A report published on Monday by Oxfam claimed that “carbon inequality” – meaning “the emissions of the world’s super-rich 1%” – is “causing economic losses of trillions of dollars, contributing to huge crop losses, and leading to millions of excess deaths.” “As global temperatures continue to rise, risking the lives and livelihoods of people living in poverty and precarity, we must act now to curb the emissions of the super-rich and make rich polluters pay,” Oxfam declared. The report is titled Carbon Inequality Kills: Why Curbing the Excessive Emissions of an Elite Few Can Create a Sustainable Planet for All.
Its central contention is that the One Percenters create far too many carbon emissions through both their lifestyles (yachts, private jets, mansions) and business investments. The report is short on science, but very long on hyperbole, offering all sorts of media-friendly pull-quote anecdotes meant to show how awful the One Percenters are by comparing their carbon emissions to “everyone” else. “If everyone began emitting as much carbon as those in the top 1%, the remaining carbon budget would be gone in fewer than five months,” said one example.
“If everyone emitted carbon at the same rate as the luxury transport emissions of 50 of the world’s richest billionaires, the remaining carbon budget would be gone in two days,” said another. The bulk of the report consisted of estimates, projections, and measurements intended to demonstrate t.
