In 2022, Taylor Swift came under fire from many when it was revealed her choice of traveling via a private jet wasn’t the healthiest choice for the environment. Swift, who has been traveling the world on her “Eras Tour,” has quite the platform and many criticized her promoting such behavior.
However, Swift wasn’t the only celebrity who received backlash for their choice of air travel.
Leonardo DiCaprio has been an outspoken environmental activist since the late 90s. DiCaprio’s views on climate change are well known, and he was honored with an award for his dedication to the cause in 2016. However, it was during his trip to accept said award that the actor was criticized for using not one, but two private jets.
People were calling DiCaprio a hypocrite, because his actions didn’t seem to match his words.
Leonardo DiCaprio is known as one of the biggest advocates of climate change in Hollywood. He is always raising his voice when it comes to saving the environment.
However, that doesn’t mean his own actions have always been in line with these philosophies. In 2016, DiCaprio was criticized for using 8,000 miles on a private jet to accept an award related to his environmental activism. Many people pointed to the actor and called him a hypocrite.
According to Page Six, DiCaprio took a private jet from Cannes to accept the award and then flew back to France on another jet for a fund-raiser the next night. DiCaprio was honored by a clean-water advocacy group, Riverkeeper, and gave a speech at amfAR’s glitzy Cinema Against AIDS gala 24 hours later.
A rep for DiCaprio stated, “He was asked to speak at both Riverkeeper and amfAR events, but the only way to attend the two fundraisers was to hitch a ride with flights that were already planned.”
The rep added, “Leo helped both events raise millions, donated his own funds, auctioned off his house and had speaking roles in both programs.”
Robert Rapier, an environmental analyst, slammed DiCaprio and said his lavish lifestyle “diminishes his moral authority to lecture others on reducing their own carbon emissions.”
Rapier added, “[He] demonstrates exactly why our consumption of fossil fuels continues to grow. It’s because everyone loves the combination of cost and convenience they offer. Alternatives usually require sacrifice of one form or another. Everybody says, ‘I’ve got a good reason for consuming what I consume’ . . . It’s the exact same rationalization for billions of people.”
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During a climate change speech in 2019, DiCaprio insisted, “As an actor, I pretend for a living. I play fictitious characters, often solving fictitious problems.”
He added, “I believe humankind has looked at climate change in that same way: as if it were a fiction, happening to someone else’s planet, as if pretending that climate change wasn’t real would somehow make it go away.”
Taylor Swift has hit songs and millions of fans, so that obviously comes with a large amount of wealth. That perk is what’s caused Swift’s carbon footprint to spark backlash.
Yard, a sustainability marketing firm, released a report that said 8,293.54 metric tons of carbon were emitted by her private jet in the last seven months. According to the study, that is “1,184.8 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.”
The information in Yard’s report came from the @celebjets Twitter account. In the report, it says that 170 trips were taken on Swift’s plane and it has spent over 22,923 minutes in air since the start of 2022. That would be the equivalent of 16 days. 80 minutes was revealed to be the average flight time and the aircraft traveled around 139.36 miles. The shortest flight lasted 36 minutes and it went from Missouri to Nashville, Tennessee.
Swift’s team, however, was quick to defend the singer. “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals,” her representative told E! News. “To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”
The report soon trended on Twitter and sparked several memes prior to the response from Team Swift.
Many users were posting videos of planes flying through the air. One caption read, “video of taylor swift going to get a glass of water.” Another user wrote, “taylor swift going to her living room from her bedroom.”
A particularly unique post came from a user who shared a clip from Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” music video, in which a plane flies very close to Gaga’s head. The user called it Swift’s “cameo” in the video.
Not all of her fans were joking around, however. Several Swifties left comments on Reddit, criticizing the “Blank Space” singer.
“This is very shocking to me, honestly. More and more celebs are emphasizing the importance of reducing emissions, but it’s these outrageous overconsumptions that need to be curbed,” wrote one fan. “I love Taylor, but I’d never take a statement from her about the climate seriously after seeing this. I really think she has the means to do better.”
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“I love Taylor. I also have a strong negative opinion of celebrity private jet culture and think rich people in general have learned to prioritize their comfort and freedom over the rest of us having a safe climate, and I think this is morally wrong of her,” added another.
Swift may reduce the number of times her private jet is used and she may not. What is clear, however, is that this is a common problem among celebrities and Swift isn’t the only one who is guilty.
In 1998, DiCaprio started a nonprofit called the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation when he was just 24 years old. The purpose of the organization was to fight climate change and encourage more conversation about the environment. This was done at a time before environmental issues became as widespread as they are today.
DiCaprio opened up about his passion for the environment in a 2015 Wired interview. During the chat, DiCaprio shared that he first became interested in the issue after watching Imax documentaries growing up.
He decided to insert himself into environmental causes after the release of Titanic, which changed the course of his career. DiCaprio revealed that it was a conversation he had with Al Gore which encouraged him to get involved.
“I was lucky and got to have a meeting with Al Gore in the White House. He pulled out a chalkboard and drew planet Earth and drew our atmosphere around it. And he says, ‘If you want to get involved in environmental issues, this is something not a lot of people are talking about… ‘ — remember, this was 17, 18 years ago — ‘ …but climate change is the single greatest threat to humanity that we’ve ever had,'” DiCaprio said.
He continued, “That put me on this path. We did Earth Day in 1999. I started a foundation. I started speaking out about the issue. And then, of course, Gore’s film came out [An Inconvenient Truth], and I think that affected everyone in a profound way.”
When promoting the film Don’t Look Up in 2022, DiCaprio told Deadline that “there is a ticking clock” in regard to climate change.
“I think there’s a worldwide sense of anxiety about the fact that the powers that be, the private sector, governments, are not making the transition fast enough,” DiCaprio said. “We literally have a nine-year window.”
DiCaprio stated that his role in Don’t Look Up was important to him, because it would start a conversation about the issue among viewers. He then elaborated on the time frame he just presented.
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“When we reach a threshold where the thawing of the ice and the tundra and Greenland and the arctic starts to release even more carbon … we’re already seeing it happen,” DiCaprio explained when describing what would happen after that nine-year period. “That’s why this movie is so important. It is really the question of what the media prioritizes.”
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