American singer Taylor Swift has found herself in the news recently due to all the wrong reasons. According to carboncredits.com, the 34-year-old topped the charts as the world’s most carbon-polluting celebrity in 2022, as per a digital sustainability consultancy study. As per this study, Swift had flown 170 times in 2022 and cost a whopping $40 million in private jet emissions. Although many have criticized Swift for not caring about the environment ever since this report came out, some fans have interestingly now pointed out on social media that the pop star is no longer the celebrity that is causing the most damage to the environment. Instead, even three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen is above Swift on the list now, leading many fans to criticize the Dutchman.
A fan named Stefanie has pointed out the unimaginable amount of damage to the environment Verstappen is causing. She believes that since the Dutchman has a higher carbon footprint than Taylor Swift, who is infamous for the same, it was time that the 26-year-old was called out for his actions.
As per Stefanie’s post, Verstappen is 20th on the list of celebrities who pollute the environment the most. He has taken 119 flights, traveled 134,039 miles, and contributed to 1,693,800 kg in CO2 emissions.
Max Verstappen with a higher carbon footprint than Taylor Swift single handedly making the Netherlands sink faster https://t.co/PSZHvE083Q pic.twitter.com/Q9zR8woZd0
— Stefanie (@fastpitstop) February 7, 2024
As for Swift, she mostly travels to the Kansas City Chief games to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, in action. As a result of her frequent visits to these games, she now has a habit of flying in her private jets. Since Verstappen is now following in Swift’s path of using his private jets, several other fans also slammed him.
Other fans who slammed Max Verstappen for polluting the environment
Since Max Verstappen has traveled by private jet so often, some other fans such as Alessandra believe that the Dutchman is “destroying the sport and the environment“.
so verstappen is destroying the sport AND the environment https://t.co/qBiV3JpdL3
— (@datrotajohnson) February 7, 2024
On similar lines, other fans such as Veesha and Val have pointed out how they never expected that Verstappen would contribute more to CO2 emissions than Swift.
Max has higher carbon footprint than taylor? https://t.co/am3WuhuQLP
— veesha09 (@anveshas098) February 7, 2024
max verstappen having more carbon emission than taylor swift wasn’t something i thought i would see https://t.co/zpKa1W8uU9
— val (@H44MlLTON) February 7, 2024
Considering that Verstappen’s private jet travels are emitting such a huge amount of CO2, it is fair to say that the Dutchman is not doing any favors to help F1 achieve their goal of net carbon zero by 2030. Moreover, the increasing number of races in 2024 is also likely to be a challenge for F1 to manage their emissions.
Hence, only time will tell now how much progress F1 is able to make to help the sport become more sustainable.