Global Warming and Inequality

Introduction

• Global warming impacts populations differently based on location
• Climate change solutions can affect inequalities between countries
• Wealthy individuals often profit from energy-related businesses, highlighting inequality's central role in sustainability challenges

Course Structure

• Global inequality research focuses on metrics, trends, controversies, and connections to environmental issues
• The course examines perspectives on who is affected by climate change and whether prosperity is possible without growth
• It addresses how to handle the climate crisis in a democracy, considering inequality and protecting democracy

Pollution and Inequality

• J. BOYCE's paper (1994) posits pollution as an inequality issue where polluters benefit, and others lose
• Losers may lack the power to stop pollution, even if they have not been affected yet

Course assessment

• Course validation includes six memos based on weekly readings
• A mid-term exam accounts for 50% of the grade
• The final essay is a group project for groups of three

Temperature analysis

• Temperatures are breaking records annually
• Trends are accelerating faster than projected, adaptation measures are necessary beyond mitigation efforts
• Even if pollution stops, temperatures will rise, necessitating state action

Economic Inequality

• Equality in political, industrial, and social life shouldn't be confused with sameness, it is about the right to diversity
• When addressing equality, dimensions and diversity must be considered
• The global top 10% hold 76% of total household wealth and capture 52% of total income
• The global bottom 50% owns only 2% of wealth

Income Inequality Trends

• Global income inequality, measured by the T10/B50 ratio, more than doubled between 1820 and 1910
• Since 2008, a decline in global inequality has been observed, but its continuation is uncertain

Global Wealth Distribution

• There are diverse income inequality regimes, wealth inequality is extreme worldwide
• The bottom 50% owns less than 5% of the wealth, revealing a significant disparity

Policy Matters

• The top 10% income share was below 35% everywhere in 1980
• There has been a general increase in inequality, albeit at varying speeds
• The U.S. trajectory shows a spike, while Europe remains more stable

Public vs. Private Wealth

• Declining public wealth and increasing private wealth are observed, with public wealth nearing zero or becoming negative

Significance of Inequality

• Stiglitz links economic and political inequality, suggesting more economic inequality leads to more political inequality
• Julia Cagé's work supports Stiglitz's thesis, indicating that money influences the electoral system
• Social justice is a modern promise and a top priority in constitutions

Axial Age

• Narratives about equality emerged between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, marking the birth of a universally egalitarian ethic
• Philosophers like Confucius, Buddha advocated for equality

Optimal Inequality

• Evolutionary dynamics suggest a concern for fair treatment, but some mechanisms can foster inequality
• There is no natural level of inequality; it requires democratic debate and social sciences input

Health and Inequality

• There exists a correlation between income inequality and health issues

Is Inequality Good?

• Introduce of Randomize-Control-Trial to the study of inequality showed the opposite of motivating people as a good way to motivate people: the more inequality you have the more people are motivated and productive
• Productivity declines within the "Inequality group"
• Stiglitz argues that the rich are unwilling to fund public services for the poor, reducing economic output

Inequality and Environment

• Consumption is a way to differentiate yourself from the others, it applies to the climate
• Inequality hinders financing public goods for the environment

Environmental Degradation

• Environmental degradation presents a social and distributional problem

IPCC Messages

• The IPCC 2021 report highlights a window of opportunity for systemic change
• Climate change impacts are differentiated across countries
• Addressing distributional problems is crucial for accelerating the transition

IPCC complexity

• Oceanographers struggle to explain rapid changes - a perverse effect of pollution reduction has been observed
• Climate is a complex and interconnected system, including permafrost, carbon storage in trees, and polar ice

Fairest Societies

• Unique solutions do not exist and be aware of the many interactions in each scenario
• Consider carbon taxation and taxing consumptions
• In pre-production, it reduces inequality before money distributes
• In production, happens when wages distribute
• In post-production, after wages taxes

Conclusion

• Inequality varies across countries and is tied to social organization, not natural laws
• Inequality intersects with fundamental societal functions
• Climate change results from historical inequalities and exacerbates existing divides
• Likely yes, with more redistribution. How can it be done?

