UN report says world is racing to well past warming limit as carbon emissions rise instead of plunge
english.elpais.com
On Friday, the globe hit 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees) above pre-industrial levels for the first time in recorded history
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It's not driven by the wealthy, because there are far fewer wealthy people than everyone else.
Individual shopping habits are a band-aid until we can fully replace how some of those habits work.
Carbon taxes would be infinitely preferable to voluntary changes, but we can't pass carbon taxes because people will go absolutely insane if asked to pay the true cost of their goods.
The richest 1% produces more emissions than the poorest 66%
Worldwide, yes. That generally includes your average Americans, who are in the richest 1% globally.
The largest climate contributors are the billions of "average" people worldwide though, and it isn't close.
The average american is a millionair?
1.1% of the world’s adult population are millionaires. This adds up to about 56 million people. Collectively, this group has about $191.6 trillion and controls about 46% of the world’s wealth.
https://www.zippia.com/advice/millionaire-statistics/>>>
I had a decimal point wrong on the Top 10% which does indeed make me look silly.
Regardless, this holds true:
The idea that owning stock makes you a polluter is beyond stupid, and that entire article you're initially referencing is dumb as fuck.
People are arguing with you because they don't want to take responsibility for themselves or pay the true cost of their consumption. As long as they see someone worse, they don't have to do anything. The top 1% make 16% of the emissions, sure. But the top 10% are responsible for 52%. That's 34% belonging to the 1.1-10% . Much of that is due to transportation (in dumb Suv and trucks), inefficient home heating, aviation, and dirty power generation.
We simply don't solve this problem by focusing on the top1% alone . Which, like you said, is why carbon taxes should be effective. Especially how Canada did it, with the tax being redistributed to the bottom 90% or so. Unfortunately, bringing in an effective system of carbon taxation just gets you voted out for a science denier.
I swear, if I was the fossil fuel industry this exact kind of class anxiety is what I would exploit to stop progress. Get people paying attention to Taylor Swifts jet so they'll refuse the systematic changes needed avoid this actual crisis.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/carbon-emissions-richest-1-percent-more-double-emissions-poorest-half-humanity