There has been much spoken about and debated around inequality in terms of health, wealth and happiness across the globe, but it is only recently that it has been discovered that inequality also affects our environment; the most unequal rich countries contribute more to climate change via pollution than those which are more equal.

A recent first of its kind study, Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change in the United States, published in the Journal ScienceMag, predicts the United States will see its levels of economic inequality increase due to the uneven geographical effects of climate change, resulting in “the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in the country’s history.”

According to lead author, Solomon Hsiang, a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley:

“Unmitigated climate change will be very expensive for huge regions of the United States. If we continue on the current path, our analysis indicates it may result in the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in the country’s history.”

Research was conducted via the running of thousands of simulations, using 116 climate projections to predict what would happen to the U.S. economy under different emissions scenarios. Results showed that unless significant changes are made to reduce heat-trapping gasses, the U.S. South and lower Midwest, which tend to be poor and hot already, will suffer the heaviest losses.

These counties would be plagued by rising sea levels and more intense hurricanes, and increasingly rising temperatures, which can slow productivity, increase violent crime, disturb agricultural patterns, and increase energy demands and costs.

A 2016 Oxfam Report found that the greatest polluters of all were the most affluent 10% of US households, followed by Canadian, British, Russian and South African elites. This culture of buying “disposable” products is adding to the global pollution and thereby affecting our environment, including our water and drinking water sources.

In order to save our planet we need to recycle, not purchase items that we do not need, and save water wherever we can – if we do not our planet is in a whole lot of trouble!

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