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Aren't "personal carbon footprints", whether of the rich or not, insignificant compared to industrial carbon emissions? I can find 3.7 * 10^13 kg CO2 for energ

by devit 2y ago

Aren't "personal carbon footprints", whether of the rich or not, insignificant compared to industrial carbon emissions? I can find 3.7 * 10^13 kg CO2 for energy yearly worldwide. On the other hand, there are around 25 * 10^3 private jets each emitting 4.9 CO2 kg/mile, with mach 1 being 767 miles/hour, which gives 4.9 * 25 * 10^3 * 767 * 24 * 365 kg CO2 = 8.23 * 10^11 per year assuming the jets are running all the time at the speed of sound. 8.23 * 10^11 / (3.7 * 10^13) = 2.2%, with assumptions that make this a significant overestimate. Internet sources claim 0.9% from civil aviation.

tempfile 2y ago
This definitely gets said a lot, but I am not sure it's a meaningful thing to say. After all, something like 20% of emissions come from agriculture. If you count that as industrial emissions (surely it is an industry) then it must dwarf personal footprints. But the food you eat surely belongs to your personal footprint as well? I'm not confident that when people make this comparison, they account for the double counting. After all, most (?) industry does something that's eventually consumed by someone. What proportion of responsibility goes to the industry versus the consumer? Obviously not a well-posed problem.
- lostmsu 2y ago
  The rich don't eat 20x food though.
  - tempfile 2y ago
    Yes, that is my point (although the other reply is correct - the diets of the rich are generally more carbon-intensive).
  - bendigedig 2y ago
    They eat a lot more meat though. And that's much more CO_2 intensive than grains and legumes.
  - bluefirebrand 2y ago
    I wonder how much food they purchase and waste though.. For example, it's not hard for me to imagine someone wealthy having strawberries delivered to every house they own, week after week, just in case they decide to visit that house and want strawberries Maybe that's not very common, but we are talking about a class of people that will take a private jet to another city to get breakfast at their favorite restaurant there
deleted 2y ago
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by devit 2y ago

tempfile 2y ago

This definitely gets said a lot, but I am not sure it's a meaningful thing to say. After all, something like 20% of emissions come from agriculture. If you count that as industrial emissions (surely it is an industry) then it must dwarf personal footprints. But the food you eat surely belongs to your personal footprint as well? I'm not confident that when people make this comparison, they account for the double counting. After all, most (?) industry does something that's eventually consumed by someone. What proportion of responsibility goes to the industry versus the consumer? Obviously not a well-posed problem.

lostmsu 2y ago
The rich don't eat 20x food though.
- tempfile 2y ago
  Yes, that is my point (although the other reply is correct - the diets of the rich are generally more carbon-intensive).
- bendigedig 2y ago
  They eat a lot more meat though. And that's much more CO_2 intensive than grains and legumes.
- bluefirebrand 2y ago
  I wonder how much food they purchase and waste though.. For example, it's not hard for me to imagine someone wealthy having strawberries delivered to every house they own, week after week, just in case they decide to visit that house and want strawberries Maybe that's not very common, but we are talking about a class of people that will take a private jet to another city to get breakfast at their favorite restaurant there

deleted 2y ago

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