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https://freedium.cfd/https://weathered.pub/why-we-cant-solve-the-climate-crisis-without-addressing-the-wealth-gap-a6463035a07c>
'"Jeff and I really are focusing on the long-term commitment to climate, and
we're extremely optimistic about it. Ten billion [dollars] is just the
beginning," Lauren Sánchez declared in a recent
Vogue interview, when asked
how she reconciled the huge carbon footprint she and billionaire fiancé Jeff
Bezos share with her passion for environmental philanthropy.
She felt, as
Vogue contributing editor Chloe Malle noted, "undaunted." What
an interesting choice of words. Undaunted, as if the carbon footprint of the
billionaires of the world is an inconvenient consequence of wealth, one that
can be overcome with just the right amount of pluckiness and determination.
It was a slick sidestep to a serious question, one that a more rigorously
journalistic publication would not have let slide. In 2023, climate justice has
been recognized as a critical part of the response to the environmental crisis
we are currently facing. And in order to tackle this issue, we have to confront
the reality that a handful of billionaires in the world have carbon footprints
that are
one million times higher than the average person — the other 90% of
the humans living on this precariously overtaxed planet.
Neither Malle nor Sánchez seemed to think it was important enough to note that
Jeff Bezos has been named by UK-based Oxfam along with American researchers as
the
third biggest carbon footprint on the planet (as far as humans go). There
are twelve billionaires on the list, and admittedly, Bezos' almost two million
tons of carbon emissions look decidedly conservative in comparison to Bill
Gates and Carlos Slim, who respectively nabbed the second and first place
"honors," both with emissions exceeding six million tons.
Why might this be important to mention? Why do the carbon emissions of
billionaires matter when it comes to climate change?'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
