[MCN] A repeat post on consumer spending power as major power forcing change of climate conditions

[Lance Olsen]

JConsumer Spending, Private Investment Drive GDP Growth <https://www.statista.com/chart/18550/gdp-components/>
https://www.statista.com › ... › GDP of the United States <https://www.statista.com/chart/18550/gdp-components/>

Jan 28, 2022 — Personal consumption, by far the largest component of the GDP, increased by 7.9 percent compared to the previous year

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“Changes in world GDP (WGDP) have a significant effect on CO2 concentrations, so that years of above-trend WGDP are years of greater rise of CO2 concentrations.”

Granados et al. Climate change and the world economy: short-run determinants of atmospheric CO2. Environmental science & policy. August 2012

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“The growth in CO2 emissions closely follows the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) corrected for improvements in energy efficiency.”

P. Friedlingstein, et al. “Update on CO2 emissions.” 
Nature Geoscience 21 November 2010

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We're All the 1 Percent – Foreign Policy <https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/27/were-all-the-1-percent/>
https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/27/were-all-the-1-percent/ <https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/27/were-all-the-1-percent/>
 <https://www.google.com/search?q=%2434%2C000+1%25&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS737US737&oq=%2434%2C000+1%25&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.27159j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#>
Feb 27, 2012 - But the global average is about a fifth of that. So by global standards, America's middle class is also really, really rich. To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic.

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Half the world's richest 1% live in the United States - Jan. 4, 2012 <https://money.cnn.com/2012/01/04/news/economy/world_richest/index.htm>
https://money.cnn.com/2012/01/04/news/economy/world_richest/index.htm <https://money.cnn.com/2012/01/04/news/economy/world_richest/index.htm>
 <https://www.google.com/search?q=%2434%2C000+1%25&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS737US737&oq=%2434%2C000+1%25&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.27159j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#>
Jan 4, 2012 - The United States holds a disproportionate amount of the world's rich people. It only takes $34,000 a year, after taxes, to be among the richest 1% in the world. ... The rest are mainly scattered throughout Europe, Latin America and a few Asian countries.

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United Nations’ Emissions Gap Report 2020

Chapter 6.1
https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34432/EGR20ch6.pdf?

Bridging the gap – the role of equitable low-carbon lifestyles

“A range of estimates point to a strong correlation between income and emissions, with a highly unequal global distribution of consumption emissions. Such studies estimate that the emissions share of the top 10 per cent of income earners is around 36–49 per cent of the global total, whereas the lowest 50 per cent of income earners account for around 7–15 per cent of all emissions (Chakravarty et al. 2009; Chancel and Piketty 2015; Oxfam 2015; Hubacek et al. 2017; Dorband et al. 2019; Oxfam and Stockholm Environment Institute [SEI] 2020). This disparity is particularly stark where studies have estimated footprints among the very highest-income, highest emitters: the combined emissions share of the top 1 per cent of income earners has been found to very likely be larger than – and perhaps double – that of the bottom 50 per cent (Chancel and Piketty 2015; Oxfam and SEI 2020). Around half the consumption emissions of the global top 10 per cent and 1 per cent are associated with citizens of high-income countries, and most 63 Emissions Gap Report 2020 of the other half with citizens in middle-income countries (Chancel and Piketty 2015; Oxfam and SEI 2020). One study estimates that the ‘super-rich’ top 0.1 per cent of earners have per capita emissions of around 217  tCO2 – several hundred times greater than the average of the poorest half of the global population (Oxfam and SEI 2020). Estimates of the per capita CO2 consumption emissions of different global income groups are shown in figure 6.1, based on Oxfam and SEI (2020). This analysis estimates per capita CO2 emissions rather than CO2-equivalent, and allocates all consumption emissions to individuals rather than just those associated with household consumption. To indicate the relative scale of lifestyle emission changes required, a target for global average per capita consumption emissions of 2.1 tCO2 per capita in 2030 is also shown, as implied by 1.5°C-consistent pathways estimated by Oxfam (2020). Estimates in figure 6.1 show that per capita consumption emissions of those in the global top 10 per cent of income earners would need to be reduced to about one-tenth of their current level by 2030, and those of the top 1 per cent by at least a factor of 30, while those of the poorest 50 per cent could increase by around three times their current level.”


https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34432/EGR20ch6.pdf?
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“The molecule of carbon dioxide has strong absorption bonds, particularly in the infrared region of the spectrum at wavelengths of from 12 to 18 microns. This is the spectral region where most of the thermal energy radiating from earth to space is concentrated. 

"By increasing the absorption of this radiation ... the carbon dioxide reduces the amount of heat energy lost by earth to outer space."

“The atmospheric engine is subtle in it operation and delicate in its adjustments.  Extra inputs of energy …  can have significant and far-reaching consequences.”

Singer, Fred S. "Human Energy Production as a process in the biosphere," Scientific American, September 1970.

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"Indeed, the relatively modest warming experienced so far (as of 2014, a 0.85 °C increase since1880) is already driving arguably dangerous impacts, including more deaths from extreme heat, widespread forest die-off from climate-driven heat stress and drought, and more extreme coastal flooding from higher storm surges resulting from sea-level rise.”

Todd Sanford, Peter C. Frumho , Amy Luers and Jay Gulledge. The climate policy narrative for a dangerously warming world. Nature Climate Change, March 2014.

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"What we are witnessing is major hydrologic change," said co-author Jay Famiglietti. 

"We see a distinctive pattern of the wet land areas of the world getting wetter -- those are the high latitudes and the tropics -- and the dry areas in between getting dryer. Embedded within the dry areas we see multiple hotspots resulting from groundwater depletion.”

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2018-102 <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2018-102>

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“The changes experienced by the biosphere over the past century ... have raised concerns about the possibility of rapid shifts from green to desert states.” 

Richard Sole'. Scaling laws in the drier. Nature 13 September 2007

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"The big challenge is still to deliver emissions reductions at the pace and scale needed, especially in a world where economies are driven by consumption.”

Sonja van Renssen.The inconvenient truth of failed climate policies. Nature Climate Change  MAY 2018

Published online: 27 April 2018 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4> 

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