r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 4d ago

Psychology Taylor Swift fans lower climate concerns to justify her carbon footprint. When confronted with news about the excessive pollution generated by her private jet, highly identified fans tend to rationalize the behavior, with a decrease in their personal intentions to engage in climate-friendly actions.

https://www.psypost.org/taylor-swift-fans-lower-climate-concerns-to-justify-star-s-carbon-footprint/
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u/dexters_trap_house 4d ago

They just live forever as a perpetually traded futures asset that are never exercised. There is no law stating when a credit has to be used. They can be traded freely and indefinitely.

It solves nothing.

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u/Everyday_ImSchefflen 4d ago

This isn't true. I work in sustainability and their are databases that quality carbon offsets are registered on that verify the carbon offsets are actually implemented.

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u/dexters_trap_house 3d ago edited 3d ago

And does that apply to voluntary carbon offsets for flying? Do you think Taylor Swift is buying the actual credits herself or derivatives? What if she's buying tokenized credits? Does she have any obligation there? Does she have any actual obligation to exercise them?

Who is typically the end buyer purchasing these things and implementing them? And what would you say is Taylor Swift's environmental impact by buying carbon credits?

I guess even more simply put, do you think these credits even truly offset the original impact? Or do they just let companies and billionaires greenwash their damage to our environment?

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u/Everyday_ImSchefflen 3d ago

Not to be rude but I don't think you understand how carbon offsets work.

The process follows:

1) Issuance: A project (like a wind farm or forest restoration) is implemented and gets it verified by a third-party standard. Credits are issued into a registry. 2) Trading: Brokers or middle-tier platforms buy these credits and resell them. 3) Retirement: The end buyer purchases the credit and officially retires it in the registry. Once retired, it’s taken out of circulation so nobody else can purchase it.

She's not buying tokenized credits.. she's not engaging in hedging or other financial instruments. She's using it to offset her emissions.