'HUMANS' RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS 

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World's richest 1% emit as much carbon as 5 billion people, report says
Li Cohen
Tue, November 21, 2023

Dimitrios Kambouris

The "polluter elite" are disproportionately driving climate change, according to a new report — with the wealthiest 1% of people in the world putting out as much carbon pollution as the poorest two-thirds.

The report, by The Guardian, the international charity Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute, found that climate change and "extreme inequality" have become "interlaced, fused together and driving one another."

Researchers found that of all the carbon emissions in the world in 2019, 16% was produced by the top 1% wealthiest people worldwide — a group that includes billionaires, millionaires and those who earn more than $140,000 a year. The analysis found their contribution "is the same as the emissions of the poorest 66% of humanity" — roughly 5 billion people.


The report also found that the richest 10% percent of people worldwide made up roughly half of emissions that year.

"It would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99% to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year," Chiara Liguori, Oxfam's senior climate justice policy adviser said. "This is fundamentally unfair."

The amount of carbon dioxide emissions the top 1% was reported to have produced in 2019 — 5.9 billion tonnes — is enough to change global temperatures enough to lead to the deaths of an estimated 1.3 million people, the report says, citing a widely-used methodology known as "mortality cost of carbon."

The report also highlighted that just 12 of the world's richest billionaires have contributed nearly 17 million tonnes of emissions from their homes, transportation, yachts and investments — an amount it said was more than 4 1/2 coal power plants over the course of a year.

At the top of that list is Carlos Slim Helu, who according to Forbes has a net worth of $94.7 billion. He was followed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and luxury retail magnate Bernard Arnault.

Earth is "under siege"

Oregon State University ecology professor William Ripple, who is also the director of the Alliance of World Scientists, told CBS News that the report's methodology and findings are "broadly consistent with some recent peer-reviewed scientific literature on this topic."

"Carbon inequality and climate justice are major issues," he said. "To address climate change, we'll need to dramatically reduce inequality and provide support and climate compensation to less wealthy regions."

Last month, Ripple and a team of other scientists published a paper finding that Earth is "under siege" and "in an uncharted territory." They found several all-time high records related to climate change and "deeply concerning patterns of climate-related disasters." They also found that efforts to address these issues have had "minimal progress."

The Guardian and Oxfam report called for a number of steps to help humanity "break free from the climate and inequality trap," including a transition to renewable energy sources. It also suggested a 60% tax on the income of the worlds wealthiest 1%, which the report calculated would lead to a 700-million-ton reduction in global emissions.

U.N. report shows a dangerous "emissions canyon"

The report on the climate wealth gap came out the same day the United Nations issued its own new report on the cost of climate adaptation. The U.N. Environment Programme found that despite "clear signs" the risks from climate change are increasing, nations are falling further behind in the investments needed in response.

That "adaptation finance gap" is between $194 billion and $366 billion every year, the U.N. report found, saying there needs to be at least 50% more financial investment, and noting that developing countries have "significantly higher" costs and needs than others.

Greenhouse gas emissions — which trap heat in the atmosphere and drive warming — have increased 1.2% since last year, reaching record highs.

Sobering climate change report says we're falling short of promises made in Paris Climate Agreement

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters Monday that "if nothing changes, in 2030 emissions will be 22 gigatons higher than the 1.5 degree limit would allow" — referencing the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times. It's expected that the world may surpass that level within the next five years.

"All of this is a failure of leadership, a betrayal of the vulnerable and a massive missed opportunity. Renewables have never been cheaper or more accessible," Guterres said. "...The report shows that the emissions gap is more like an emissions canyon — a canyon littered with broken promises, broken lives and broken records."

CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk contributed to this report.

‘Sacrificing us at the altar of their greed’: Richest 10% in EU emit as much carbon as poorest 50%

Ian Smith
Mon, November 20, 2023 

The richest 10 per cent in the EU are responsible for as much carbon pollution as the poorest 50 per cent, a new report by Oxfam reveals.

