Bread and Circuses

The bottom 50% of world population...

☑️ Causes only 12% of global carbon emissions
☑️ But will experience 75% of relative income loss due to climate change
☑️ While owning just 2% of world wealth

Meanwhile, the top 10%...

☑️ Is responsible for 48% of total emissions
☑️ Owns 76% of global wealth
☑️ And will experience only 3% of relative income loss due to climate change

Destroying the biosphere by burning fossil fuels is the greatest crime ever committed. But the rich and powerful will never be prosecuted for it — because they own the system.

#Inequality #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice

CHART SOURCE (PDF) -- https://wid.world/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CBV2023-ClimateInequalityReport-2.pdf

Feb 4, 2023 at 12:33pmWeb
Show threadSueFeb 8, 2023
@breadandcircuses
Well said
Show threadtoxtethogradyFeb 10, 2023
@breadandcircuses And as long as those with the wealth feel no consequences, they feel no need to change their habits...
Show threadLeftist LawyerFeb 10, 2023

@breadandcircuses We need to be pushing a new Economics 2.0 based on physics, rather than philosophy. An economics that fully accounts for negative externalities, full stop.

The “profit” in the profit motive --- driving the extreme capitalist excesses --- only exists because negative externalities like pollution, diminishing resource returns, and the mental impacts upon the labor force, are simply not written into the balance sheet.

But these “debits” on the balance sheet are absolutely real. They’re just ignored. The capitalists call that oversight "profit." It's not. It's theft by accounting gimmick. It DEFIES the laws of physics. And THAT is how the rich and powerful paper up the crime of destroying the our biosphere.

Show threadJasmineFeb 10, 2023

@LeftistLawyer @breadandcircuses

Well, capitalism is the world's largest pyramid scheme. The cruelty is actually the point.

Show threadantipode77Feb 13, 2023

@LeftistLawyer @breadandcircuses

An economics based on only physics is not going to cut it.

Economics is not just limited by physics, but also by moral sentiments.

How do we want to treat our fellow human brings, what about other living beings, the environment we live in. What do we do about power and monetary inequality. A minimum wage, a fixed number of vacation days. What public services are needed or desirable.

Show threadIts GregoryFeb 10, 2023

@breadandcircuses

The unified red/blue political Monarchy

Show threadKeith D JohnsonFeb 10, 2023
@breadandcircuses
Show threadDave VolekMay 17, 2023

@breadandcircuses
We need a new democracy to address this injustice.

#tiereddemocraticgovernance

Show threadMarsh RayJan 29, 2025
@breadandcircuses Where I’m from, the US, at least half of the voters have a negative association with concepts like ‘equity’ and ‘fairness’.
Tying multiple issues together is rarely effective, but climate change to those topics is a sure way to make any proposal to address it politically non-viable.