Hi Friends of the Patriotic Millionaires, It’s really easy to blame the rich for today’s problems, because frankly, they deserve it. The rich bear most of the blame for what’s wrong with our economy. They bear most of the blame for what’s wrong with our democracy. And, they bear most of the blame for what’s wrong with our planet too. If this summer has made one thing clear, it’s that the impacts of climate change are here and time is running out to reverse the damage. June 2025 was the third-hottest June the world has experienced, and many states and cities in the Midwest and Northeast hit record high temperatures during the heat wave at the end of the month. In addition to the heat, we’re also experiencing more frequent and violent storms, as evidenced by the recent flash floods that have tragically claimed the lives of roughly 140 people in places like New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, and the New York City metro area. The vast majority of scientists agree that humans, and specifically our reliance on fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, are driving global warming and climate change. There is also no denying that some humans—namely, us rich people—shoulder more of the blame for the problem than others. Yet as things stand today, the global rich are not pulling our collective weight to solve the climate crisis. Rather, there are many of us ignoring our contributions to the problem and leaving millions of poor and vulnerable people around the world to bear the brunt of it. For this week’s Closer Look, we’d like to share some numbers with you that underscore the inequality inherent in both the causes and effects of climate change. We’ll then discuss how the wealthy’s excessive consumption habits and investments explain their disproportionate contribution to the climate emergency, and then close by arguing that tax reform must be an essential part of any national or international plan to get our planet on a more sustainable path. The rich drive climate change but the poor suffer the consequences The world’s rich are driving the climate crisis, leaving the rest of humankind and the planet in a perilous position:- The world’s wealthiest 10% contributed 6.5 times more than the average person to the global warming the planet experienced between 1990 and 2019. Meanwhile, the top 1% contributed 20 times more and the top 0.1% contributed 76 times more.
- In 2018, the average American had a carbon footprint of about 15 tons. Meanwhile, based on a sample of twenty billionaires, the carbon footprint of the average billionaire is 8,190 tons.
- Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires produce more carbon emissions in 90 minutes than the average person does in their life.
- Experts agree that we can’t let Earth’s temperature rise by more than 1.5°C if we want our entire planet to remain habitable. If the world continues on its current emission path, our carbon budget, i.e. the amount of carbon dioxide we can add to the atmosphere to stay under that 1.5°C mark, will be depleted in four years. However, if everyone emitted as much as the average billionaire, it would be depleted in two days.
- Billionaires emit so much pollution that they essentially cancel out the benefits of renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydropower. For example, every year, billionaires’ carbon emissions alone overpower the benefits of 1 million wind turbines.
We imagine those findings are a bit difficult to swallow. We hate to tell you this, but buckle up, because it gets worse. While the poor and vulnerable around the world have obviously done the least to cause climate change, they are the ones bearing the brunt of it. Deaths from climate-related disasters like floods, droughts, and storms are 15 times higher in poorer parts of the world compared to wealthier parts. Why is this? Because poor and vulnerable people are more likely to live in areas where they are more exposed to the adverse effects of climate change, like flooding and droughts, and because they lack the financial resources to cope or recover from damages. When a hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster hits, rich people like us can very easily gather our belongings, get on our private jets, and take refuge at our second or third homes. We have the means and resources to remove ourselves from dangerous climate-related weather emergencies. On the other hand, poor people don’t have the same option, and are left to pick up what remains after each catastrophe. Here in the US, it certainly doesn’t help to have a president that is gutting FEMA and trying to shift responsibility for disaster relief from the federal government onto the states. Blame the rich’s consumption habits You may think the wealthy’s private jets, mega mansions, superyachts, and (for some) spaceships are just symbols for extreme inequality. But the truth is, their many luxury items and possessions are actually doing real and serious physical harm to the planet. Let’s start with private jets. In 2023, we co-authored a report with the Institute for Policy Studies that spotlighted the negative impacts of the private jet industry on both our economy and our environment. Among other things, the report revealed that, incredibly, private aircraft emit ten times more pollutants per passenger compared to commercial planes. This past June, the International Council on Clean Transportation added to our work with their own groundbreaking private jet report, which found that, in 2023, private jets emitted more pollution than all commercial flights that departed from