Thread by @SteB777

My points about wealth and carbon and consumption footprints are not ideological.

'Private jet providers are experiencing “unprecedented demand” from wealthy customers seeking to avoid the “mosh pit” of commercial flights ...'
theguardian.com/world/2021/sep…

"Private jets emit about 20 times more carbon dioxide per passenger mile than commercial flights, according to industry data."

This pattern is crystal clear.

"It says the world's wealthiest 1% produce double the combined carbon emissions of the poorest 50%, according to the UN."
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

You will see supporters of the economic growth model talking about lifting the poor out of poverty. Yet most of the wealth created goes to the very rich.

"The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people."
oxfam.org/en/5-shocking-…

This well known Oxfam carbon footprint data graphic of total consumption carbon emissions plotted against wealth perfectly sums it up. It tells you exactly where the motivation to pursue all out economic growth comes from.

We see a lot of talk about the supposed knotty problem of how to "solve" the climate crisis, which normally involves some sort of techno fix, to have our cake and eat it. Whereas in reality just curbing the excesses of the wealthiest, would slash global emissions.

In @KevinClimate's presentations on emissions and the climate crisis, one fact he often uses, is that if the wealthiest 10% in the world, just reduced their emissions to that of the average European, that alone would reduced global emissions by 30%.

As @GretaThunberg has pointed out a number of times, when people say shouldn't she become a climate scientist to solve the climate crisis - actually it was solved decades ago.

We've known how to slash carbon emissions for decades. Just curb the excesses of the very wealthy.

The only thing that has stopped this happening, is that the wealthiest few percent control everything. The media, governments, and even the heads of NGOs are in this class. So instead of doing the obvious of curbing excesses, our governments pursue magic technology.

The very wealthy claim they have created great prosperity. However, if the very wealthy were to just live the lifestyles of the average person in a wealthy developed country, it would slash global carbon emissions and other ecological impacts of the growth economy.

This is the irony. If ordinary people in developed countries are so well off, and live such prosperous lives, why can't the wealth live the same lifestyle with a similar carbon and consumption footprint?

Why does such a small proportion of the population, feel they are so special, that they are entitled to destroy the Earth's life support systems for future generations and the Earth's biodiversity, just to extravagantly indulge in over-consumption?

The obstacle at the heart of "solving" the climate ecological emergency, is a rather obvious and massive elephant in the room that governments and the media don't want to talk about. Is it because they're pursuing the same extravagant wealth consumption dreams? Of course it is.

@threadreaderapp Please unroll?