Kylie Jenner is no stranger to social media attention, but she probably won't appreciate the likes and shares generated by her January activity.
While southern California burned in one of the state's most destructive wildfires, the 27-year-old used her private jet on multiple occasions.
British tabloid newspaper The Sun took data from CelebrityJets, which showed that shortly after sending out a message of support on Instagram for those affected by the blaze, Jenner took her 11th private jet journey of the year.
CelebrityJets calculated that those trips produced around 162 tons of carbon dioxide, and one of the flights was airborne for just 15 minutes.
While the cause of the January blaze is still unknown, the conditions for the fire to spread rapidly were made worse by drought in the area. This made vegetation like tinder, and it also depleted the state's available water to fight the fire. Meanwhile, high winds also hastened the fire's path of destruction.
Droughts are made longer, stronger, and more likely because of a warming climate, and the pollution from private jets does little to help. Carbon dioxide lingers in the Earth's atmosphere, trapping heat that causes thermometers to creep higher, increasing the risk of extreme weather events.
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Meanwhile, Jenner's offer of her own brand's cosmetics to those impacted didn't go down well, either.
"Taking a private jet to Paris, which contributes to the warmer weather and wildfires in LA, and then putting a bandaid on middle-class LA fire victims with your lotion, is horrific," one Instagram user said, as Screenshot shared. "Use your power accordingly."
"This is incredibly tone-deaf, Kylie," another said.
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According to Oxfam, the richest 1% of the global population produced 16% of global consumption emissions in 2019. Private jets and superyachts are among the main contributors to this pollution, with the charity noting that a private flight from London to Paris is six times more polluting than a commercial flight — and a private jet carries significantly fewer passengers.
It's easy to lose faith in taking steps to reduce your production of pollution when seeing figures like this, but collective action is still important to mitigate these impacts. It's also worth writing to your representative to call for greater fines or taxes to be introduced for the selfish, planet-harming actions of the wealthy.
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