Richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than poorest 66%, report says (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by RandAlThor@lemmy.ca to c/environment@beehaw.org

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[-] admin@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

The media love to remind all of us of the so-called 1% but NEVER mention the 0.0001%. Roughly 400 Americans that have an unimaginable amount of wealth. Not Jeff Bezos, Not Elon Musk nor anyone that is publicly acknowledged.

Wealth Shown to Scale has shown all of us, for many years, the diseased dragons lying on mountains of gold. These are the ones that own and control almost everything that happens on Earth.

[-] brie@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Not that it isn't a lot, but the 3.2 trillion figure is a total, not an average; that gives an average of only 8 billion per person. Going off Wealth Shown to Scale, Bezos' wealth could be equally spread among at least 23 people, and they'd all still be in the top 400.

[-] realitista@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Yo that's pretty wack homie.

[-] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Reminder that if you make 140000 a year you are a part of the richest

[-] foxtrots@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Is there a typo here? If you make 140k a year in the US it puts you in the top 10% of earners, but still below average. Yes, part of the richest in the sense that most of the world probably makes less than you, but nowhere near the richest in terms of what these statistics are talking about when they refer to the top 1% - ie. people who make close to, if not more than, a million dollars per hour.

That is to say - someone making 140k is not capable of the levels of pollution that people with private jets, who take dozens of flights every year - not even scratching the surface of their shopping and eating habits, and the pollution caused by their businesses and investments.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 2 points 1 year ago

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The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%, with dire consequences for vulnerable communities and global efforts to tackle the climate emergency, a report says.

For the past six months, the Guardian has worked with Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and other experts on an exclusive basis to produce a special investigation, The Great Carbon Divide.

Over the period from 1990 to 2019, the accumulated emissions of the 1% were equivalent to wiping out last year’s harvests of EU corn, US wheat, Bangladeshi rice and Chinese soya beans.

“The super-rich are plundering and polluting the planet to the point of destruction and it is those who can least afford it who are paying the highest price,” said Chiara Liguori, Oxfam’s senior climate justice policy adviser.

The extravagant carbon footprint of the 0.1% – from superyachts, private jets and mansions to space flights and doomsday bunkers – is 77 times higher than the upper level needed for global warming to peak at 1.5C.

Oxfam International’s interim executive director, Amitabh Behar, said: “Not taxing wealth allows the richest to rob from us, ruin our planet and renege on democracy.

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this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023

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