Everyone should know that we are facing a climate disaster. It is best corrected by immediate action to address the cause. However, it doesn't seem like the super rich are feeling the heat and taking proactive action. Their philanthropic foundations have announced commitments to fighting climate change, but in reality they are building up endowments for the future.
More than $200 billion sits in donor-advised funds and more than $1.3 trillion in endowments from private foundations. Charitable giving to fight climate change was estimated at $7.5 billion last year by the Climate Works Foundation, but only 0.5% of the money is parked in private foundations and donor-advised funds, leaving only the ultra-wealthy This corresponds to approximately 0.04% of the layer's assets.
Estimated to cost between $3 and $10 Trillion Annually (12 zeros) to avoid climate disasters. Even if we want to solve the climate problem, it will take extraordinary collective action for philanthropists to raise enough money to solve the climate problem. Only the government (funded by the taxes of the super-rich) can do that effectively. In other words, current philanthropic investments are necessary but insufficient.
We will hold the ultra-rich accountable for the role their investments play in exacerbating the climate crisis, denounce their dishonest philanthropy aimed at “addressing” climate change, and defund them. We need to hold them accountable to pay their fair share of taxes to provide for them. clean energy.
Extreme inequality and concentration of wealth undermine humanity's ability to halt climate destruction. The richest of the rich, through their lavish lifestyles, excessive wealth hoarding, corporate greed, and investments in polluting industries, are creating and accelerating the climate crisis by creating out-of-control carbon emissions. plays the biggest role. As changing weather patterns, devastating storms, floods, wildfires and heat waves wreak havoc around the world, poor and middle-class communities, the ones least responsible for the problem, will bear the brunt of climate change. and will suffer the most damage. By 2050, 216 million people will be displaced from their homes (and countries).
According to the latest data, the world's top 125 billionaires “invest an average of 14% of their investments in polluting industries such as fossil fuels and materials such as cement… There was only one billionaire investing.” “Combining the influences from both their investments and lifestyle, the carbon footprint is more than 3 million tons per millionaire, which is about 1 million times more than the average person. The report finds that the wealthiest among us can significantly influence election outcomes, protect investments, and shape climate policy in their favor through campaign contributions and lobbying. It has become clear that he has more political power than anyone else.
And therein lies the biggest problem. Addressing society's most pressing problems, including climate change, requires a functioning democracy in which an exclusive ruling class does not control our policies. When governments are beholden to the disproportionately wealthy, backroom deals influence laws and shape rules without public knowledge or ability to change outcomes. The only way to limit the power of the overly wealthy is to stop hoarding excessive wealth.
The very wealthy Americans accumulate wealth through tax loopholes and preferential policies enforced by an army of lawyers, accountants, wealth advisors, and politicians. Four simple tax solutions can address excessive wealth hoarding. It requires a billionaire income tax, a strong wealth tax, closing the estate tax loopholes left open by estate and inheritance taxes, and finally, promoting increased taxation, transparency, and greater fairness. This is a change in the tax system. Charitable donations.
We face a collective emergency to protect the planet from and for ourselves. The rapidly accelerating climate crisis is a class issue that affects all humanity. The reality is that our futures are interconnected, with economic and climate inequalities reinforcing each other. Developing solutions to slow or resolve climate change must address deep conflicts of interest and systemic inequalities in systems of unjust wealth.
Alan Davis is the Chairman of the Institute for Excess Wealth Disorders.
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