Scientists Just Found Who's Causing Global Warming

Are you sitting down? Because there's some news that might shock you.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has found that the richest 10 percent of the world population are responsible for an astonishing two-thirds of observable climate warming since 1990. Basically, that small minority of the wealthiest among us contribute nearly seven times as much to extreme climate change as the entire lower-earning 90 percent of the planet.

If that's not enough to have you reaching for your pitchfork, the top 1 percent contribute 20 times as much to climate disasters as the bottom 99 percent. Since 2019, the research article notes, the "wealthiest 10 percent of the global population accounted for nearly half of global emissions" through "private consumption and investments, whereas the poorest 50 percent accounted for only one-tenth of global emissions."

The results were developed by fusing climate change models with economic data, which allowed researchers to zero in on rates of toxic emissions from various income groups throughout the globe. By linking climate change with the economy, they found the source of these emissions overwhelmingly skewed toward the top hoarders of wealth.

"If everyone had emitted like the bottom 50 percent of the global population, the world would have seen minimal additional warming since 1990," co-author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner said. "Addressing this imbalance is crucial for fair and effective climate action."

While the numbers are staggering, they're far from shocking at this point. In the United States, the top 1 percent of households control 80 percent of company assets — the average person reading this has no way of ending the coal industry's devastating reign over Appalachia, for example. That's a decision to be made by shareholders and executives looming over us from the top of the pyramid.

Rather, the article is just more confirmation of something we've known for years: the rich are the biggest threat to the climate by far. But while most studies on wealth and climate change hone in on consumption habits, this bit of research looks a little deeper under the hood at the system making this all possible.

Instead of simply arguing that rich people consume more than the average pauper — a verifiable fact, to be clear — these researchers studied emissions through the flow of public and private investments, as well as global trade. This gives a much more complete picture of the actual cause and effect of Earth-melting pollution, following the key source of power in our capitalist world: property.

The poorest among us, owning no factories, private jets, or oil rigs, are hardly a glimmer in the rearview mirror of the ultrarich as they race toward emission rates previously unseen by humankind. Climate change, being clearly tied to economic activity, is simply one of dozens of consequences of our chosen economic system — and as the old adage goes, "it all rolls downhill."

"To mainstream commerce, the Earth is both loot and dump," wrote climate journalist George Monbiot. "Commercial activity, broadly speaking, consists of extracting resources from a hole in the ground on one side of the planet, inducing people to buy them, then dumping them a few days later in a hole in the ground on the other side."

Look no further for evidence of this than the ultrarich themselves. Measuring their wealth in increasingly fractured portfolios and webs of corporate spending, those who do own the factories hide their role in the changing climate through tall tales of consumer responsibility: recycle your plastics, buy an electric car, and use paper straws.

Yet as the research clearly shows, none of these measures has a hope of making a dent in the grand scheme of climate emissions. Which isn't to say we shouldn't try — but that until the ultrawealthy are brought to heel, we have about as much chance of stopping climate change as BP has of stopping its next oil spill. That is, not very much at all.

More on billionaires: Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change

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