Wealthy individuals have a higher carbon footprint. A new study published in Nature Climate Change quantifies the climate outcomes of these inequalities. It finds that the world's wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of observed global warming since 1990 and the resulting increases in climate extremes such as heat waves and droughts.

“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,"

  • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
    4·
    3 days ago

    The figures you cite must concern specifically the USA. Certainly not the whole world, as article says. Was wrong, it’s for everyone. A nice demonstration of wealth inequality. As others have said, vast numbers of people even in rich countries have nowhere near this wealth. But the property owners do, basically.

    And in most other “rich countries” very few people (even the richest) are accumulating such sums in their twenties. Partly because the social safety net makes it less urgent, partly because the USA is just a weirdly materialistic society. It really is an outlier in all this, the stats are clear.

    But sure, most of us here are going to be in the developed world (1 or 2 billion out of 8) and so probably also the world’s top 10%.