America’s wealthiest people are also some of the world’s biggest polluters – not only because of their massive homes and private jets, but because of the fossil fuels generated by the companies they invest their money in.
Feel like some people here are being emotionally invested thinking this study is a sort of a blame game encouraging us to berate the wealthy individuals for their investments. I can’t say whether the researchers had this in mind or not but from reading the study it looks like an aim of devising this metric was to figure out a strategy of investment taxation to deter wealthy people from investing in industries that are ravaging the planet:
By linking GHG emissions with the incomes it enables our work has quantified the scale of emissions inequality in U.S. society and the extreme and growing concentration of emissions among very wealthy households. It also offers some suggestions on how accelerated decarbonization and revenue generation might occur, such as an income or shareholder-based carbon tax that reflects the GHG intensity of one’s income sources or financial assets. This is distinct from consumer facing carbon taxes that rely on individuals decarbonizing the economy by shifting their consumption to less GHG intensive goods and services and thereby encouraging companies to respond to their new preferences. A consumer-facing approach assumes individual consumers have the knowledge, financial resources, and agency to shift spending and the power to alter corporate decision making on the GHG intensity of their supply chain and operations. An alternative income or shareholder facing carbon tax puts pressure on executives and large shareholders (i.e. those with the most economic and corporate power) to act in their own self-interest and decarbonize their supply chain and operations in order to reduce taxes on their compensation and investments. Recent work has calculated that a climate inspired wealth tax could indeed be an effective tool to raise revenue for adaptation and mitigation efforts [52, 53].
But how will I be offended? You’re making way too much sense.
GTFO with your economics! We’ll just solve all externalities with social pressure. /s
And I’ll wager my left eye there’ll still be western capitalist-sympathizers(because they themselves are not capitalists, as they own no capital nor any means of production, mass or otherwise) having themselves a jolly old wankfest about how we shouldn’t be having a good long think about the Robespierre method
This is the best summary I could come up with:
America’s wealthiest people are also some of the world’s biggest polluters – not only because of their massive homes and private jets, but because of the fossil fuels generated by the companies they invest their money in.
That gave a carbon footprint for each dollar of economic activity in the US, which the researchers linked to households using population survey data that showed the industries people work for and their income from wages and investments.
The report also identified “super-emitters.” They are almost exclusively among the wealthiest top 0.1% of Americans, concentrated in industries such as finance, insurance and mining, and produce around 3,000 tons of carbon pollution a year.
Kimberly Nicholas, associate professor of sustainability science at Lund University in Sweden, who was not involved in the report, said the study helps reveal how closely income, especially from investments, is tied to planet-heating pollution.
Sometimes when people talk about ways to tackle the climate crisis, they bring up population control, said Mark Paul, a political economist at Rutgers University who was also not involved in the study.
Globally, the planet-heating pollution produced by billionaires is a million times higher than the average person outside the world’s wealthiest 10%, according to a report last year from the nonprofit Oxfam.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It’s a strange accounting method, that almost completely reflects wealth distribution and ignores carbon.
For instance, you might say childhood obesity is a problem, then measure people’s investments in fast food as a measure of their contribution to the problem. And find that it’s the same people at fault, at almost the exact same percentage!
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It’s a stretch to say that because they invest in a company, that they “produce” the greenhouse gases that that company emits.
Yeah, they could invest elsewhere but it’s just disingenuous to say they’re responsible for all those carbon emissions.
If they invest and demand the biggest profit by countering greenification policies so they get more money as shareholder, then they definitely are responsible for the companies pollution.
I can see how it’s strange on the surface, but ultimately the carbon emissions wouldn’t be there if the polluting activity was not funded. So to whom would the carbon emissions be attributed otherwise? Just the CEO?
You could blame the CEO, the employees, the customers, the investors, the city, state, or country, the regulators, the elected officials, etc.
Then there’s the choice of what attribute of those people to use for the accounting. Is it their wealth, their race, their religion, their height? Maybe it’s because they live in cities, or don’t.
It’s an almost arbitrary choice that reflects the value system of the person creating the report — an effort to score points, not solve the problem. I worry that climate action is often hindered by people trying to loop their other pet issues in. Let’s focus on reducing carbon in the atmosphere, please.
Wouldn’t insurance be one of the lowest carbon footprints? They don’t really make or manufacture anything, minimal fleet presence (like adjusters cars and what not, not like delivery trucks or semis)?
I could see their investments maybe being problematic by investing in other companies that are heavy polluters, but idk maybe I’m missing something? Seems like they wouldn’t have much of a footprint compared to others at their size and scale.
I’d like to buy carbon emission insurance. If it stays above safe levels, I get paid. If it goes below safe levels, I pay them. They adjust rates offered based on its likelihood. Then they’d have a strong incentive to fund various activities to reduce pollution.
We need a 95% tax bracket for anyone that makes more than a few million/year.
A few million/year is a reasonable amount of money for a (highly) successful person to make. A wealth tax for people making over a billion or just $100M per year is enough to fix a lot of the problems in this country without destroying the “American dream”
The way I see it, if you make enough money to buy a nice, moderate house in California or Hawaii once per year, you are already making too much money. My cutoff would probably be closer to $2-3M… though I’d be willing to go higher if paired with an annual “wealth tax”… say, if you have a value of over - for example - $20M (incl. stocks and any other non-liquid assets) you must pay 20% of any excess value in taxes annually. That would be on top of the 95% multimillionaire income tax.
And a wealth tax for people having more value than like 10 millions (or less actually).
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but because of the fossil fuels generated by the companies they invest their money in.
Lemme go ahead and roll my eyes here. Yes, American Airlines produces a significant percentage of the world’s greenhouse emissions. But they burn that fuel for the passengers, not just for the benefit of shareholders. Same with ExxonMobil, BP, etc.
Consumption is what drives pollution. Investments to profit off of that consumption is secondary.
Consumption driven by advertising based on Edward Bernays work, which explicitly intends to create fissures within people and then sell them cures to the fissures they created,m. Just disallowing advertising would have a substantial effect on consumption.
Their biggest success is convincing common folks it’s out fault.
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Wait, how is that possible when China is responsible for 50% of the carbon emissions? This doesn’t add up.
Facts. Good luck getting them to do anything about it. Nah, we’ll just stick it to the USA taxpayers and working classes. No more petrol cars, power equipment, gas stoves AC, etc. Oh, and you can’t own a single family home either with an acre of land. Nope. We can build a high rise apartment complex there instead. Anything else?
Climate change…. What a farce.
Yeah we should definitely keep doing what we’re doing. It’s been working so well. /s
Total farce indeed. That’s why all the world’s heat records are shattered to smithereens this year. Yep, we should absolutely focus on sucking Trump’s cock every waking second of every day because I’ll be goddamned if I care about anything but that. Yummmmmmmmm trump jizzzz, oh also dodge rams rule, especially the fact that you can place a kindergarten class in front of them and the driver not see them, plus CITIES ARE SCARY!!! How dare people move out of poverty and into a middle class life by moving to them!!! Don’t they know there’s minorities there!!! LiBrUl RuN sTaTeS aRe HeLlScApEs tHaT aLl GoT buRnEd To ThE gRoUnD bY bLM mArXiStS!1!1!1!1
/s
PS. CoMmUnIsM iS bAd, wHaTeVeR iT iS
PPS, you can go back to reddit now. People (or bots) with your disgusting ass 1830s viewpoints aren’t really smiled on here on Lemmy…
Me go back to Reddit? Whoa. Reddit is polluted with left wing crazies. No thanks.
Yes, blue states are cesspools of humanity. San Francisco has been destroyed by your precious left wing politics. Stores are leaving , chaining up products, etc. all because a certain faction of society just can’t figure out how to get it right and live like you’re supposed to. Im not a big fan of pickup trucks myself. Not sure where you got that from. But petrol cars must remain available as the electric wet dream of the greenies isn’t going to work and they know it. How’s the slave labor driven lithium mining going for those precious batteries? Uh oh!
