The Eras Tour has a huge carbon footprint. What's a green Taylor Swift fan to do?
Environmental solutions need to involve the artist, the venue and the fans, experts say
Can an environmentally minded fan enjoy Taylor Swift's Eras Tour as its long trail of carbon footprints strides into Vancouver this weekend?
The megastar's Eras Tour has included almost 150 shows on five continents in front of millions of fans — and generated millions of kilograms of fossil-fuel emissions. Swift's estimated jet emissions alone are equal to that of driving an average gas-powered vehicle more than 2.1 million kilometres — about the same as flying between Vancouver and Halifax 475 times.
According to the Greenly Institute, the merchandise and fast fashion surrounding the shows is a notable contributor to a concert-goer's carbon footprint.
By its calculations, if 25,000 attendees at each of her tour shows bought one T-shirt, it would equate to 19,370,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions. And that doesn't include all those plastic rhinestones and strings of beads.
So, as the state of climate change becomes more dire, can the average show-goer enjoy their Taylor Swift ticket? Must they do it with a broken heart?
Push and pull
"It's … a contrast that you feel within yourself — caring about certain things and then obviously loving specific artists," said Pilar Pedrinelli, a career climate activist who has worked around the world focusing on food security and emissions.
Pedrinelli won tickets to a Toronto stop of the Eras Tour, ironically for participating in UnitetheSwifties, a movement that was lobbying for the star to drop Royal Bank of Canada as her tour sponsor, citing environmental issues that the bank has been accused of in the past.
"I find it quite funny [that I won] because I was like, actually, this is my topic," she said.
In the end, Pedrinelli said she was able to reconcile being one of 500,000 visitors in Toronto for the six sold-out shows at the Rogers Centre.
She compared it to not agreeing with everything an artist you enjoy has to say.
Looking at the big picture
Experts say while large corporations and oil and gas companies tend to take the brunt of criticism for their negative impacts on the climate, the best way forward is for everyone to be mindful — including the artist, the venue and the fans.
"Concerts are really important for people. Obviously, this sort of tour is an extremely important experience," said Laurel Besco, a professor of urban geography and environment at the University of Toronto.
"I think this is a situation where there's an opportunity to look at ways that we can reduce the environmental impact of not just concerts, but big events [and] tourism in general," she said.
WATCH | Taylor Swift fans clamour for merch in Vancouver:
B.C. Place Stadium, where Swift will play three shows in Vancouver this weekend, has modernized significantly, transitioning to LED lights and implementing greener water practices.
But experts like Julius Lindsay, director of sustainable communities at the David Suzuki Institute, noted that the attendee shares some responsibility too.
"I think there is a role for participants that are engaged in environment and climate action to ask for these things or ask about these things," he said, while stressing the onus is on the city, event planners and other stakeholders.
Some venues allow people to bring in empty reusable water bottles and have banned certain kinds of confetti or balloons to reduce their footprint. A festival in Iceland, meanwhile, uses geothermal energy from underground volcanoes to power the audio-visual equipment.
"I really believe that most of the solutions that are accessible to people are to be found in local communities," Pedrinelli said.
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