Two-thirds of global heating caused by richest 10%, study suggests
Two-thirds of global heating caused by richest 10%, study suggests
Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremes
Paper in Nature Climate Change journal reveals major role wealthy emitters play in driving climate extremes
The world’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of global heating since 1990, driving droughts and heatwaves in the poorest parts of the world, according to a study.
While researchers have previously shown that higher income groups emit disproportionately large amounts of greenhouse gases, the latest survey is the first to try to pin down how that inequality translates into responsibility for climate breakdown. It offers a powerful argument for climate finance and wealth taxes by attempting to give an evidential basis for how many people in the developed world – including more than 50% of full-time employees in the UK – bear a heightened responsibility for the climate disasters affecting people who can least afford it.
“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,” said Sarah Schöngart, a climate modelling analyst and the study’s lead author.
The threshold to be in the top 10% is €42,980 or $49,000 (grossing from what I can tell).
The top 1% and 0.1% for comparison are 20x and 76x.
As of February, 2025, you need to have $970k per https://finance.yahoo.com/news/among-wealthiest-heres-net-worth-173043075.html
Edit: in the United States
Yeah, what people forget is that even average americans (and central/northern europeans and some other plaves) are quite wealthy from a global perspective. Many people on lemmy, self included, are in that global 10%.
And many of those emissions aren't something you can just avoid either, they often come as a result of being a user of local infrastructure etc.
Is there a source for this?
This was my assumption, but when I searched earlier, I could only find sources citing the top 12% was above $100k
I'm assuming I've misunderstood something.
The article talks about income (the headline seems a bit confusing), the wiki about net worth?
According to Wikipedia, citing the 2022 US census, median annual personal income is $48k, meaning the average american is right on that line.
Neat!
picks up pollut-o-matic and starts firing into the air
If you're reading this, you're in that 10%.
I want to know what part of the two-thirds, the 1% holds.
Probably about or more than half of that. At least that's what I seem to recall having read.
Plus things like planned obsolescence they push for to keep people spending. The system is formed around their whims and the system they want demands waste to continue the flow of money.
Hmm, I am probably not, 10% is what, 700 million?
Between all the rich people, USA, Canadians, UK, Germany, and the rest pf Western Europe that number likely includes enough people to exclude me as a central European
The last number I was given was that anyone who makes more than a converted $20,000 per year is in the global top 10%. There used to be a global income comparison tool that showed where you stand on the global scale. I feel 90% confident that any individual person reading this is someone who is above that line, especially if they can afford things like internet and electric together. Those kinds of guys are driving cars to work and eating out, instead of making their food every single day and listening to radio because they can't afford any luxuries.
I agree that it ain't exactly smart to say everyone in a developed economy is doing well, but I want to remind anyone reading this to count their blessings and consider their own impact just as much as they try to hold the worst offenders accountable.
Global top 10%' or 'access to wealth'
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You are 18-25, your net financial wealth is $50,000 or more.
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You are 25-29, your net financial wealth is $100,000 or more.
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You are 30-35, your net financial wealth is $200,000 or more.
Even without behavioral changes, nothing I can do with 120k a year will ever surpass somebody having a baby.
...there is no over 35.
Logan's Run style.
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not true. $48k a year according to the comments below
Context and after some searching
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Global Top 10% Wealth: ~$93,170 (2018)).
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Global Top 10% Income: ~$39,382 annually (PPP-adjusted).
Wealth source
Income source
I immediately started searching this up on seeing the article. Should've known someone in the comments already beat me to it. Thanks for the links!
How the hell am I in the bottom 46% with an annual income of €38000?
Edit: I see, I think this is more about purchasing power than income, selecting some random 3rd world country would out me way higher
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Nice to see the phrase "global heating" instead of the wimpy "global warming" or the even more milquetoasty "climate change". I prefer the phrase "anthropogenic runaway global heating" because it makes clear the scale and severity of the problem as well as its origin, and also for the handy acronym.
I sometimes call it "planet destruction" or "stupidity of mankind"
Yeah, but those phrases can apply to a whole lot of things.
Some of the poor people need heat. They get cold at night.
Can we do top 1% so that I don't feel included?
And in other news water is still wet
But have YOU been to space?
Context and after some searching
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Global Top 10% Wealth: ~$93,170 (2018)).
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Global Top 10% Income: ~$39,382 annually (PPP-adjusted).
Wealth source
Income source
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Eat the rich. Remove them from society
To produce their analysis, the researchers fed wealth-based greenhouse gas emissions inequality assessments into climate modelling frameworks, allowing them to systematically attribute the changes in global temperatures and the frequency of extreme weather events that have taken place between 1990 and 2019.
I do take studies like this with a grain of salt. I don't know this organization, but they certainly have a point of view, and it certainly is reasonable to think they could have run those computer simulations to say what they wanted it to say.
Now with that said, I'd wager many of the folks in this thread are included in that 10%. The top 10% of the world makes like $50,000 a year. "Rich" is subjective and varies from country to country, region to region. Hell it can vary widely just in the US. And even in a single state (look at average wages for somebody in the NYC area versus Syracuse).
Two-thirds of global heating caused by us here, study suggests (shocker)
What do we do, set our inflation target to -2% instead?
Wealth is the great filter
affording to ruin the earth
We know what we gatta do...
![A fork] (https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/1346111e-7f9d-44c1-987d-4410e772e044.jpeg)
My study suggests the other 90% let them to vary degrees.
