Kylie Jenner a ‘climate criminal’? Reality star is called out for 17-minute flight
Kylie Jenner is a lot of things: a reality star, a makeup icon, a businesswoman, a billionaire and now, apparently, a “climate criminal.”
“The Kardashians” star hit some rough air for taking her private jet on a 17-minute flight from Camarillo, Calif., to Van Nuys, Calif., last Tuesday. The roughly 40-mile jaunt could have taken about 45 minutes by car — or more, depending on L.A. traffic.
The turbulent statistics about her air travel were compiled by @CelebJets, a celebrity jet tracker on Twitter, which posted about Jenner’s route from Ventura County to L.A. County. (An initial post sparked the backlash when the trip was set to take approximately three minutes but was later amended when the flight landed.)
The account usually lists the flight time, mileage and how many pounds of jet fuel are used for a flight, as well as the cost of fuel and the tons of carbon dioxide emissions, but it did not for Jenner’s trip. The jet then flew from Van Nuys to Palm Springs in a 28-minute trip on Tuesday.
Still, Twitter users were quick to shoot down the star and dub her “Kylie Jenner: full time climate criminal.”
Kylie Jenner might be unlucky in friendship, but she sure is lucky in business.
“You all need to do a story on how this chick uses her plane to fly 39 miles all the time,” replied one user, tagging celebrity news sites People and UsWeekly. “Uses it like a car. Call her out! People are tired of celebs telling us how we are destroying the environment when it’s them!”
A few others came to the 24-year-old’s defense.
“As much as it pains me to say this, she probably wasn’t on the flight and the plane was just going to VNY for maintenance,” wrote another.
“I get it having driven the roads/freeway in that area it is horrible,” said a reply, adding, “Chill out”
By Friday, several days after the flight, the reality star posted a photo on Instagram showing her and beau Travis Scott cuddling between two jets. She captioned it, “you wanna take mine or yours?”
That made the controversy take off anew. While many followers praised them with “goals,” others were less laudatory in the comments section. That day the jet made the return trip from Palm Springs to Van Nuys, then back to Camarillo, according to @CelebJets.
“girl what am i recycling for,” said one comment.
“But it’s us who must use paper straws 😩” added another.
“This is why we need to tax the rich,” said another comment.
“this post just called me poor,” mused another.
Representatives for the Kylie Cosmetics founder declined to comment Tuesday on the backlash.
Hollywood studios have seen their filming costs increase as filmmakers and actors push for perks including flying private to avoid COVID-19.
Private jet travel has been booming in Hollywood since the COVID-19 pandemic as A-listers, cast and crew members opt to fly private or charter flights because they’re nervous about getting infected on commercial airlines or dealing with cancellations, suspensions and other travel-related headaches that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Private jets generally produce significantly more emissions per passenger than commercial flights, according to the BBC, further contributing to the climate crisis.
“A huge amount of fuel is used during takeoff and landing of a plane, no matter how many people you have on board. So an already polluting mode of transport (commercial aviation) becomes even worse (with private jets),” Dr. Debbie Hopkins, an expert in decarbonizing transport at the University of Oxford, told the BBC last year.
According to @CelebJets, Drake took a 20-minute trip from Barcelona to Ibiza, Spain, but didn’t get as much heat about it, perhaps because it was an island hop.
The account, which tracks celebrities and their private air travel daily, also posted this week about director Steven Spielberg, who took a 24-minute flight from Teterboro, N.J., to the Hamptons in New York.
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