“Their increasingly luxurious lifestyles and escalating opulence are wreaking havoc on our planet," says Oxfam EU tax expert Chiara Putaturo. “Meanwhile ordinary people are burdened with rising costs and the dire consequences of heatwaves, floods, and landslides caused by human greed.”

These outsized emissions of Europe’s richest will cause 67,800 heat-related excess deaths by 2100, the equivalent of almost 850 deaths every year.

Should Europe introduce a new wealth tax?

The charity is calling for a European wealth tax to raise nearly €250 billion a year which could be used to reduce pollution and inequality.

Through the European Green Deal the EU has set out ambitious climate targets, but question marks still remain over the financing of its implementation.

World on track for nearly 3C of warming under current climate plans, UN report warns

“We need a European wealth tax. Economists want it, multi-millionaires want it and people want it,” Putaturo says.

The report also outlines the stark global inequalities fuelling the climate crisis.

The richest 1 per cent of the world’s population, which includes billionaires, millionaires and those making above $140,000 (€128,172), produced as much carbon pollution in 2019 as the five billion people who made up the poorest two-thirds of humanity.

It argues that we need “a radical new approach if we are to stand any chance at overcoming the catastrophe unfolding before us.”

Greta Thunberg slams the greed of rich people

In a foreword to the new report Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg condemns the richest 1 per cent for “sacrificing us at the altar of their greed.”

She continues: “The people most responsible for the climate crisis – mainly white, privileged men – are also the ones who have been given a leading role in getting us out of it.

“How have we left the culprits in charge when there is so much at stake?”

How can we address global inequalities?

Oxfam is calling on governments to dramatically reduce inequality by a global redistribution of income in the form of a wealth tax.

It also calls for a quick and just transition away from fossil fuels and a change in mindset that prioritises the wellbeing of humans and the planet over endless profit and consumption.

Experts overwhelmingly blame one person for climate change confusion: ‘One of the greatest climate villains’

Leo Collis
Tue, November 21, 2023 



Rupert Murdoch announced in September that he would step down as chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp.

The Australian’s impact on the media landscape since the 1950s has had far-reaching and damaging consequences.

Speaking to the Guardian, climate scientist at Australian National University Joëlle Gergis said: “It’s hard to think of another person who has single-handedly done more to muddy the public’s understanding of climate change.”

Other scientists did not give Murdoch particularly glowing reviews upon the news of his decision to hand over control of the media empire to his son, Lachlan.

Climate scientist and University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Mann added, per the Guardian: “He has wielded his global media empire as a cudgel to sow confusion and doubt about the science and the solutions. He will go down in history as one of the greatest climate villains.”

Murdoch’s role in climate science denial is nothing new. In 2013, the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism studied 602 articles across 10 newspapers in Australia and found that 32% either dismissed or questioned whether human activity was responsible for global heating.

The findings were summarized by the Guardian, and the contribution of Murdoch’s News Corp to that figure was shocking.

The Guardian said that 97% of comment pieces in the Herald Sun, under Murdoch’s media empire, published climate-skeptic views. Syndicated columnist Andrew Bolt was responsible for a number of these articles, with similar work also published in The Advertiser, NT News, and Daily Telegraph.

Murdoch was also criticized for inaccurate statements regarding climate science in the past; a 2014 Sky News interview contained misguided comments, as reported by the Guardian.

The Conversation has detailed several troubling or inaccurate stories News Corp pushed in Australia as part of a Mission Zero 2050 campaign, which was supposed to encourage the country to move toward a net-zero future.

There were articles about how renewable sources are an unreliable source of power, while another praised Australia’s coal industry as cleaner than coal industries in most other countries.

“He’s a true villain on a global scale,” one Redditor said of Murdoch when commenting on the Guardian’s unflattering review of his climate impact during his career.

“This dude will be responsible for the deaths of millions,” added another.

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