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Wealthiest 10% of US Households Responsible for 40% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Study (www.commondreams.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kind of confusing study. I thought it would outline how specifically those 10% are emitting that many gasses, so doing breakdowns like how much it costs to operate their homes and breakdowns of their methods of travel.

But, it is taking into consideration stuff like company they work for so like someone who lives without electricity in a tent and bikes but gets a high wages from a petroleum factory while investing most of their money as an engineer would be considered to be a higher gas emitter than someone who works in insurance while driving suvs and pickup trucks and living in a huge house.

It's pretty abstract. Makes for a catchy headline, but not the direct picture I was hoping for when it comes to a household because it's more an industry revenue analysis.

For those that want to skip straight to the study here it is

https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000190

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah and if the head of an oil company decides to just stop producing then the price will jump for a bit but then others will fill it's place since demand didn't change.

I feel as if this study is only trying to make people angry and have a scapegoat while making them not change anything relevant.

Sure the use of jets and yachts by the richest is a huge asshole move but the biggest leverage is when everyone would stop eating meat or using bikes instead of cars whenever possible

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, because of the revenue and investment source focus of the study what I found interesting is that two people who work at the same place and earns the same salary could lead to the one who invests the money becoming the higher polluter according to the study. Even though the other person is the stereotypical polluter eating meat, mortgage on a huge house, and driving huge cars in contrast to the more minimalistic lifestyle of the other person being the stereotypical green individual who doesn't eat meat and opts for public transport and a modest home.

Like this study is formulated in a way where the numbers are more appropriate for industry analysis than individual household analysis. Data is set in a way that it could be said it's better in the long run to drive suvs than it is to invest, or high polluting companies pay more livable wages. Or if you have million dollars it's less damaging to the environment in the long run to spend that money buying Suvs for your neighbors over investing it with the risk of the assets increasing in valuation leading to bigger polluter stats.