Taylor Swift fans aren't forgetting the backlash their favorite artist received that quickly, especially after Katy Perry seems to be dodging similar complaints.
Katy returned from an 11-minute journey to space on Monday, leaving a trail of environmental impact behind her. The Blue Origin space trip included a number of celebrities to make up an all-female crew, including Katy, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez, who boarded a New Shephard rocket. The spectacle was a first step toward space tourism, an industry that is seeing substantial investment, and was sponsored by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
While Blue Origin boasts on their website that "during flight, the only byproduct of New Shepard's engine combustion is water vapor with no carbon emissions." However, experts aren't quite convinced that the flights from the company are quite sustainable. After all, the flight still produced water vapor.
Eloise Marais, a professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Air Quality at University College London told the BBC that water vapor is a greenhouse gas, too, which is not meant to be in the atmosphere. She said, "It alters the chemistry of the stratosphere, depleting the ozone layer, and also forms clouds that affect climate."
Rocket launches, according to experts, put the ozone layer at risk for future harm. Fans online recognized this issue and slammed Katy for her environmental impact, especially after the fiasco Taylor faced from her own carbon emissions during her private jet travel. "Taylor brought millions of dollars to local economies and the space trip contributed nothing to society…. Just a trip funded by a billionaire," they claimed before adding, "Getting corrected saying that New Shepard doesn’t produce any emissions….it uses water vapor which is still a greenhouse gas…. Excessive amounts of water vapor can still damage the environment…."
Water vapor is not technically considered a carbon emission, but that didn't prevent fans from fuming. Plus, when Bezos took a previous flight in 2021, Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab confirmed to the Associated Press "that at least 50 tonnes of CO2 have already been emitted before the spacecraft departs from the launchpad.”
A report from the organization claimed, “It therefore takes a few minutes in space travel to emit at least as much carbon as an individual from the bottom billion will emit in her entire lifetime."
"I never want to hear ANOTHER WORDDDD ABOUT Taylor’s carbon emissions lmao," another fan wrote. A third added, "So are y’all gonna make the carbon emissions from Katy Perry’s space trip a big deal or are we only saving that conversation for Taylor Swift?"
During her iconic Eras Tour, Taylor received immense hate for her own carbon footprint, despite not even ranking in the top 20 jet admissions unlike many of her industry peers in 2023, according to myClimate Carbon Tracker. Taylor was estimated to products 1,200 tons of carbon emissions over the course of the year.
Taylor's Eras Tour tour, which began in 2023 and extended throughout 2024, she was bombarded with hate about the potential environmental impact. A spokesperson for Taylor previously told The Mirror, "Before the tour kicked off, Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all of her travel, which includes the tour."
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