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...While the wealthy have an ever more dazzling array of green consumer products at their fingertips, the impact of those gadgets is nothing compared to the overall ecological destruction wrought by luxury consumption habits.

A new paper called “Measuring the Ecological Impact of the Wealthy: Excessive Consumption, Ecological Disorganisation, Green Crime, and Justice,” published by researchers Michael J. Lynch, Michael A. Long, Paul B. Stretesky, and Kimberly L. Barrett, takes a long hard look at the role of the rich’s consumption habits in destabilising the climate.

The researchers contend that when a person has vastly more money than they need to live, “acquiring property and consuming excessively become marks of distinction, and to earn those marks, the leisure class must consume.” This leads the rich to buy, build, and operate things like superyachts, super homes, luxury cars, and private jets. It would take an awful lot of Powerwalls to offset the damage done by the proliferation of these luxury consumables.

The researchers estimate that there are about three hundred superyachts in operation around the world. A person has to have individual wealth upward of £25 million in order to afford even the smallest one; the upper price is close to £1 billion. These things guzzle oil and spew pollution. Tally it up, and the world’s superyacht fleet uses over thirty-two million gallons of oil and produces 627 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year — all of it for the personal enjoyment of the extremely rich. The world’s superyachts consume and pollute more than entire nations...

...And, finally, there are private jets. There are about fifteen thousand of them registered in the United States alone. The entire fleet is in operation a total of 17 million hours per year, burning roughly 345 gallons an hour. Jet fuel produces twenty-one pounds of carbon emissions per gallon. That means that the carbon footprint of the United States’ private jet fleet is about fifty-six tons per year. The entire nation of Burundi produces less than half the carbon emissions than the US elite does with its private jets alone — to say nothing of their luxury cars, their super homes, and their superyachts...

Class jealousy is so low brow.

The researchers estimate that there are about three hundred superyachts in operation around the world. A person has to have individual wealth upward of £25 million in order to afford even the smallest one; the upper price is close to £1 billion. These things guzzle oil and spew pollution. Tally it up, and the world’s superyacht fleet uses over thirty-two million gallons of oil and produces 627 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year — all of it for the personal enjoyment of the extremely rich. The world’s superyachts consume and pollute more than entire nations.

In 2018, about 142.86 billion gallons (or about 3.40 billion barrels1) of finished motor gasoline were consumed in the United States, an average of about 391.40 million gallons (or 9.32 million barrels) per day.

Cog wrote:Class jealousy is so low brow.

Depends upon how you count. There are a few, very few super rich. Yes they have their toys and are often very wasteful. But then there are maybe a billion who are moderately well off and many of us also are very wasteful.

Charlespah wrote:Married at age 25 or so and staying married to the same person for 50 years is definitely not the norm.

Lots of people just opt to not have children to ruin their lives for them,these days.

I think very few people actually like their job, no matter what it pays ?

Outcast_Searcher wrote:

Charlespah wrote:Married at age 25 or so and staying married to the same person for 50 years is definitely not the norm.

Lots of people just opt to not have children to ruin their lives for them,these days.

I think very few people actually like their job, no matter what it pays ?

What does staying married for 50 years have to do with the rich ruining the planet?

What does whether people like their jobs have to do with ruining the planet?

I'm not saying you have no point -- I'm saying I don't grasp its relevance re this topic.

JuanP wrote:People who have too many kids are killing the planet! If we had less people we could ALL be rich! Literally!

dohboi wrote:(I put this in Tourism thread, but it really belongs here)

1% of people cause half of global aviation emissions – study

Exclusive: Researchers say Covid-19 hiatus is moment to tackle elite ‘super emitters’

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... y-covid-19