1191
submitted 1 year ago by RandAlThor@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Adramis 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It feels disingenuous at best to lump in people making $60k/year with Jeff Bezos and other billionaires. Just twelve billionaires account for 2,100,000 homes worth of emissions, and that's only the raw output of their travel and other direct expenses: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/twelve-billionaires-climate-emissions-jeff-bezos-bill-gates-elon-musk-carbon-divide

Yes, we can all do our bit to help out, but workers pointing fingers at other workers will only ever benefit the ruling class.

[-] Pipoca@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Twelve of the world’s wealthiest billionaires produce more greenhouse gas emissions from their yachts, private jets, mansions and financial investments than the annual energy emissions of 2m homes, ...

“Billionaires generate obscene amounts of carbon pollution with their yachts and private jets – but this is dwarfed by the pollution caused by their investments,” said Oxfam International’s inequality policy adviser Alex Maitland.

“Through the corporations they own, billionaires emit a million times more carbon than the average person. They tend to favour investments in heavily polluting industries, like fossil fuels. ...

The carbon footprints of the investments were calculated by examining the equity stakes that the billionaires held in companies. Estimates of the carbon impact of their holdings was calculated using the company’s declarations on scope 1 emissions – direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by a company – and scope 2, indirect emissions.

Most of that isn't their direct expenses, but from the businesses they own. Their actual travel and direct expenses are a small fraction of the emissions stated in that:

A superyacht kept on permanent standby generates about 7,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, according to the analysis.

“The emissions of the superyachts are way above anything else,”

The average carbon footprint in the US is 16 tons. 7000/16 = 437.5. The emissions of these billionaires is mostly not private jets and super yachts, and the emissions from super yachts and private jets are a very small percentage of the US's total transportation emissions.

[-] guacupado@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

The emissions of these billionaires is mostly not private jets and super yachts, and the emissions from super yachts and private jets are a very small percentage of the US’s total transportation emissions.

I'd say their personal emissions for their luxuries are still significantly several times the average person.

[-] Pipoca@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Sure. In terms of directly produced emissions, most billionaires emit somewhere between 100-1000 times as much as the average American.

Which, yeah, isn't all that equitable. But there just aren't that many billionaires, and there's hundreds of millions of average Americans.

It's not like wealth, where the richest 735 billionaires have as much wealth as the poorest 166 million Americans.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah, 1% of 8.1 billion is 81 million. So, it's roughly the top 10% of population of the wealthiest countries.

That includes both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, but also middle managers in marketing, astronomers, HR managers, air traffic controllers, etc.

[-] Fredthefishlord 5 points 1 year ago

Yes, we can all do our bit to help out, but workers pointing fingers at other workers will only ever benefit the ruling class.

Don't forget that you have more than one finger. You have fingers to spare to point blame at those who deserve it, and few of us in first world countries don't.

this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
1191 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39082 readers
2328 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS