Inequality

People with money:

      “buy more goods,
      own more cars,
      have larger houses
      that take more energy to heat and cool.”

And spend more time flying.

“Consuming…is akin to polluting.”

“The wealthy bear the greatest responsibility.”

“Climate policies should target wealthy polluters.”

So let’s blame the “rich”? Fair enough, but who is “rich” actually? Could it be yourself?

• to be in the “Top 50%” of income earners in the USA you need to obtain more than “$41,740” annually.

• a “middle-income” (for all the world’s 7.7 billion people) is between $15k and $30,000 per year.

• many white (USA) households get more than $100,000 yearly, while non-white US households average under $20k

“We feel some angst over the disconnect between how we wish to see ourselves versus how we really are.”

• “The first way to address carbon inequality is to properly track individual emissions”

• “US average emissions are 3.2 times the world average.”

• “In the US, basic infrastructure consumes much more energy (because of the more widespread use of cars)”

“Black and Latino people…are disproportionately burdened with air pollution in the USA.”

• “The annual [USA] income for farmworkers’ families usually does not exceed $24,500.”

• “This…increases pressure on farmworkers to endure exploitive and dangerous heat conditions.”

•  “African-Americans are three times as likely to die from asthma.”

• “Indigenous populations are suffering worst.”
  In Alaska, the worsening weather “exacerbates existing social problems, including food security, overcrowded housing and struggles with mental health and addiction.”

“We are on track for…a catastrophe …visited primarily upon the world’s poor by the world’s rich.”

• In our Twenty-First Century post-modern world, 1.2 billion people don’t have electricity.

• DOUBLE that number don’t have access to an indoor toilet.

• I take these things for granted; don’t you?

• “The effect of pollution is radically oriented toward harming the poor and deprived.”

“As the earth warms…more air-conditioning is needed…[however] most people are too poor to afford” it.

• “The poor ‘live in neighborhoods with the greatest exposure to…extreme weather events’.”

• “Low-income…minority communities are…particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution.”

• “Global warming is likely to make poor parts of the world even poorer.”

Reward yourself. Join the boycott.