A mere 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly linked to 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since the 2016 Paris climate agreement, a study
Only 57 fossil fuels and cement producers have been responsible for most of the world's CO2 emissions since 2016, according to the Carbon Majors report by InfluenceMap
Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, and Coal India were the top three CO2-emitting companies during this period.
InfluenceMap's database aims to increase transparency around climate change contributors for legal, academic, campaign, and investor purposes.
There’s more than one type of pollution, and, likewise, more than one thing we can all do to help clean up our environment.
Since my city banned plastic bags and instituted a bag fee, everyone has switched to reusable bags. Gone are the days of plastic bags strewn about, gathered in gutters, stuck in trees in trees for years. Dystopian shit. I’m glad they’re gone. I have to use other things for scooping out the cat box, but I make do.
Every little bit helps, and the more that contribute, the bigger the impact.
The biggest opposition were those loudly complaining about 2 things: the inconvenience and the supposed cost.
About that:
it was inconvenient— at first. Everyone had to go out and get reusable bags. Fortunately, almost every store sold them. They even had their own logos in them, which presented marketing opportunities. They’re usually made of environmentally-friendly, recycled materials, are strong and cheap. They fold up tiny, and one can carry 3-4 in the bottom of a backpack without noticing they’re there. With a proper phase-in, it’s hardly noticeable.
the cost is marginal for the shopper and saves the stores huge amounts of money on bags. It even makes them money, as they charge for single-use paper bags. Shoppers typically buy however reusable bags they need per trip (or if they forget to bring one), so they often don’t buy all of them at once.m, so the cost is usually spread out.
The rollout was pretty painless overall for us, and everyone was really happy when we finally did it.
Isn’t the main concern of plastic that it promotes the release of greenhouse gases? If these companies are responsible for most CO2 emissions, plastics being the minority, we should be prioritizing these companies over individual people.
People have been exposed to these things for generations. Individusl humans have a finite lifespan, but CO2 emissions are edging the species towards extinction. Probably more important.
While yes , there have been plastics for a couple generations now, what’s different is the sheer quantity and the ubiquity. It’s much more recent that plastics are everywhere, in everyone. Most plastics should be relatively inert but some are not and many have been found to be dangerous in quantity or over longer time. All are unknown when permanently incorporated into your body, and that of all living things.
unfortunately there is more than one thing with the potential to drive species to extinction, including humans. If plastics are one of them, we will find out too late and it will be a much bigger cleanup effort than global warming
If you can get corporations to lower CO2 emissions, you can get them to shift away from plastics. The consumer doesn’t have all the power, especially when they can barely afford to meet basic needs.
Plastics are definitely a problem but shaming people about climate change is frustrating when the biggest impact on environmental issues comes from corporations and some people don’t have access to it can’t afford to shift towards a more eco friendly lifestyle.