The deadly environmental toll of superyachts and private jets

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1. So (from the article) 50 people generate 52 (weeks) x 80 (years) = 4160 times the carbon as the bottom 1% of the planet, that being 80,000,000 people. So those 50 billionaires are the equivalent of 50 x 4160 = 208,000 of the bottom 1%, or .25%. This is why I hate articles excoriating the “ultra-wealthy” for their carbon emissions – it’s not useful. To suggest that the bottom 1% are the problem is absurd but suggesting that the **personal emissions** of a handful at the top are a genuine issue is equally silly. It reads more like the politics of envy wearing the hat of moral indignation. If all 50 were to say “well ya convinced me” and stop flying private jets, convert their mega-yachts to solar et al, you’ve reduced the worlds carbon emissions by .25% of the total used by the bottom 1%. Well done, golf claps all around.

   To give the article its due, it does address the investments of the ultra-wealthy class and names this as the far greater issue, but the headline, the only thing that that vast majority will actually read, continues the trend of highlighting personal consumption over the actions of corporations, governments and other collectives.

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