- 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.
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.
No, the main concern of plastic is that it contaminates the environment and doesn’t go away.
Sure but greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest driver for climate change and fossil fuels are by far the largest contributor.
There are more environmental problems than just CO2.
While plastics use up limited fossil fuels and do result in more CO2 emissions, I’m much more worried about plastics everywhere for always.
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.
They really haven’t been.
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.