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.
And half the time they get mad when you point it out.
If my taxes would go towards make that infrastructure sustainable, i would happily pay more taxes. As it stands my taxes mostly go to more Autobahn, upkeep of parking spots, subsidies for desastrous industries and cross-financing the retirement insurance, so the boomers can go on cruise vacations.
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
Wiki - Distribution of Wealth
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.
10k€ here, reporting for wealth !
So, likely everyone in the developed world, not just billionaires.
No most people in the developed nations earn less than this. It’s heavily biased towards Americans and high earners, the typical just above the minimum wage earner isn’t in this group.
Median household income in the US is 80k
Pretty sure that doesn’t even cover the “just above the average wage” earner in most western countries though I suppose it depends a bit on if you count the parts that directly go to the government without even counting as gross wages (employer parts of social security, health care,…).
Neat!
picks up pollut-o-matic and starts firing into the air