Communism sucks. We all know what it is. Are you really still one of those people trying to sell that turd? Show me where communism has worked… provide a link. LOL.
Lol I couldn’t be as clueless as you even if I got a lobotomy.
Lemmy is founded and created by leftists and the entire fediverse concept is a very socialist idea. Some of the biggest instances are literally communist. I am not sure how you could possibly be here without noticing this… Meanwhile reddit has been overrun with alt right dipshits for years but you think the opposite lol
Yeah San Francisco has problems. Totally proves the left wrong!! /s There is a a reason you people always use that example. Out of hundreds of cities worldwide, it’s the only one you have. Doesn’t stop SF from being a highly sought after place to live with some of the most insane rent in the world. Because unlike your Podunk town, people actually want to live there. You don’t know it, but all you really said here is “I’m a huge pussy, afraid of cities because they contain black people and I’m pretty racist”_
I don’t give all that much of a shit about electric cars really but every major automaker is betting their companies on electric cars being the future. So, lol, yeah I’m sure some dipshit on the Internet is smarter than all of those companies combined.
What I’m making fun of you for regarding communism is that there are many morons out there without a fucking clue what communism is, but they’re still obsessed with it. You definitely seem to be one of them.
Hmmm. Reddit is way more left leaning and it’s is the center or center right people that get banned there. But, oh well.
Our Podunk town is quiet, friendly and doing quite well. We don’t want more people to come here, thanks. You act like that’s a problem. Amazingly, people like open spaces, limited noise, no WalMarts, etc. We even own an acre of land! Wow. Imagine that? But, please do insult us as your kind excels at. There are numerous blue cities that are in serious trouble. But, please ignore it. People and legit businesses are fleeing such places. Criminals are coddled, the police are hated, etc. OK then, enjoy the Wild West. This is what you wanted. Maybe you can personally house a few migrants and homeless dudes? Be part of the solution, right?
Communism is a guaranteed way for everyone to end up miserable. Just take a look through history. It isn’t hard to decipher why it’s unpopular.
Lol Russian trolls rarely get banned spreading lies (that you endorse), but yeah somehow that’s more leftist than a literal socialist platform. You must be new. You’ll find out that magats are not welcome here.
“We don’t want more people to come here” lmao… As if the racism-with-a-smile dynamic here isn’t the reason people absolutely do not want to move there. That and the economic wasteland that is small town America. I would know, I waited until I was almost 30 to gtfo of a hellhole like that. Over the years I’ve almost never heard of a story from someone from my high school who stayed in the area who didn’t die, ruin their lives with drugs, or go to jail. Even the rich kids followed this pattern for the most part, unless they moved away.
Funny you mention Walmart like that’s a city thing lol… “People are fleeing”. Yeah I’m sure that because the pandemic happened I’m sure that will undo 150 years of trending toward life in cities.
Yeah you can have your acre. I’ll take having employment options, culture, not being a fatass, and not just the false sense of security, an actual one. Crime is far higher per capita in small towns. Which again, my life is 1000 times better because I left. I don’t have to be poor and surrounded by misery, obesity, and insanely ignorant takes. I’ll never go back. But if that’s your thing enjoy it. Try not to get shot by a meth head in the middle of nowhere…
You’re literally using a communist instance. The ML in lemmy.ml stands for Marxist Leninist…
I must have joined the wrong one. You’re right. I can tell by the posts. I assume Lemmy has a “normal” version? Ill find it. Thanks.
Lol just noticed that you are literally joined to a literal COMMUNIST lemmy instance. And you do know you’re not welcome, you’ve been here three weeks and have a lot of negative karma…
Now it makes sense that you’re here. You’re just here to talk about cOmMunIsM, which outside of China and your Lemmy instance, isn’t really even a thing in the world. All leftists usually want, at most, is more socialist policies.
Practically no one is wanting to destroy capitalism. Not because it doesn’t deserve to be or isn’t evil, but because we aren’t total morons who want to tear down a system without a good replacement for it. There could be some balance in the world if it weren’t for people like you…
Enjoy your straw men though.
