Lil Nas X Is Flying Commercial to Avoid the Huge Carbon Footprint of a Private Jet

"Aren’t you supposed to be flying private?"

Flying Low

Montero"Lil Nas X" Hill got lambasted by random people online for flying in a commercial plane, prompting the music star to say he's doing his part for the planet by not traveling in a fuel-guzzling private jet.

"[T]o all u bitches calling me broke for flying on a regular plane i don’t wanna see not one viral carbon footprint tweet when yall see my ass on a jet," he posted on the social media platform X-formerly-Twitter.

Critics of the rap-country-pop star were responding to his tweeted video posted a day earlier where he is seen smiling and laughing silently inside a noisy airplane cabin with a caption that seems to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris over ex-President Donald Trump.

Some replies agreed with his political seal of approval, while others trolled with pro-Trump messages. But a few poked at him for flying with the rest of the hoi polloi.

"[A]ren’t you supposed to be flying private? *gasp* are you... broke?" wrote one person.

That obviously got under Lil Nas' skin, which forced him to clap back to the online crowd.

Star Struck

Setting aside his political endorsement, Lil Nas X has a point about private jets.

For example, Taylor Swift has gotten immense flack for having possibly the highest carbon footprint of any celebrity, at an estimated 8,300 tons of carbon emissions annually as of 2022 because of her extensive private jet use, dwarfing the typical American carbon footprint of around 16 tons per year.

Now imagine a lot of other Taylor Swifts, in the form of people with lesser names but just as much money, flying private and emitting untold tons of carbon during their frequent travels.

For example, it's been estimated that about one percent of people were responsible for 50 percent of airplane carbon missions in 2018.

So Lil Nas X is in the right — not just is he doing the right thing for the planet, but he'd almost certainly be criticized for flying private.

Maybe some people just need to cool their jets.

More on airplanes: Want to Save the Environment? Experts Say You Should Stop Traveling