travels to many NFL games to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and uses her private jet to travel from her performances to his games. Swift has been to 13 of Kelce’s games, meaning her private jet has been working overtime.
Throughout their sixth-month relationship, Swift has produced 138 tons of carbon dioxide by just going to his games. Overall, her private jet emitted 8,250 tons of carbon dioxide in 2022 alone, before she even began to fly to games.
Her average flight time consists of 80 minutes and 139.36 miles per flight. Her time in the air is considerably short for the amount of carbon dioxide she emits per flight. On top of traveling to Kelce’s games, Swift has her own touring to do. She remains the world’s highest celebrity carbon emitter. Swift’s spokesperson claims that Swift has purchased more than double the carbon credits to compensate for her tour travel. Carbon credits are a way for users to offset carbon emissions by supporting products to stop and reduce CO₂ emissions. However, one must wonder how effective this is considering the record-breaking emissions Swift has managed.
While Swift’s private jet is used greatly, not all of her CO₂ emissions can be blamed on her. Swift’s spokesperson has mentioned how Swift’s jet is loaned to other individuals regularly, therefore she is not responsible for all carbon dioxide emissions made by her private jet.
As Swift has a huge impact on the environment, she is also a huge influence on politics. She has a wide range of audience; however, her most prominent audience is teenagers and young adults. Swift broke her silence on politics in 2018 during the midterms. She supported Democrats Phil Bredesen for the Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives. Since then, Swift has made an immense impact on young voters.
More than 35,000 young adults had been registered to vote since she had spoken out. The number of 18-year-olds that voted increased, leading to more than double the previous year.
The U.S. presidential election takes place this September and young voters are expected to spike greatly with Swift’s influence. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race and is expected to do the same this year.
Overall, her political and environmental impact has been huge. People hope Swift will cut down on private plane rides. Unfortunately for a celebrity like Swift, it is practically impossible to do, with paparazzi and fans at her every move. With her political impact, she is expected to drive more young voters to the polls this year.
With the effect of this popstar changing the world, some of her choices are for the better, and some are for the worse. Swift has the world at her fingertips, from her powerful lyrics to her political choices. People hope she will make the right decisions, using her influences to make a positive impact instead of a negative one.
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