From the article:
They found the wealthiest 10% in the US, households making more than about $178,000, were responsible for 40% of the nation’s human-caused, planet-heating pollution.
So this only focuses on emissions from the US
households making more than about $178,000
So that’s a household, meaning it likely is two adults working plus children. I would like to see this broken down more granularly - what percentage is due to the top 1% or top 0.01%, and is it due to investments or private jets, yachts, and recreational space exploration.
This, and most of China’s carbon emissions come from the production of goods for the rest of the world, so they’re not the only ones “responsible” for those 50%.
The title is clearly referring to America’s polution. Presumably the US only.
I understood it as they are responsible for 40% of americas pollution.
Sounds like a conservative nummber
Anyone else just feel like we should eat the rich?
On one hand, yes, on the other, eating shit isn’t very appealing.
I think it’s way overdue.
Won’t stop the meat producing companies or the oil companies from existing - that just moves the emissions of them to their heirs.
That metric is really bad - as long as there’s demand for gas or meat those emissions need to be attached to someone - and attaching them to the owner just takes away all responsibility from everyone and tells them that they don’t have to change anything.
If BP would Stop producing oil tomorrow the price would probably jump but then other companies would step in and fill that gap and nothing would’ve changed pollution wise.
I’m not advocating for it, but I will say there are no Romanovs around, so it’s not 100% that it’s always the heir next.
Envy and jealousy will get you nowhere in life. Strive to do better. Maybe join the upper classes through hard work and sacrifice?
We already work and strife more than those upper classes ever would in their entire life.
How about those upper classes pay their due taxes instead of using loopholes to be a leach on society?
Either that or we eat them.
The wealthy do pay a lot of taxes. How about cutting spending instead? Oh…THAT. Never seems to come up though.
Curious also: are you really going to eat rich people? For dinner? Then what? Keep eating your way down until you reach the middle class? Envy and jealousy are a burden, my friend.
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Thanks for the suggestion I just became a billionaire
“You don’t understand. Ferengi workers don’t want to stop the exploitation. We want to find a way to become the exploiters.”
— Rom
40% seems low.
Probably because not all of the CEOs all of the enormous corporations, or leaders of the top polluting nations, are in that top 10‰. 10% is just a nice number to use, and I expect that if they went with 15 or 20% then the corresponding amount of pollution they’re responsible for would jump up significantly.
That makes sense. I apparently can’t do math this morning.
They are pulling up the entire average they have 40% of. They are emitting 6x more than the bottom 90% per capita, so that 6x figure should have been the metric to focus on
Jesus Christ. Do you know how much the US outputs compared to China and India? Educate yourself instead of following the group think. Seriously, the US is the only country on the planet that is actually going to achieve the Kyoto Agreement and we didn’t even fucking sign up for it. The US literally leads the entire fucking world in reduction of greenhouse gasses and development of green tech and you fucking clowns just sit here and bag on the rich… what a sad bunch of morons you are.
Not even the rich. Apparently workers earning $90k per year is enough to qualify as enemies to these people.
The rich aren’t people who work for a living. The rich are the bourgeousie who live parasitically off the rest of us. The people who can buy citizenship to nearly any country they desire. The people with multimillion dollars doomsday bunker communities.
Balance it out with some planet-cooling pollution
Ah yes, operation dark storm.
I have been obsessed with The Matrix for multiple decades now and never knew that Neil Gaiman wrote a graphic novel about a guy pulled out of the Matrix to kill aliens. $50 hardcover collection on the way, thank you for sending me to see how far the rabbit hole goes!!
CO² tax on oil and fuel production i say.
As much as I understand the hate towards rich people governments are just as much at fault for subsidising, directly funding and giving land to those companies in the first place for people to be able to make money off them.
Yeah those governments totally have no input from the rich whatsoever lmao
Yeah, governments are totally just giving this shit out with no compulsion from the rich.
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Because capitalist governments serve the capitalist class
.
what percentage of all jobs/economic growth is that 10% responsible for (including downstream supply chains)?
