Inequality
“buy more goods,
own more cars,
have larger houses
that take more energy to heat and cool.”
And spend more time flying.
“ Consuming … is akin to polluting.”
“The wealthy bear the greatest responsibility.”
“Climate policies should target wealthy polluters.”
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So let’s blame "the rich”? Fair enough, but who is “rich” actually?
Could it be yourself?
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“An annual income of $38,000 ... puts someone in the world’s richest 10%."
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Many white (USA) households get more than $100,000.
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"High-income countries are those with a [gross income] per capita" of more than $14,000.
We feel "angst over the disconnect between
how we wish to see ourselves
versus how we really are.”
“The first way to address carbon inequality is to properly track individual emissions"
“US average emissions are three times … times the world average.”
“In the US, basic infrastructure consumes much more energy (because of the more widespread use of cars)”
In the USA 75% of farmworkers “earn less than $10,000 annually.”
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“Farmworkers endure exploitive and dangerous heat conditions” trying to escape poverty.
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U.S. non-white people "are disproportionately burdened with air pollution."
“Black Americans ... are 3 times as likely to die from asthma.”
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Thanks to decades of redlining, they often live in "urban heat islands".
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"Indigenous populations are suffering."
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Worsening weather can "exacerbate ... struggles with ... addiction."
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"As the earth warms ... more air-conditioning is needed ... [but] most people are too poor to afford" it.
"We are on track for ... a catastrophe ... visited primarily upon the world’s poor by the world’s rich."
In our twenty-first century post-modern world, almost one billion people don't have electricity.
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DOUBLE that number don't have access to an indoor toilet.
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"The effect of pollution is radically oriented toward harming the poor and deprived."
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“But is ‘our' [first-world] consumption” really a problem?
“Worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased … pollutant emissions."
When we "outsourced” our factories, we “outsourced air pollution to the developing world.”
"Sacrifice zones” harbor “a disproportionate amount of industrial pollution & toxic chemicals.”
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"The poor 'live in neighborhoods with the greatest exposure to ... extreme weather events'.”
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“Low-income ... minority communities are ... particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution."
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“Global warming is likely to make poor parts of the world even poorer.”
"We [shouldn't be] more concerned with generating profits than saving people,” Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley (March 2022).
"We are not only in danger. We are the danger. But we are also the solution," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres (June '24).