Wealth and Carbon Footprint
The Art
The Graph
What’s Alarming
“Household consumption – food, housing, transportation, apparel and other personal services – is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Everything you eat or wear, or every time you drive, you add to the global total emissions. The typical American’s annual per capita carbon footprint is over five times the world per capita average…
A household’s carbon footprint generally increases with its income, ranging from 19.3 to 91.5 tons of CO2-equivalent annually. The average carbon footprint of the wealthiest households is over five times that of the poorest. In 2009, households with less than US$30,000 annual disposable income made up 25.7% of the total U.S. population, but were only responsible for 19.3% of U.S. households’ carbon footprint.
On the other hand, wealthy consumers with more than $100,000 annual household income accounted for 22.3% of the total population but were responsible for nearly one-third of households’ total carbon footprint….”
PBS News Hour Weekend, Sept 21, 2019, “5 charts show how your household drives up global greenhouse gas emissions.”
