In case you missed the news yesterday morning, Katy Perry went into space. In case you missed the news again yesterday morning, Katy Perry also returned from space. She was up there for 11 minutes on Blue Origin rocket ship, the company ran by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Reasons for Perry’s short journey are unclear, but since it got her and Blue Origin in the headlines, maybe the question answers itself.

What we do know is the trip was not without its environmental concerns, something which has been a hotly debated issue in the music industry of late. It has now been claimed that Perry’s trip was more harmful to the environment than Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, though figuring out the truth is not as simple as it seems.

It’s hard to quantify exactly what did ‘more’ harm here. Taylor Swift’s flights and road travel is measured in carbon emissions, because most earthly fuel sources produce carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. Blue Origin, however, uses water vapour. This means no carbon emissions, and bills itself as cleaner. However, there are fears that releasing so muuch water vapour in the air changes the chemistry of existing clouds, essentially making it a greenhouse gas.

World Inequality Lab has also pointed out that it takes 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide to prepare for each launch, meaning “it therefore takes a few minutes in space travel to emit at least as much carbon as an individual from the bottom billion will emit in her entire lifetime.”

There are other factors beside the mathematical at play here, too. Swift’s Eras Tour was the biggest tour in music history, with over ten million attendees across its whole run. I count for two of those, not that I like to mention it much. It went around the globe, injecting millions of dollars into hundreds of various local economies as fans travelled, stayed, ate, and purchased souvenirs from each city she performed in. Many travelled even withouut tickets to attend, just to soak up the atmosphere around the stadium.

The flipside of this though is that Swift’s emissions as part of the tour itself were not what was most actively in the spotlight. Instead it was her personal private jet usage, which was one of the highest in the world after trips around the length of Perry’s own, plus flying to personal appointments like Selena Gomez’s birthday celebration or to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play for the Chiefs in between shows. The futher flipside, as if this were some endlessly somersaulting argument, is that Swift often lent her jet to many other people, so not all of her personal emissions were personally hers.

As with everything in music, it will all come down to stan wars. Some people who like Taylor Swift will defend her against most criticisms and will find Swift’s jet usage acceptable for her safety and comfort, and people who don’t like her will endlessly bring up her emissions, whether they personally care for the environment or not.

All we can say is that Katy Perry safely went to space and came back, and it’s unclear what the point of any of this was.

Amazon