Tracking Inequality

• Theories, concepts, methods, and controversies are used to track inequality over time and space
• It is based on the importance of implicit visions

Theories of Equality

• Sen is more recent branch of political philosophy of equality than Rawls which critics many elements
• Rawls' vision involves how inequalities are structured before knowing resources
• Resources are defined as primary social goods like income, wealth, and power relations

Criticism of Utilitarian Approach

• Sen criticizes the classic utilitarian approach, which ignores inequality, and Rawls approach, more focused on primary social goods

Types of Equality:

• Utilitarian: Does not focus on distribution
• Welfarist: Maximizes the utility of the worse-off
• Rawlsian: Focuses on an index of social goods, with principles like equal liberty, difference, and equal opportunity
• Aims for equality in the power to act in order to focus on HDI

Mankiw thoughts

• Economist framework, with trade-off between equality and efficiency
• Society is better, better-off

Defining property

• Key to capabilities, different among the time
• Is our perception the final end point of our societies?
• Property also considers five dimensions: objects, subjects, uses, enforcement and transfer
• It has a key role in enforcement, but increasingly challenged with globalization

Data Statistics

• Used as source in the describing
• The group of focus are individuals
• Statistics come from the word state in German
• There are strong connections on how to govern it

Measures of Inequality

• Early focus on land taxation changed to measuring wealth and national income in the 20th century
• Social surveys collect data, but have issues with misreporting and consistency
• Tax returns are used by researchers to track inequalities long-term
• About half of this is absent in surveys

World Inequality Lab

• Misses curve and large part of the capital income
• Provides comparable and realistic sets of rules

Key properties of the curve

• Characteristics of a Pareto distribution: average income of all the income over it all over

Indicators

• Composite: Summarize the entire distribution by one number
• Partial indicators: focus on specific segments

Gini Index

• It imposes a fixed view of inequality without ethical choices
• Has strengths and weaknesses that may be easily used

Controversies

• Theories of justice are often implicit, scientific but also political

Conclusion

• Used is the application and acknowledgement of it
• A range of sources can be used but the legitimation
• And not sufficient

Understanding the Roots of Inequality

• Inequalities increase based on human need, not societal values
• It is based on with interests: with views... for narratives European states were weaker than the Chinese state in the 18th century, leading to the creation of for transmission

Development of Wealth

• How it is compared in societies that evolve through high costs
• Hunter gatherers were living between relatively equals society's, reciprocity and distribution
• Equality as the potentiality, and reverse hierarchies

Neolithic Revolution

• Increasing gender because women were treated poorly, conditions
• capture matters through wealth

View points

• transmitted that farmers material to children

Inequality Possibility Frontier

• The limited rise
• Representation with high production of food
• More extraction and increase through inequalities
• Before Neolithic the cooperative, no exploitation

Land Scarcity and inequality

• Social security, population growth, expansion and distribution will lead to poor wages
• the solution for instability

Capitalisms

• Always want more but face diminishing returns and the exploitation
• Communism is the alternative in which people can benefit

Standard View

• The technological will lead to slavery and capitalism

Ecological Constraints

• Domination due to institutions to the industrious evolution and accumulation

Europe Overcame Views

• Europe the investment in labor
• Investment from colonies through markets

Conclusion

• Technological institutions played greatly as post West-1820
• Not only alone, the colonial expanded

The Great Transformation

• Strong increase of inequalities
• Reduced with income by large values

Marx

• Capital wants to continuously accumulate and exploitation leads
• A self- destructive system that is replaced

Webber

• Defines it with rationalization
• Catholics did not care for profits like luther
• Political ideas that can change histories

Beckert

• It is a long progression like merchants
• Capital connects with each other

The Commodification

• Decline in value
• Action markets

Polanyi

• Westeners are a cosmopolitan
• Fasicms view on societies
• All parts separate from the society

View of humans

• There give for exchanges
• Structure and sociology

Laissezs Faire

There were many interventions

Market

• Smith formalized that one key
• One example of the East companies

Land and Production

• Factory production
• Leads to labors and community

Resistence

• Movement and protections to create
• Industrialization growth

Pollution

• High amounts with wealth
• There is something for everyone

Inequalities

• It does have issues
• Many new challenges to value and raise future points
• The valuation is difficult and causes damages

Harms

• We emit today but it is more consistent