London demonstrators against climate change attempt to target Taylor Swift’s private jet, but miss it

Taylor Swift’s use of a private jet has enraged environmental activists, who have now planned an abortive attempt to deface her car.

Two members of the climate justice group Just Stop Oil painted private jets at London’s Stansted Airport a bright orange color as a publicity stunt. The demonstrators Jennifer and Cole “cut the fence into the private airfield at Stansted where Taylor Swift’s jet is parked, demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030,” according to a post from the group that shows them breaking into the airport and painting one jet.

AP reports that Swift’s aircraft was not there when the paint job was done, which was unfortunate for the demonstrators.

The demonstrators were named as Cole Macdonald and Jennifer Kowalski in a post on the Just Stop Oil website.

Over time, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that, despite my work in sustainability, I essentially have no power to alter things in a way that would stop our natural systems from collapsing entirely. To get my voice heard, I have to go desperate,” Kowalski remarked. We all need to be thinking about what we can do every day in 2024 to alter the direction that our society is going. To ensure that oil, gas, and coal extraction and burning cease by 2030, an emergency treaty is required.

“We’re living in two worlds: one where countless millions are forced to live in appalling conditions, and billionaires live in luxury and can travel there in private jets,” Macdonald remarked. Meanwhile, in an ever-expanding “cruel summer,” this system that permits a small number of people to amass enormous fortune at the expense of everyone else is eroding the circumstances required to sustain human life. We are all impacted by climate change, and billionaires are not above the law.

Two people, a 28-year-old woman from Dumbarton and a 22-year-old woman from Brighton, were detained by police on suspicion of causing criminal damage and interfering with the use or operation of national infrastructure, according to Essex Police. When the police arrived minutes after receiving a call at 5:10 a.m. on Thursday, they found that the demonstrators had damaged two aircraft.

“We will always take action where criminal acts take place, but we are not anti-protest,” Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow stated in a news release. “We will be more visible at the airport throughout the summer months. We are always there.”

Swift will play three shows as part of her Eras Tour in London’s Wembley Stadium on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The singer’s use of a private jet has generated a lot of controversy. According to data by marketing firm Yard, Swift’s aircraft generated more than 8,000 metric tons (or over 9,000 U.S. tons) of emissions in 2022 alone, making her the most polluting celebrity in the world. That year, her carbon footprint was more than 1,000 times that of the typical person. In a response to Rolling Stone, Swift’s representative disputed the storyline, pointing out that the singer frequently lends out her planes to other people and that it would be “blatantly incorrect” to “ascribe most or all of these trips to her.”

The “Fortnight” singer allegedly threatened to sue Jack Sweeney, a 21-year-old college student, for sharing details about her use of a private jet on social media earlier this year, according to a Washington Post article.

In 2022, Just Stop Oil protestors gained notoriety when they glued themselves to other well-known artworks and threw soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The activists from the organization splashed Stonehenge with identical paint earlier this week. On its website, the group states that its objective is to “commit to working with other governments to agree an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas, and coal by 2030.”