Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremes
The world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of global heating since 1990, driving droughts and heatwaves in the poorest parts of the world, according to a study.
While researchers have previously shown that higher income groups emit disproportionately large amounts of greenhouse gases, the latest survey is the first to try to pin down how that inequality translates into responsibility for climate breakdown. It offers a powerful argument for climate finance and wealth taxes by attempting to give an evidential basis for how many people in the developed world – including more than 50% of full-time employees in the UK – bear a heightened responsibility for the climate disasters affecting people who can least afford it.
“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,” said Sarah Schöngart, a climate modelling analyst and the study’s lead author.
As of February, 2025, you need to have $970k per https://finance.yahoo.com/news/among-wealthiest-heres-net-worth-173043075.html
Edit: in the United States
Yeah, what people forget is that even average americans (and central/northern europeans and some other plaves) are quite wealthy from a global perspective. Many people on lemmy, self included, are in that global 10%.
And many of those emissions aren’t something you can just avoid either, they often come as a result of being a user of local infrastructure etc.
And half the time they get mad when you point it out.
In fairness, what are they going to do about being born into a richer slice of the world pie? As shitty as it is, people won’t have much sympathy for those doing worse than them unless they’ve achieved a certain baseline. If they can’t conceive of how life could be worse (many issues in this fragment), they won’t accept or care that others are suffering.
At the very least, us 10%ers could be advocating for things that lower the carbon cost of our lifestyle, such as zoning reform.
Note that I’m not talking about reducing the quality of our lifestyle. I’m talking about maintaining or improving the quality while making it more efficient.
It’s true. And we should all be doing that. If you’re in the US, I promise you there are people in your community/local government who are desperate for any sort of support. Build bike lanes, build community gardens, help your neighbors. A lot of them need it.
My previous statement was purely in reply to people getting mad when you point out that they’re in a certain percentile. Realistically, what do you expect people to do with that information? What you’re basically telling them is that in Sudan, they’d be the kings of the castle. But that’s kind of useless information to someone living in middle of nowhere Kentucky, for example.
If my taxes would go towards make that infrastructure sustainable, i would happily pay more taxes. As it stands my taxes mostly go to more Autobahn, upkeep of parking spots, subsidies for desastrous industries and cross-financing the retirement insurance, so the boomers can go on cruise vacations.