January 10 was the day that the world’s richest 1% managed to burn through their carbon budget for the entire year, Oxfam reports, in a weekend media release that declares Saturday “Pollutocrat Day”.
“The richest 1% are responsible for more than twice as much carbon pollution than the poorest half of humanity, with devastating consequences for vulnerable communities and efforts to tackle the climate emergency,” Oxfam says in the release. “In stark contrast, it would take someone from the poorest half of the global population nearly three years (1,022 days) to use up their share of the annual global carbon budget.”
“The future of our planet is hanging by a thread,” said Oxfam Climate Change Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi. “The margin for action is razor-thin, yet the super-rich continue to squander humanity’s chances with their lavish lifestyles, polluting stock portfolios, and pernicious political influence.”
Oxfam reports that:
• Carbon dioxide emissions by the 1% richest since 1990 have led to trillions of dollars in economic losses, extensive crop loss, and millions of excess deaths.
• By 2050, those emissions will cause crop losses equivalent to what it would take to feed at least 10 million people per year in Eastern and Southern Asia.
• About eight in 10 excess heat deaths will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries, 40% of them in Southern Asia.
