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World's wealthiest 10% have contributed to two-thirds of global warming since 1990, study finds (phys.org)

submitted 1 month ago by RockBottom@feddit.org to c/climate@slrpnk.net

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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,"

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[–] DougHolland@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (16 children)

No. It's not 2/3 of climate change caused by wealthy bastards, it's 100%.

Non-wealthy people don't own factories spewing heat and trash into the air. Non-wealthy people might own cars, but they don't design and build those cars to constantly spew dangerous & deadly emissions — wealthy people are responsible for that, and for the lack of a healthier, greener choice for transportation. It's wealthy bastards who've fought against regulations reducing pollution, wealthy bastards who oppose public transit, and wealthy bastards who profit from the climate change that'll eventually kill the rest of us.

Fuck if I'm causing 1/3 of climate change. Fuck, no.

Wealthy bastards make sure environmental protection is a punchline, and wrap everything in plastic like Laura Palmer. The rich are at the heart of every vile thing that's being done to the planet. Virtually all of man-made climate change is caused by rich bastards.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl -3 points 1 month ago (15 children)

If you choose to eat meat, you're causing loads of climate damage.

Lots of non wealthy people are responsible for a non-zero amount of damage.

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (12 children)

You can't really blame individuals for society issues. If I drop dead tomorrow, the global emissions won't change. Still the same amount of cows, still the same amount of cars on the road, still the same governments and policies.

Not saying we shouldn't do anything as individuals, we definitely should, we can all do better. But you can't blame any one random individual for any of these issues, imo(non multimillionaire, I mean). Feels so wrong.

[–] Beastimus@slrpnk.net -1 points 1 month ago

Yeah, obviously you can't blame one individual. Only a ton of individuals in aggregate. That's why its important to change the behavior of large swathes of people.

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