Big Story: Youth have only 8th of emission quota left for lifetime, rest all used up by the elders
Tough times ahead: Newborns face an uphill task as they’ll be left with a near-zero emissions quota through their lifetime| Image credit: ShirleySwimmingPool
The older generation has used up most of the lifetime emissions budget that the younger generation would need to survive in future, says a Carbon Brief study. So, a person born today will have only an eighth of the lifetime emissions to burn compared to that of a person born in 1950, under a warming scenario of 1.5C. By conflating historical data on emissions, population and location, each person’s lifetime “carbon budget” was calculated.
According to the study, the lifetime carbon budget of an average American born in 1946 is 1,551 tonnes compared to 197 tonnes for someone born in 2017. And just 18 tonnes for a child born in India in 2017, reported Gizmodo.