Here’s the Kind of Climate Change Report I Detest — Oxfam, Billionaires, and Stupidity
A story of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad climate change study
Here’s the headline on CNN:
Billionaires emit a million times more greenhouse gases than the average person, study finds
What do you think immediately? The wealthy are to blame for climate change.
“Nafkote Dabi, climate change lead at Oxfam, said that emissions from billionaires’ lifestyles, their private jets and yachts are already thousands of times higher than those of the average person. But looking at emissions from their investments, their carbon emissions are more than a million times higher.”
This pisses me off. It is information that is a distraction, implying that if we could just change the billionaires, we could solve the climate problem. And that’s bullshit.
Did anyone stop to think that a person with a billion dollars is going to have a ton of investments and in today’s world, those companies in which they are invested will generate a lot of emissions? Of course, they will. And if the billionaires divested ALL of their investments and sold them to mutual funds in which billions of common people invest, there would be absolutely no reduction in emissions whatsoever.
For that reason, studies like this are an abomination. They distract us from the real issues that will make a real difference. One can imagine this study becoming a topic of conversation at COP27, for example, where much bigger and more important issues should be attracting people’s attention. It won’t be hard to imagine activists going apeshit over the contribution of billionaires to climate change. They’ll read the headline, create a meme, and soon that becomes the focus. Yet if action were taken to change what billionaires own, the net change would be zero.
The distraction is hurting the cause. When so much necessary work is still waiting for attention, people working on climate change do not need this kind of distraction. We need to be researching technology, deploying solutions, and changing the world’s energy system. Demonizing billionaires does not help.
It’s not that I love billionaires, it’s just that this study becomes a lightning rod of stupidity. Watch the anti-climate media go nuts. This is fodder for their conspiracy theories, denigration of the climate movement, and long interviews that lead people to believe that the entire climate movement is a façade for a socialist takeover of the world.
Think I’m kidding? Just watch! Fox made a big deal out of a few teens pouring out milk to bring attention to animals as a source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, just imagine what they will do with this.
Oxfam, the sponsor of the study, needs to be held accountable. Don’t they have something better to do? Aren’t there far more important studies that have not been done yet that could have a real impact and whose results could make a real difference? Why are they wasting funds and their people’s energy on such sham “research?”
I had not previously followed Oxfam, but looked them up and found that this is nothing new for Oxfam. They released another study a year ago that led to articles like these:
Why Rich People Are So Bad for the Planet
Action Needed to Stop Billionaires from “Plundering the Planet,” Oxfam Says
Again, decidedly unhelpful. While inequality is a societal challenge that needs to be addressed, the demonization of the wealthy moves nothing forward except envy, anger, and greed. Those of us who are not billionaires start to blame those who are, but that is not a solution. It fixes nothing. It doesn’t convert energy to renewable sources. It doesn’t capture carbon. It doesn’t change the livestock industry. It doesn’t help the adoption of electric vehicles that can be powered by renewable electricity. And what is the net result? A feeling of powerlessness, angst, and resignation. Animosity rises. It becomes harder to work together.
Thanks, Oxfam.
And if you are an activist, don’t get sucked in by this. We need you. We need your energy going in a helpful direction. Whatever role you are playing, accelerate it. Whatever commitment you have made, deepen it. As far as the wealthy are concerned, it might be far better to connect to the wealthy to help them invest with the rest of humanity rather than demonizing them. It might be better to work with everyone we can work with rather than demonize some, especially those with the means to make a difference. I have no idea what Oxfam is trying to do with studies like this, but for people of goodwill who want to solve climate change, this is a step in the wrong direction.
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