A researcher and podcast host took to TikTok to debunk a popular theory about carbon pollution and our changing climate.
Podcaster and researcher Michael Mezz (@michael_mezz) explained that the problem around our heating planet is not that there are too many people; it's that there are too many rich people.
@michael_mezz the truth about emissions #climate #overpopulation #emissions #rich #overshoot #fyp ♬ original sound - Michael Mezz
"The richest 10 percent of the global population accounts for 49 percent of the world's lifestyle CO2 emissions," he says. "If we look more closely at emissions in the U.S., another recent study found that the super rich and billionaires consume 82 times more CO2 than the average American household."
He goes on to explain just how shocking that is, because among global countries, American households produce far more carbon dioxide than basically any other country's typical households.
In fact, he says if all of the world's eight billion people lived like the average U.S. household, we would need the resources of 5.1 Earths to accommodate them.
"Which means that if everyone was living like a U.S. billionaire," he continues, "we would need more than 400 Earths to sustain that level of consumption."
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The argument that the Earth is overpopulated is a common trope from those who think the answer to our overheating planet is fewer people, and not a society less reliant on dirty energy sources like oil and natural gas.
However, Mezz's argument drives home the point that the issue is not the number of people on Earth but rather how the richest of those people consume resources at a shocking rate, significantly higher than even the average American does. And the bigger issue is the amount of pollution that those people produce as a result of that consumption.
Commenters were quick to agree with this take.
"Ban private jets basically?" said one.
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Definitely 👍 "The issue is…CAPITALISM," said another.
"And the ultra wealthy aren't immediately impacted by climate change," said a third. "So they won't do anything cause it would make them uncomfortable."
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