The super rich 2000 times as polluting as the poor

 From The Guardian

The US’s super-rich are burning through carbon emissions at 4,000 times the speed of the world’s poorest 10%, according to an analysis provided to the Guardian.

These billionaires and multimillionaires, who comprise the wealthiest 0.1% of the US population, are also running down our planet’s safe climate space at 183 times the rate of the global average.

The data, produced by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute ahead of the Cop30 climate summit, highlights the chasm between the carbon-guzzling rich, who are most responsible for the climate crisis, and the heat-vulnerable poor, who suffer the worst consequences.

At one end, the wealthiest 0.1% emit an average of 2.2 tonnes of CO2 every day, equivalent to the weight of a rhinoceros or an SUV.

At the other, a citizen of Somalia burns off just 82 grams of CO2 each day, barely the mass of a single tomato or half a cup of rice.

In between, the average for everyone on the planet is 12kg a day, about as heavy as a standard car tyre.

The analysis was provided for the launch of Oxfam’s annual report on carbon inequality, which underscores how lavish lifestyles of superyachts, private jets and vast mansions often combine with investments in polluting industries to create climate-destabilising individual footprints.

The study, which was released on Wednesday, found that 308 of the world’s billionaires had a combined CO2 tally that, if they were a country, would make them the 15th most polluting country in the world.

The great carbon divide has grown over the past 30 years. Since 1990, the share of emissions of the richest 0.1% has increased by 32%, while the share of the poorest 50% has fallen by 3%.

“The climate crisis is an inequality crisis,” said Amitabh Behar, the executive director of Oxfam International. “The very richest individuals in the world are funding and profiting from climate destruction, leaving the global majority to bear the fatal consequences of their unchecked power.”

Source:  The emissions of the rich put climate goals at risk

 

We can't afford the rich.

The search for a moral justification for selfishness

 From a toot by Mark Holtom

20 Years Ago on July 6th, 2002 - the brilliant economist and thinker John Kenneth Galbraith, gave an interview in which he said this perfect bit:

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

This is Wikipedia's article about J K Galbraith.  His book, The Affluent Society, is remarkable.  I must re-read it!

The rich get richer

Chart from this article.  See also this post.

The Rich get Richer

Even though the averages for the economy (employment, unemployment rate, industrial production, etc,) have not yet passed the 2007 peaks (or low in the case of the unemployment rate) the rich are fine, thank you.

Second chart comes from The Dish