Inequality turns environment.
Nicholas Langridge, 12-21-2022, Doctoral Researcher, University of Bath, Milena Buchs, Professor of Sustainable Welfare, University of Leeds, Neil Howard, Lecturer, University of Bath, "An Ecological Basic Income? Examining the Ecological Credentials of Basic Income Through a Review of Selected Pilot Interventions," Basic Income Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, https://doi.org/10.1515/bis-2021-0044, KL
There are multiple interactions and feedbacks between the planetary boundaries (Lade et al., 2020). The same is true for the social and ecological crises. The effects of the latter are borne disproportionately by the poor, resulting in an even greater transfer of wealth to the rich (Hsiang et al., 2017). The social crises of poverty, inequality, and indebtedness are also likely drivers of the ecological crises, particularly in rich nations (Grunewald et al., 2012). Inequality exacerbates ecological harms through status-based consumption (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010) and via the wealth effect, whereby greater wealth correlates with a larger ecological footprint. It is also associated with longer working hours and higher levels of debt, “both of which stimulate consumption and emissions” (Gough, 2017, p. 81). High inequality also facilitates elite political capture (Oxfam, 2019), allowing the rich to “set agendas and inculcate selfish values” (Gough, 2017, p. 81) and so erodes the social capital required to “demand, enact and enforce environmental legislation” (Raworth, 2017, p. 172).