Wealthy individuals have a higher carbon footprint. A new study published in Nature Climate Change quantifies the climate outcomes of these inequalities. It finds that the world's wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of observed global warming since 1990 and the resulting increases in climate extremes such as heat waves and droughts.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21822936

“If everyone had emitted like the bottom 50% of the global population, the world would have seen minimal additional warming since 1990,”

The study assesses the contribution of the highest emitting groups within societies and finds that the top 1% of the wealthiest individuals globally contributed 26 times the global average to increases in monthly 1-in-100-year heat extremes globally and 17 times more to Amazon droughts.

The research sheds new light on the links between income-based emissions inequality and climate injustice, illustrating how the consumption and investments of wealthy individuals have had disproportionate impacts on extreme weather events

Our study shows that extreme climate impacts are not just the result of abstract global emissions, instead we can directly link them to our lifestyle and investment choices, which in turn are linked to wealth,"

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    21·
    20 hours ago

    If all the poor people drop dead tomorrow, the emissions will change. And the number of animals will decrease.

    You do have an impact. It is no negligible.

    It is not sufficient to cut the emissions of rich people to zero. It is necessary and the majority, but all of us need to stop putting GHG into the atmosphere

    • nyctre@lemmy.world
      22·
      17 hours ago

      Right, but I’m not all the poor people. And I can’t control them either. Yes, if everyone stopped eating meat, we’d stop farming them and emissions would drop. But that’s unrealistic, never gonna happen. So yes, my impact in negligible.

      And I’m not saying I won’t do anything because my impact is negligible. I still recycle and encourage others to do the same and so on. But realistically speaking, I’m nobody. What I do doesn’t change anything. At most I may have influenced 10 other people to be eco friendly. Still didn’t change anything in the grand scheme of things. But maybe once a few more million people do the same we’ll be ok. We’ll see.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
        11·
        13 hours ago

        I can’t control them either…that’s unrealistic, never gonna happen.

        That’s exactly what the coal company said about the oil company.

        I do agree we need to tax meat and subsidize cheap proteins like beans, tvp, and seitan