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World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds

• goatsneez 5y ago
  "The fossil fuel industry ($620bn), the agricultural sector ($520bn), water ($320bn) and forestry ($155bn) account for the majority of the $1.8tn, according to the report. No estimate for mining, believed to cause billions of dollars of damage to ecosystems every year, could be derived." One cannot stop the flood of non-informed opinions from the news media today (though leniency is to be granted since this is The Guardian, they are very special there indeed). Fossil fuel, agriculture and forestry + mining -- literally stuff without which one cannot live and if so only at the level of poverty of hunter gatherer who have orders of magnitude more destructive life (if there were 7 billion of us doing that) style than any modern city dweller. And what is this "damage"? For fun, lets compare it to the other essential human activities (which are more important activities than providing humans with material, energy and food/water): - In 2020, the entertainment and media market in the U.S. is expected to be worth over 720.38 billion USD. On a global scale, the entertainment and media market was worth 1.72 trillion USD in 2015 and is set to rise to 2.14 trillion by 2020. - The global football market size was valued at $ 1,883.6 million in 2019 - In 2020, the casino industry revenue reached $227 billion. - The online gambling market was worth $53.7 - The global film industry was worth $136 billion in 2018 - The gaming market was valued at USD 173.70 billion in 2021 - NBA, NHL, MLB - 100+ bn