While it's common to label the lavish spending, investments, and travel habits of the ultra-rich as distasteful or tone-deaf, a more striking label might be appropriate — deadly.
A 2024 Oxfam report titled "Carbon Inequality Kills" makes a compelling argument for that case, as Climate & Capitalism reported. Climate & Capitalism summarized the findings as "the deadly environmental toll of superyachts and private jets."
The report found a connection between wealthy Europeans' spending and damage to the planet that endangers lives.
The 140 flights that an average ultra-rich European takes per year create as much carbon pollution as the average European would in 112 years. Superyachts are also extreme polluters, with one creating enough pollution in a year as a typical European would in 585 years.
Another factor is investment. The rich pour money into industries that are driving pollution worldwide. Oxfam found that almost 40% of the ultra-rich's investments were in mining, oil, cement and shipping.
All of that pollution can turn deadly when it causes the intensity of extreme weather events to go up. The report predicted that it could contribute to 1.5 million excess deaths in the next 100 years because of sweltering conditions brought on by pollution.
The influence of extreme weather and unstable climates ushered in by pollution also has major impacts on global food security. The pollution of the top 1% is causing crop losses that could instead feed around 1.7 million people annually by 2050, per Oxfam.
The effects of the pollution are unfairly distributed, as well. While richer countries' economies are still expanding, the report noted that already-poor countries in the Global South will suffer the greatest economic consequences.
"The super-rich in Europe are treating our planet like their personal playground," said Oxfam's Chiara Putaturo. "Their dirty investments, their private jets and yachts are not just symbols of excess; they are fueling inequality, hunger and even death."
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