With Extreme Wealth Comes Extreme Pollution

There has been a lot of talk in the fight against climate change about focusing on reducing emissions in the most pollutive countries, like China, the United States, and India. But a new report says we’re concentrating on the wrong thing. We should, researchers say, be looking instead at the most pollutive people.

The report, from the World Inequality Lab — which is run by the Paris School of Economics and the University of California, Berkeley — explains some pretty harsh facts:

• The global top 1 percent of individuals each emit around 110 tons of carbon dioxide on average per year.
• The top 0.1 percent of people emit 467 tons on average.
• The top 0.01 percent, 2,530 tons per person per year.

The problem, the report authors say, “is quite clear: extreme wealth comes with extreme pollution.”

While the authors are keeping their estimations on the conservative side, they point to easily seen pollutive activities of the ultra-rich, such as space flight.

An 11-minute flight “emits no fewer than 75 tons of carbon per passenger once indirect emissions are taken into account (and more likely, in the 250-1,000 tons range),” the authors write. Opposingly, about one billion individuals emit less than one ton per person per year. Over their lifetime, these one billion people emit no more than 75 tons of carbon per person.

“It therefore takes a few minutes in space travel to emit at least as much carbon as an individual from the bottom billion will emit in her entire lifetime.”

Also, the wealthier the person (or country), the more meat they tend to consume. Scientific American reports that as much as 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from agriculture, deforestation, and changes in the way land is used. Cattle release a tremendous amount of methane, and clearing land for pastures destroys trees that would otherwise absorb carbon.

Along the Jeff-Bezos-goes-to-space lines, billionaires are also destroying the planet with their superyachts, which are some of the most carbon-emission-heavy possessions in the world (ahem, Jeff Bezos again). Then there are the pollutive private jets, high-definition TVs, and massive SUVs preferred by the mega-rich.

Looking at the United States alone, the report explains that in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s 2030 target reduction in emissions, the middle 40 percent of the country in terms of income will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a little over half of our current level. But, the top 10 percent of individuals will need to reduce their emissions by 87 percent.

There are straightforward ways for the wealthiest to slow down their luxurious consumption — by pulling investments from fossil fuel companies, shifting their own companies to clean energy, and by paying a higher “carbon tax” than lower-income people.

Unfortunately, right now, with their access to fancy, carbon-emitting toys and ways of life, “there is scarcely any limit to the carbon emissions of the ultra-wealthy,” the report authors conclude.