Celebrities, they’re just like us … except when they’re not.
A controversial TikTok posted by iHeartRadio Canada (@iheartradioca) highlighted this to an extreme as far as Kylie Jenner is concerned.
“Kylie Jenner, climate criminal?” the caption of the video reads.
In the post, a narrator speaks over a picture of glamorous Jenner standing in front of a jet. “Kylie Jenner is being referred to as a climate change criminal after it was discovered that she’s been using her private jet for 3-minute flights, which is the equivalent of a 40-minute drive,” the narrator says.
“We should hold all these celebrities accountable,” one viewer immediately commented, followed shortly by another stating, “Tax the Rich.”
“That’s ridiculous,” commented a third person.
It’s not just the regular Joes who feel this way, either. Disney heiress Abigail Disney recently sparked a debate about the harms of private flying, stating in an X (formerly known as Twitter) thread, “It’s not that hard NOT to fly a private jet.”
As people become increasingly aware of the damage these behaviors have on the environment, more celebrities are coming under fire for their lavish lifestyles, as John Travolta also recently learned.
According to Our World in Data, aviation accounts for 2.5% of all carbon pollution worldwide. The Guardian further reported that private air travel is the most energy-intensive form of transportation, creating as much as 14 times the pollution per passenger as commercial flights.
So you can see why one person taking a private jet for such a short flight could cause controversy. The Guardian also pointed out that the wealthiest 1% create more than double the amount of planet-warming pollution as the bottom 50%.
You may think 2.5% is a small part of the bigger picture, but the facts say otherwise. As Our World in Data explains, while private plane travel may be a small contributor to the overheating of our planet, aviation in general is a bigger problem than its number because it is especially difficult to decarbonize.
Not everyone in the comments was mad. Many defended Jenner, saying they would do the same thing. “Stop throwing shade. We are all guilty,” one commenter said.
This is likely attached to the fact that while most of us don’t take three-minute flights on private jets, many of us drive a car, and passenger cars are one of the largest contributors to Earth’s warming, accounting for around 3.3 billion tons of carbon pollution annually worldwide.
All of this considered, and controversy aside, one commenter may have said it best when they simply said, “Our climate.”
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