Essay by Eric Worrall
Could this get any sillier?
Why Katy Perry’s celebrity spaceflight blazed a trail for climate breakdown
Published: April 18, 2025 1.41am AEST
Steve Westlake
Lecturer, Environmental Psychology, University of BathWhat’s not to like about an all-female celebrity crew riding a rocket into space? Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Katy Perry and her companions were initially portrayed in the media as breaking down gender barriers. On their return to Earth, the team enthused about protecting the planet and blazing a trail for others. Perry even sang What a Wonderful World during the flight, and kissed the ground on exiting the spacecraft.
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But it’s the negative social effects of this kind of display from celebrities (of any gender) that our research sheds light on. I’m part of a team of social scientists researching the powerful effects of politicians, business leaders and celebrities who lead by example on climate change – or don’t.
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Our findings reveal that when people see public figures behaving like this, they are less willing to make changes to their own lives. “Why should I do my bit for the climate when these celebrities are doing the opposite?” is the question people repeatedly asked in our research.
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Not only does this undermine people’s motivation to make changes, it reduces the credibility of leaders. That in turn makes coordinated climate action less likely, because shifting to a low-carbon society will require public trust in leadership and a sense of collective effort.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/why-katy-perrys-celebrity-spaceflight-blazed-a-trail-for-climate-breakdown-254824
I don’t know why everyone is picking on Katy. Everyone knows politicians and celebrities routinely ignore the carbon limits they try to impose on the rest of us. My previous Katy article I thought it was mildly amusing that a celebrity climate activist took a space flight, but portraying Katy as an agent of doomsday, “blazing a trail for climate breakdown”, seem a little extreme.
Steve Westlake holds some rather intense views when it comes to climate action. In 2019 Westlake inspired an entire article on why he personally gave up flying, and in 2022 he co-authored a paper in Nature about how scientific civil disobedience helps to spur climate action.
Judith Curry wrote a response to Westlake’s call for scientific climate change civil disobedience in 2022.
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