London’s Heathrow Airport. You may be surprised to learn that superyachts are actually far more damaging than your average private jet. Today’s superyachts come with everything from glass elevators, IMAX theaters, tennis courts, swimming pools, and even sometimes another smaller yacht known as a “support vessel.” (Yes, you read that right.) The result? The average superyacht produces as much carbon emissions every year as 1,500 passenger vehicles—and some of the biggest even pollute as much as entire nation states. If after all of this you still think that the wealthy’s consumption habits are harmless, sit with the fact that April’s all-female, Blue Origin 11-minute space flight emitted more carbon emissions per passenger than the average person does in their lifetime. Blame the rich’s investments The rich harm the environment not only through their own personal consumption habits but through their investments in fossil fuel companies as well. In 2023, Oxfam found that the investments of 125 of the world’s richest billionaires are responsible for an average of 3 million tons of carbon emissions each year. The typical investments we see wealthy people making are far, far more harmful than their personal indulgences. The average investment emissions of 50 of the world’s richest billionaires are roughly 340 times higher than their emissions from their private jets and superyachts. Wealthy fossil fuel investors are committed to maintaining our planet’s destructive status quo, and they aren’t shy about making other investments—namely, political investments—to protect profit margins at their coal, gas, and oil companies. We also cannot ignore the fact that there are many other industries dependent on fossil fuels, which are also backed by wealthy people who have little financial incentive to pursue greener alternatives when the status quo is working for their bank accounts just fine. Americans for Prosperity, the conservative political advocacy group linked to oil and gas magnate Charles Koch, spent $20 million on an ad campaign this year promoting the extension of the 2017 GOP tax cuts. They certainly got their wish (and then some), as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a new, special carve-out to the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax for large oil and gas companies. One of our founding members, Chuck Collins, has a lot more to say on the ties between extreme wealth and climate change in his forthcoming book, Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. The book will be released in October, so be sure to pre-order your copy HERE. The solution: Tax the Rich In 2023, Patriotic Millionaires’ Vice-Chair, Stephen Prince, decided to sell his private jet after learning from our report with the Institute for Policy Studies about how damaging it was to the environment. In an interview with The New York Times, Stephen said, “You don’t need a whole spoonful of private aircraft to find out what it tastes like—it’s pretty amazing. [But flying private is] probably one of the most greedy, selfish things I’ve ever done in my life. I just can’t continue to do it.” We’d be on a better path forward toward saving our planet if more millionaires and billionaires were like Stephen and had the courage to change their excessive consumption habits and divest from large fossil fuel companies on their own accord. Right now, we need the wealthy and corporations to prioritize creating sustainable and ethical changes to save our planet. These kinds of actions would help set the standard of how we can live within our means and still save our planet. We all have a role to play in protecting our planet, whether it’s something as small as using paper straws at your local coffee shop or something as big as giving up your private plane or superyacht. We know, it’s wishful thinking, because unfortunately having an excess of money and resources has created a sense of entitlement among wealthy people who are not going to give up their special gas-guzzling privileges and luxuries without a fight. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything to stop them from setting the planet on fire or drowning it. The solution? In the famous words of Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman, “Taxes, taxes, taxes.” If we’re not able to make millionaires and billionaires give up their polluting ways, we can use the tax code to encourage better behavior. Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey and Representative Nydia Velázquez (NY-07) proposed one such tax through the Fueling Alternative Transportation with a Carbon Aviation Tax (FATCAT) Act, which we proudly endorsed. The legislation would increase fuel taxes for private jet travel from 22 cents to $2 per gallon and eliminate fuel tax exemptions for logging and oil and gas exploration. Not only would this dissuade the use of private jet travel, but it would also correct a big injustice in the tax code, where private jet fliers contribute just 2% of the taxes that go to the trust fund that predominantly finances the Federal Aviation Administration. A few weeks back, we said that economic justice and racial justice go hand in hand. The same can be said for climate justice. It’s all connected. When we work for economic justice and take steps to ensure the wealthy finally start paying what they owe in taxes, we get one step closer to making our planet healthier and more habitable for everyone. Here’s hoping lawmakers heed our call and take that step before it’s too late. Warmly, The Patriotic Millionaires |
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