World's richest 10% caused two thirds of global warming: study
The world's wealthiest 10 percent of individuals are responsible for two thirds of global warming since 1990, researchers said Tuesday.
How the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heatwaves and drought, they reported in the first study to quantify the impact of concentrated private wealth on extreme climate events.
"We link the carbon footprints of the wealthiest individuals directly to real-world climate impacts," lead author Sarah Schoengart, a scientist at ETH Zurich, told AFP.
"It's a shift from carbon accounting toward climate accountability."
Compared to the global average, for example, the richest one percent contributed 26 times more to once-a-century heatwaves, and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon, according to the findings, published in Nature Climate Change.
Emissions from the wealthiest 10 percent in China and the United States -- which together account for nearly half of global carbon pollution -- each led to a two-to-threefold rise in heat extremes.
Burning fossil fuels and deforestation have heated Earth's average surface by 1.3 degrees Celsius, mostly during the last 30 years.
Schoengart and colleagues combined economic data and climate simulations to trace emissions from different global income groups and assess their impact on specific types of climate-enhance extreme weather.
The researchers also emphasised the role of emissions embedded in financial investment rather than just lifestyle and personal consumption.
"Climate action that doesn't address the outsized responsibilities of the wealthiest members of society risk missing one of the most powerful levers we have to reduce future harm," said senior author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, head of the Integrated Climate Impacts Research Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna.
- Billionaires tax -
Owners of capital, he noted, could be held accountable for climate impacts through progressive taxes on wealth and carbon-intensive investments.
Earlier research has shown that taxing asset-related emissions is more equitable than broad carbon taxes, which tend to burden those on lower incomes.
Recent initiatives to increase taxes on the super-rich and multinationals have mostly stalled, especially since Donald Trump regained the White House.
Last year, Brazil -- as host of the G20 -- pushed for a two-percent tax on the net worth of individuals with more than $1 billion in assets.
Although G20 leaders agreed to "engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed," there has been no follow-up to date.
In 2021, nearly 140 countries agreed on work toward a global corporate tax for multinational companies, with nearly half endorsing a minimum rate of 15 percent, but those talks have stalled as well.
Almost a third of the world's billionaires are from the United States -- more than China, India and Germany combined, according to Forbes magazine.
According to anti-poverty NGO Oxfam, the richest 1 percent have accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade.
It says the richest one percent have more wealth than the lowest 95 percent combined.
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Yahoo
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Emperor penguin populations declining faster than expected
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Scientific American
20 hours ago
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Thermal Runaway Explains Why Waymo Cars Burned So Completely in the Recent Los Angeles Protests
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On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. All the while, the battery cells vent hydrogen fluoride, a toxic, lung-searing gas documented in laboratory test burns of commercial lithium packs. Among the disturbing scenes from the recent Los Angeles protests, which erupted over federal immigration raids, are those in which protestors stood around the flaming Waymos. Historically, first responders without supplied-air protection have developed throat burns and breathing difficulties upon arriving at scenes with burning lithium-ion batteries. Depending on the hydrogen fluoride levels, an exposed person can begin coughing up blood within minutes. Whereas inhaling concentrations above roughly 30 parts per million (ppm) is immediately dangerous to health, 50 ppm may be fatal when inhaled for a half-hour to an hour, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that exposure to 170 ppm for 10 minutes can be deadly. Measurements taken near electric-vehicle (EV) fires show peaks of 150 to 450 ppm, with levels during much of the fire hovering around 50 ppm. Firefighters call such blazes 'battery box fires,' and they hate them. Flame-retardant foams do little, and fire departments now favor high-pressure water lances or immersion pits. Dousing a runaway battery usually means lowering temperatures below the runaway threshold for every last battery cell—a task that, according to the Independent, can swallow 30,000 to 40,000 gallons (about 114,000 to 151,000 liters) of water. That's at least 40 times the amount of water required to extinguish a gasoline-car fire. If you hit the flames too lightly, stranded energy reignites hours later—a quirk the National Transportation Safety Board flagged in its 2020 report on EV firefighting hazards. Car designers have tried to address the danger. Software monitors cell temperatures and slows the rate at which batteries charge to prevent overheating. And it automatically cuts current if anything looks amiss. Yet even the best code cannot rewrite chemistry: in 2023 Jaguar recalled more than 6,400 I-Pace cars after at least a dozen of them caught fire from overheated batteries—which had likely shorted from manufacturing defects in their pouch cells. Six of the fires happened while the car was either plugged in or within a few minutes of being unplugged. Waymo's fleet got the update to better regulate the batteries, but software can't help when someone smashes one of the car's windows and lights up its interior with a 'makeshift flamethrower,' as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Could a Waymo van have burned just as thoroughly? Only with great effort. The company's earlier Chrysler Pacifica hybrids, which were phased out in 2023, stored a tenth of their battery energy in a steel-framed shell. Steel keeps its shape beyond 1,300 degrees C, so after a typical blaze, you would still recognize the carcass. To prevent thermal runaway, Teslas have batteries that use thousands of small cylindrical cells locked inside an aluminum tray with titanium undershields and built-in firebreaks. And most brands of electric-car batteries now sit in similarly rigid aluminum or steel boxes—and are shifting toward less volatile chemistries. Importantly, however, the scene in Los Angeles by no means indicates that electric cars are tinderboxes. A 2023 study in Finland showed that, mile for mile, they caught fire less often than gasoline cars. But when an EV does burn, the physics shift. You're no longer fighting a puddle of gasoline on asphalt; you're battling an energy-dense, metal-oxide battery that is determined to finish what it started—and in such cases, a single Molotov cocktail can turn a sleek robotaxi into a pool of molten alloy.
