<story><title>Unequal consumption lies at the heart of the climate crisis</title><url>https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-talk-about-the-carbon-footprints-of-the-rich/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmoak3</author><text>America is freaky rich - how many people in this forum grow food of any kind (outside of a hobby) for example?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not too surprised on the % of share of the footprint, people making (or spending) at least $40k drive a lot of worldwide consumption (and shipping).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d wager a lot of the carbon emissions of the $100k and above group come from flights. Travel among that income level has become extremely popular in the past 50 years. For example, I used to live in California, and it was surprising when I did the napkin math to find the emissions generated to visit family near the Appalachians (just for my seat on the plane).&lt;p&gt;I calculated that a given person&amp;#x27;s portion of a round trip cross-American flight generated as much kg C02 as a typical American generates by consuming a year&amp;#x27;s worth of meat. My two round-trip flights a year were undo-ing the climate savings of two typical American vegetarians.&lt;p&gt;Given ~400 passengers on a 747, each plane that darts across the whole of America undos 200 Americans who gave up meat for a year.&lt;p&gt;The FAA claims to process 16mil flights a year of various lengths.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: some phrases&lt;p&gt;EDIT2: more&lt;p&gt;EDIT3: even more content</text></item><item><author>arcanus</author><text>“The richest 10% of people are responsible for 52% of cumulative global emissions — and the 1% for a full 15%.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Of course, many Americans are wealthy in global terms. Oxfam has defined the world’s 1% as the 60 million people earning over $109,000 a year. They defined the 10% as the 770 million people earning over $38,000.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The vast majority of those reading and posting on HN are in the highest global wealth bracket(s). Myself included. This article isn&amp;#x27;t about billionaires and sports icons. It is about what Americans (and many Westerns Europeans) consider middle class.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>melling</author><text>Not sure why we tend to start the  discussion with air travel.&lt;p&gt;100,000 commercial flights, all over the world, every day of the year add up to about 2% of total emissions.&lt;p&gt;The 40% of the global electricity generated for the past several decades from those dirty coal power plants that no one wants to live near seem like a better place to start.&lt;p&gt;In addition to all that pollution, there’s quite a bit of CO2</text></comment>
<story><title>Unequal consumption lies at the heart of the climate crisis</title><url>https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-talk-about-the-carbon-footprints-of-the-rich/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmoak3</author><text>America is freaky rich - how many people in this forum grow food of any kind (outside of a hobby) for example?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not too surprised on the % of share of the footprint, people making (or spending) at least $40k drive a lot of worldwide consumption (and shipping).&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d wager a lot of the carbon emissions of the $100k and above group come from flights. Travel among that income level has become extremely popular in the past 50 years. For example, I used to live in California, and it was surprising when I did the napkin math to find the emissions generated to visit family near the Appalachians (just for my seat on the plane).&lt;p&gt;I calculated that a given person&amp;#x27;s portion of a round trip cross-American flight generated as much kg C02 as a typical American generates by consuming a year&amp;#x27;s worth of meat. My two round-trip flights a year were undo-ing the climate savings of two typical American vegetarians.&lt;p&gt;Given ~400 passengers on a 747, each plane that darts across the whole of America undos 200 Americans who gave up meat for a year.&lt;p&gt;The FAA claims to process 16mil flights a year of various lengths.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: some phrases&lt;p&gt;EDIT2: more&lt;p&gt;EDIT3: even more content</text></item><item><author>arcanus</author><text>“The richest 10% of people are responsible for 52% of cumulative global emissions — and the 1% for a full 15%.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Of course, many Americans are wealthy in global terms. Oxfam has defined the world’s 1% as the 60 million people earning over $109,000 a year. They defined the 10% as the 770 million people earning over $38,000.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The vast majority of those reading and posting on HN are in the highest global wealth bracket(s). Myself included. This article isn&amp;#x27;t about billionaires and sports icons. It is about what Americans (and many Westerns Europeans) consider middle class.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bobthepanda</author><text>If it’s any consolation, no US domestic carrier operates the 747 or A380 today, and their 2-engine cousins are much less thirsty.</text></comment>